Desperately Brave & Wisdom of Psychosis | with Simon van den Berg

Desperately Brave & Wisdom of Psychosis | with Simon van den Berg

Desperately Brave — Series 2, Episode 2 Simon van den Berg is a Dutch-German musician, singer, violin maker and Waldorf teacher who went through a psychotic episode at 23 — not from drugs or crisis, but from years of deep meditation, ancestral grief, and the courage to follow a calling nobody around him understood. He came out the other side a musician. Studying in Vienna since 2018 under the guidance of his teacher there. Working toward a peace project that aims to resolve the collective hurt binding Germans, Austrians, Israelis, Jews and Palestinians. And featured as one of six protagonists in Luuk Bouwman's documentary The Desert of the Real (Dutch cinemas August 14, 2026). In this conversation we go deep on initiation, incarnation, and the wisdom that only reveals itself in the dark. What you'll take away: * Psychosis as a hero's journey — descent, isolation and return * How ancestral trauma can live in the body and ask to be finished * Why the right teacher changes everything * What wholeness actually looks like — not as endpoint, but as practice * How music, meditation and surrender can be original medicines 🎧 Subscribe to Original Medicines on Spotify [http://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBF] 📚 Wisdom of Psychosis | The Book [https://annekesips.com/book/] 🎬 The Desert of the Real — Luuk Bouman's documentary 🌿 Join Substack for deeper connection 📷 Follow on instagram.com/annekesips [http://instagram.com/annekesips] Chapters »»» 01:30 | The opening question — what is your original medicine? 03:00 | Childhood and early dissociations 08:00 | Rudolf Steiner and the language of inner life 16:00 | Vienna — studying and the weight of tradition 27:00 | Plum Village and silence as medicine 36:00 | The psychosis — what broke and what it was trying to say 43:00 | Mahler's Resurrection — music as the first witness 57:00 | The dark night as initiation 73:00 | Collective psychosis — when the world breaks too 81:00 | The Desert of the Real — Luuk Bouman's documentary 94:00 | Integration — what wholeness actually looks like

When Psychosis Becomes Medicine | Christopher Grant on Art & Trauma Healing

Christopher Grant, artist and filmmaker from Pabineau First Nation, shares his profound journey living with schizophrenia. In this conversation, we explore how indigenous wisdom, connection to nature, and creative expression became his path to healing — challenging everything we think we know about psychosis and mental health. This isn't a typical mental health story. It's about trauma, spirituality, art as medicine, and the courage to exist authentically in a world that pathologizes what it doesn't understand. »»» Listen for »»» • How trauma and schizophrenia intersected in Christopher's life • Why art became his healing tool and voice • Indigenous teachings on nature, respect, and consciousness • The role of spirituality in navigating psychosis • Why "psychosis" might not be what we think it is • Hope for a more compassionate future of mental health care — 🎧 Subscribe to Original Medicines Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2] 📚 Read more & explore the book https://substack.com/@annekesips [https://substack.com/@annekesips] 🌿 Join the Care Circle — monthly membership for deeper connection https://annekesips.com/the-care-circle/ [https://annekesips.com/the-care-circle/] 📷 Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/ [https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/] »»» Chapters »»» 00:00 Introduction to the Original Medicines Podcast 02:13 Christopher Grant: A Journey Through Mental Health 07:01 The Early Signs of Schizophrenia 11:45 Navigating University Life with Schizophrenia 16:14 The Impact of Trauma on Mental Health 21:19 The Intersection of Indigenous Wisdom and Mental Health 25:17 The Struggle with Identity and Reality 30:05 Finding Healing Through Art and Expression 30:32 Diagnosis and the Journey to Self-Discovery 37:00 Facing Trauma and the Role of Introspection 46:29 The Connection to Nature and Spirituality 01:01:25 Embracing Spirituality and Self-Compassion 01:03:10 Connecting Children to Nature and Consciousness 01:08:31 The Shift in Perception of Nature 01:14:32 Art as a Reflection of the Subconscious 01:21:34 Understanding Psychosis and Connection 01:26:28 Impact of the reaction of misunderstanding others 01:30:17 Navigating Personal Experiences and Societal Perceptions

Motherly Love as Medicine: Healing from Deep Trauma with Anneke Lucas | (Dutch Episode)

What if the most powerful medicine for healing complex trauma including DID isn't found in therapy rooms or treatment centers, but in learning to mother yourself? This is Anneke, and welcome to The Original Medicines Podcast — where healing professionals and wisdom keepers share the medicines that aren't found in any textbook. For thousands of years, healing wisdom was passed down through stories, through touch, through presence — mouth to ear, heart to heart. In these times of collective transformation, we're returning to that ancient way of sharing knowledge that can't always be spoken in professional settings. Today I'm joined by Anneke Lucas — author, speaker, and founder of the Unconditional Model. Drawing from her thirty-year healing journey, she gives a powerful voice to survivors of child trafficking and ritual abuse. Her story takes us through a secret global network of abuse, where power, rituals, and psychological programming dominated her early life. But through all this darkness, one force runs like a golden thread through her recovery: the healing power of motherly love. Not just the love from mother to child, but the development of the inner mother — a loving, nurturing, yet boundary-setting force within ourselves. Anneke shows us how innocence can be reclaimed, how compassion and healthy boundaries together form the foundation for healing, and how motherly love — in its purest, unconditional form — can be the most powerful medicine on the path to recovery. This conversation explores motherly love as medicine — how unconditional nurturing combined with fierce protection creates the container for healing even the deepest trauma, and what it means to become your own loving mother. This episode is in Dutch. Content warning: This episode contains heavy themes around trauma and abuse. Please listen with care. * Learn more about Anneke Lucas's work [annekelucas.com] * 🎧 Subscribe to Original Medicines on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBF [http://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBF]... [https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2] * 📚 Wisdom of Psychosis | The Book: annekesips.com/book [http://annekesips.com/book] * 🌿 Subscribe to Substack for deeper connection: substack.com/@annekesips [http://substack.com/@annekesips] * 📷 Follow on Instagram: instagram.com/annekesips [http://instagram.com/annekesips]

Hawaiian Wisdom & Psychology: Land, Culture & Healing with Chantal (Dutch Episode)

What if the most powerful medicine for healing deep trauma isn't found in therapy rooms or treatment centers, but in learning to mother yourself? This is Anneke, and welcome to The Original Medicines Podcast — where healing professionals and wisdom keepers share the medicines that aren't found in any textbook. For thousands of years, healing wisdom was passed down through stories, through touch, through presence — mouth to ear, heart to heart. In these times of collective transformation, we're returning to that ancient way of sharing knowledge that can't always be spoken in professional settings. Today I'm joined by Chantal van Genderen — permaculture designer, food forest creator, teacher, coach, nutritional therapist, visual artist, exhibition maker, editor, beekeeper, herbalist, Hula dancer, and stargazer. As Chantal says, what's needed depends on the question you bring, but the answer is always multifaceted and full of attention — making every conversation sparkling and refreshing. Our dialogue begins with the Hawaiian goddess Laka — she who represents the natural forces of life. Like ourselves as human beings, this conversation unfolds in many layers, weaving together Hawaiian Hula tradition, questions of cultural belonging and appropriation, and our relationship with the traumatized earth that feeds us. We explore how culture connects us to the land, how permaculture mirrors human psychology, and what it means to heal both ourselves and the earth simultaneously. This is a free-flowing dialogue between two practitioners finding their way on a shared path — one that you're invited to walk alongside, both through this conversation and beyond. This conversation explores indigenous wisdom as medicine — how ancient earth-based practices offer pathways to healing our disconnection from land, culture, and each other in modern life. This episode is in Dutch. * Connect with Chantal van Genderen here [https://chantalvangenderen.com/] * 🎧 Subscribe to Original Medicines Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2] * 📚 Read more & explore the book https://substack.com/@annekesips [https://substack.com/@annekesips] * 🌿 Join the Care Circle — monthly membership for deeper connection https://annekesips.com/the-care-circle/ [https://annekesips.com/the-care-circle/] * 📷 Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/ [https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/]

From Cult Survivor to Self-Healer: Charlotte Apeldoorn's Liberation Story (Dutch Episode)

What happens when the very systems designed to heal us become sources of deeper trauma? This is Anneke, and welcome to The Original Medicines Podcast — where healing professionals and wisdom keepers share the medicines that aren't found in any textbook. For thousands of years, healing wisdom was passed down through stories, through touch, through presence — mouth to ear, heart to heart. In these times of collective transformation, we're returning to that ancient way of sharing knowledge that can't always be spoken in professional settings. Today's conversation is in Dutch, and it's one of the most powerful medicine stories I've ever witnessed. I'm joined by Charlotte Apeldoorn, who shares her extraordinary journey from surviving a satanic cult in her youth to navigating multiple traumas within the mental health system itself. After countless diagnoses, medications, and ECT treatments, Charlotte found her way to freedom — not through the system, but by breaking free from it entirely. This is a story of resilience, sensitivity, and the original medicine of radical self-liberation. Charlotte's journey touches the deepest questions of how we heal trauma when the very systems meant to help us become sources of additional harm. Her story is both heartbreaking and deeply inspiring — a testament to the medicine that lives within us when everything else falls away. This conversation explores radical self-liberation as medicine — how breaking free from systems that harm us becomes its own healing practice, and what it means to trust our own inner knowing when everything else fails us. This episode is in Dutch. A quick note about the audio quality: we experienced some technical difficulties with the microphone during recording, which our sound engineer has corrected using AI technology. You may hear small audio inconsistencies, but the connection and intention of this conversation was too profound not to share. Sometimes the most important medicines come through imperfect channels. ---------------------------------------- * Connect with Charlotte Apeldoorn here [https://www.instagram.com/charlotteapeldoorn?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] * 🎧 Subscribe to Original Medicines Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5SvoeLBFIy0ZUcDNumugJ2] * 📚 Wisdom of Psychosis, the book https://annekesips.com/book/ [https://annekesips.com/book/] * 🌿 Join my substack for deeper connection https://annekesips.substack.com/ [https://annekesips.substack.com/] * 📷 Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/ [https://www.instagram.com/annekesips/]