Stretching My Brain

Learning the Latest Research Findings…

Hi friends.

I have had the privilege of sitting shoulder to shoulder all week with sixty-two leading medical doctors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and nurses from around the United States and Canada gleaning the very latest in Psychopharmacology. We are exploring the neurobiology of the brain and the brain affected by childhood maltreatment, basic principles of the mind/brain relationships, and new ways for the clinician to look at depression. We are exploring the prediction of disease vulnerability and treatment response, the latest testing options, management of treatment resistant depression, along with the good, the bad and the ugly of Ketamine and Esketamine. Also, anxiety disorders, psychedelics, women’s life cycles and appropriate treatments for associated depression and suicide, the neurobiology and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the interface of medical and psychiatric disorders.

The Master Class is being led by the esteemed Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., the Matthew P. Nemeroff Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences; Director, Institute for Early Life Adversity Research and Co-Director of the Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. Dr. Nemeroff is a National Academy of Medicine member and author of over 1,200 scientific articles and book chapters. Including the foreword for my book finding I, A Journey of Repair.

To say that it has been and is a privilege to be here, is an understatement. I am filling my brain and spirit with the latest information, learning to look differently at what may be presented as solutions, and stand in awe at all that is being done to further awareness of the long-term transgenerational affects (both physical and mental) of childhood maltreatment. With the goal of everyone in the room being to stop the cycle. There is a revolution going on, my friends. I will share more next week when I have returned home and had a chance to digest all that I am stretching my brain to hold.

In the meantime, grab a cup of coffee or lace up your shoes, walk with me, and (if you haven’t already) listen to Jen Alley and me talk about my book finding I, A Journey of Repair on her hit podcast “Between the Two of Us.”

Here are the direct links for Apple and Spotify:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-mental-health-podcast-between-the-two-of-us/id1717541971?i=1000646214351

Here is also the direct link to Jen Alley’s website:

Jen Alley – Therapist In Austin, Texas

I would like to leave you this week with this emotional untitled poem by Award winning author and poet, Kaitlin Curtice, which was originally published in “Oneing: Falling Upward” by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM. It touched my soul and reminded me to not be afraid and cherish and live in each moment.

Don’t forget,
my love,
to live.
Don’t forget
to bury
your toes in the sand
and leave your car keys
and laugh at oddities.
Don’t forget to marvel
and feel despair,
to sense danger
and run from it.
Don’t forget
to take chances,
to climb mountains
no one believed
you could climb.
Don’t forget
to love yourself,
all of you,
from every season
and every place,
because you never know when they will come knocking for
a cup of coffee
and an overdue hug.
Don’t forget
that you are alive
right now
until you won’t be,
and even then,
don’t forget
how beautiful
it was to
call yourself Home.

Until next time, friends.