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If life is a tree, mental health is the bridge between the roots and the branches—bridging where we’ve been & what we’ve been through with where we’re headed & what we affect. The Bridge to Branches Podcast features interviews with folks who are doing impactful things out in the world despite, or sometimes, because of, their mental health journeys. We hope to combat stigma so that we all can live in a world where we discuss our mental health without judgment or shame. • Song: “Little Beckon” ...
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Getting Your Worm: The Dynamic Envisioning of A Good Robin
1:21:50
1:21:50
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In Episode 3 of Season 2, Ariel and Alix interview Dominika, a visionary of our time who believes that trauma is a necessary brain alteration. Dominika says that even though we try to shield ourselves and our loved ones from trauma, our brain is the ultimate “pentium”—in other words, it is able to process our trauma at top notch speed, and it does …
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S2 Episode 2: Trying to Navigate the Self through Music & Mental Health
46:38
46:38
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In the second episode of Season 2, Alix and Ariel interview the talented Jevon Reynolds (he/him/his). Despite a mental health diagnosis, Jevon navigates the world with an engineering mind applied to music. Jevon’s music touches on the complexities of love, human emotion, and self-discovery. In this episode, he speaks candidly of his experiences wit…
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S2 Episode 1: “Alternative” Healing for Multidimensional Beings
1:01:57
1:01:57
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In a triumphant return to the podcast world, Alix and Ariel team up to host Season 2—beginning with a rich conversation with Marta Styczen (she/her/hers), a world traveler and Intuitive Guide & Meditation Facilitator. In this episode, Marta speaks of her Slavic ancestry and how she connects it with the way she views her mental health, and “alternat…
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S1 Episode 10: Synthesis of Season One
1:02:57
1:02:57
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After a brief hiatus, Alix and Ariel return victoriously to discuss, process, and connect the dots from the podcast’s first season. This episode takes you on a psychological journey through the subtle undertones of the first nine episodes through a reflective dialogue on universal truths about the healing of the mind. This episode marks the end of …
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S1 Episode 9: The Path of Self-Advocacy and Connecting Dental & Mental Health
1:09:15
1:09:15
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In Episode 9, Alix and Ariel co-host, conversing with Rachel Mundus (she/her/hers). Rachel talks of her struggles with academics early on in life and how a seed of self-doubt was planted in her mind because of the impact of that challenge. She discusses her traumatic brain injury, her long road to recovery, and how she subsequently chose to transfo…
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S1 Episode 8: Opening the Doors of Misdiagnoses, Substances, and Changing the System
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57:49
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In Episode 8, Alix interviews Chicago-based Phillip Petersen (he/him/his), an activist who advocates for cannabis legalization, and who was once diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and ADD. Phil is opinionated, and is a skeptic of the traditional model of Psychology; he has experience with being prescribed the gamut of meds (and instead, at one time, t…
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S1 Episode 7: Healing by Waking Up to the Gifts within Pain
34:09
34:09
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This is one of the first episodes we recorded for the podcast, and it veers from the typical or conventional look into mental health. Alix talks with James Wolf Irawe Mendoza (he/him/his), an Indigenous sage and truth-seeking extrasensory being. He talks about healing in terms of shamanic methods, and the ways in which Western cultural healing moda…
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S1 Episode 6: Why Mindfulness AND Mental Health Matter
1:04:18
1:04:18
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In Episode 6, Alix interviews Kevin Recinos (they/them/theirs), whose own mental health journey led them to a role providing mental health services for homeless folks in the Los Angeles area. Kevin and Alix discuss the nuances of vulnerability, the problem with substituting spirituality for mental health, and the dangers of getting therapeutic info…
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S1 Episode 5: The Shared Experience of the Weirdness of Being Human
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55:18
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In Episode 5, Alix talks with Colorado-based psychotherapist Craig Salerno (he/him/his) about his perspective on the relationship we take on with our mind through being human, the place where Zen Buddhism and psychotherapy connect (in that we are innately whole), and the ways in which ketamine-assisted psychotherapy assists in healing. NOTE: This e…
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S1 Episode 4: A Working Definition of Mental Health
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44:16
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In this conversation, Alix is joined by Emily Sioma (she/her/hers), an activist for mental health and sexual assault survivor advocacy in the pageant world and beyond. In this episode Emily talks candidly about her recognition that she dealt with undiagnosed OCD as an adolescent, how we define anxiety and depression, and how she’s turned her own ch…
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S1 Episode 3: Seeing “Schizophrenia” as Sacred
1:05:47
1:05:47
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In episode 3, Alix interviews Jacob Reid (he/him/his), who was once diagnosed with the disorder known as paranoid schizophrenia. Jacob redefines and reframes what he calls “Sacredphrenia” as a psycho-spiritual disorder rather than an illness, and talks about the fear encountered during a “sacredphrenic” episode as being on the consciousness spectru…
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S1 Episode 2: The Influence of Psychosis, Aloneness, and Eternal Hope
1:07:06
1:07:06
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In Episode 2, we introduce Ariel (or Leira, she/her/hers) as the future co-host of the podcast; she speaks with Alix about her journey through her own mental health experience and her mile-marker psychedelic trip that took her into and then out of the depths and into the place where she is today, writing her dissertation on trauma and healing becau…
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S1 Episode 1: Pod Concept + Normalizing Mental Health Stories (by sharing them)
38:23
38:23
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In the first episode, Ariel interviews Alix (she/her/hers) as she introduces herself, talks about the pod concept + the idea of “The Love Revolution”, and speaks candidly about her mental health journey and how it’s taken her to where she is on her path today.
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