LaidOPEN Podcast

For our penultimate episode of Season 3, we welcome author, actress, comedian, and mental health advocate, Sara Benincasa. She’s the author of four books, "Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom," which explores her journey with anxiety, depression, and agoraphobia. You may also have seen her on the hit drama “Law & Order: SVU.” Sara and I sit down to talk about the importance of therapy and all the different ways we heal. Plush, we explore generational trauma, substance abuse, and watching your parents do their own work. We end this episode with a great little exercise led by Sara.

Hello! Happy Valentine’s Day. Today I am going to do something a little bit different. I’ll be doing this episode all by myself where I answer the questions you’ve sent in looking for advice. I love being able to connect with my listeners, especially on a day like today, Valentine’s Day, which can often put a lot of societally based pressure on people to feel like they should be coupled up, or simply feel like their relationship should be at a certain place. We’re going to do a deep dive into questions like “How do I communicate to someone on a dating app that I want to feel safe” and “How to slide into someone’s DMs and not seem like a creep” and even “How to be single and date casually when you love intimacy.” If you’re new here, don’t worry if you have something you want me to answer, I plan to do more of these episodes. Just head to my website CharnaCassell.com and click on the link in the header that says “Ask Charna” to submit your question. 

Today’s episode is a special one. I’m joined by my friend and birthday twin, Carrie Katz, on our birthday, February 7th. Carrie’s a fellow somatic psychotherapist and as you’ve probably surmised, my birthday twin extraordinaire. Together we celebrate our birthday and discuss ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and answer listeners' questions about the ins and outs of determining whether you could benefit from ketamine.  I candidly share how I’ve benefited from ketamine-assisted journeys to reboot my nervous system. While Carrie shares about her client work, using her knowledge to answer all your questions. We discuss the recent large transitions Carrie has gone through with the loss of her dad, her son going to college, and the disbanding of Rosen Coven, a band she’s traveled the world with for over two decades. If you’ve ever considered doing a Ketamine journey with a professional to help you with your anxiety, depression, PSTD, complex PTSD, ODC and more–this is the episode for you. We do a deep dive into people who are potentially good candidates for ketamine therapy and circumstances when it’s inappropriate. We also talk at length about the difference between social use, versus therapeutic use, especially since so many people self-medicate. Carrie ends the episode with a beautiful rose in the heart meditation sometimes used in the ketamine space.

Dr. Walter Sipe, a former pediatric gastroenterologist turned psychiatrist expert witness, discusses cults vs. spiritual communities, sociopathic leader traits, and a breathing exercise for resilience. Delving into his unusual family background and navigating trauma and institutional power dynamics, the episode offers insights on trauma, shame, resilience, loyalty in educational programs, and promoting child safety.

Tyson Adams, an integrated men’s work practitioner and leader of the Thrive Men's Group, dives into the transformative world of semen retention and its profound impact on men’s health. He shares his personal journey through celibacy and overcoming porn addiction. The discussion weaves through ancestral trauma, mindful sexual practices, and the importance of self-connection in healing relationships—with both women and the planet. Tyson also leads a breathing exercise aimed at redirecting compulsive behaviors, empowering men on their path to self-awareness and growth.

If you haven't heard of Annie Brook before, you should have. She has a Ph.D. in perinatal psychology and is a seasoned somatic psychotherapist who works with birth trauma and developmental trauma. Her work is key to discovering why you repeat the same behaviors, resulting in the same disappointing outcomes over and over again. If you are curious about why you keep repeating the same patterns, and want to change but don’t know how--this is the episode for you. Annie explains the different courses she offers so anyone can become ready for the relationship they’ve always wanted or heal their birth trauma. Additionally, she's trained therapists for decades in how to work with complex trauma in a sustainable and effective way. Plus, how to facilitate the unwinding and repatterning of patients on a cellular level. We talk about all the ways birth trauma can imprint and show up in adults, how to detect it, and integrate it to fully heal, something most of us want, even if we can't admit it to ourselves. We also, both share our in-utero and birth experiences and Annie provides some case studies from her over 4 decades of experience.     

This week we welcome Nathaniel Hodder-Shipp, a drug and alcohol counselor, breathwork practitioner, and founder of the American Breath Work Association and Breathwork For Recovery, an 800-hour breathwork clinician that provides more intense training for teachers and practitioners. We sit down and talk about Nathaniel’s journey of becoming involved with breathwork, his decision to help create Breathwork For Recovery, and the necessity of developing equity, ethics, and regulation in the field of breathwork. I also share my story about attempting to learn breathwork and that it was a traumatizing experience. Nathaniel offers a compassionate take on what I went through, which may have also happened to some of you. We end the episode with two breathing practice options you can choose to do to reset and reframe yourself anywhere, and at any time. This episode is a must for anyone looking into breathwork who wants to know about it from a real expert.

This week we welcome Sarah Strong. She is a star seed coach, divine feminine activation coach, medium empath, telepath, and psychic. She also channels star beings, beings from other dimensions, and many other beings of the light, including the ascended masters angels, and fairies. Together we speak about how trauma can be a gateway to spiritual awakening, paranormal phenomenon, how trauma is associated with spiritual awakening and what can happen when you push a young person well beyond what they’re capable of handling, and how a reaction to that manifests in a variety of ways.  She also guides us in a lovely meditation that’s sure to help you clear space as you start 2023.

I was thrilled to have Lucy Wallace, the founder of Dance to be Free, as a guest. I strongly support her mission of bringing dance to incarcerated women to help heal trauma. I share a little about my own experience growing up with a father who was in prison and my own volunteer work teaching kids in an orphanage in Nepal so they could teach their peers. This coincides with Lucy’s program, as she identifies the importance of the teacher training program for the prisoners rather so they can continue to help people instead of going in to “save” them.  In addition, we talk about how this mission found her and unfolded with dedication despite all of the bureaucracy inside the prison system and how this transformative program has grown into over 15 prisons nationally. We also explore a variety of other topics that align with Lucy’s work and her program including how trust is earned, holding space versus preaching, and how freedom is a perception and state of mind.   We end the episode with a practice Lucy uses with her students that you can also use.

Our guest this week is a dear friend of mine. Ned Buskirk is the founder of You’re Going to Die, which started as an open mic that offered a communal space to share stories about death, loss, and grieving. It progressed, as most things do, eventually becoming a nonprofit that brings music to the bedside of hospice patience, operates grief groups, delivers resources to help people in the prison system process their own grief and loss, and even a podcast of the same name, You’re Going To Die.  I truly believe in Ned’s work and purpose, which is why I’ve repeatedly used these resources myself, as well as, referred my clients to them over the years. Together we discussed how You're Going to Die has evolved, reorienting to aliveness and life after tragedy, what he has learned over the years, what his own coping strategies around loss are, remaining humble, being a community resource, and the positive as well as the weighty impact of this work on all aspects Ned’s life. We even spend a good amount of time talking about, Alive Inside, a non-profit and runoff of You’re Going To Die, where Ned brings his work and experiences to the incarcerated.  Dying, death, grief, and tragedy are all a part of this journey we call life and Ned brings a lot of necessary community and awareness to these topics. Join us this week in demystifying death by accepting it during our life.