Evie O’Conner is a trauma-informed yoga teacher and therapist in training. She is currently completing a Masters in the Clinical Mental Health program in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology. Her offerings focus on awareness, allowance and integration of all layers of self: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual, societal, cultural and ancestral.  Evie teaches yoga classes, leads women’s groups and circles, offers SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREONCONNECT WITH EVIE:Website: www.evieyoga.com Instagram: @eviemarie.oconner CONNECT WITH ME:Email: engrid@livengproof.comInstagram: @livengproofLiveng Proof Podcast WebsiteIN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:Her natural curiosity & desire to learn as a childOur humanness is the doorway to the spiritual.What’s come up for her during this global uncertaintyInformed consent in how we healThe western approach of the medical model. What this model excludes. She offers an alternative inclusive approach to the medical model – for those who have not found resolution with the medical model – one that offers the patient agency and sovereignty in their healing journey.How seductive it can feel to use ways to escape reality The non-linear journey of healing She shares about her own struggle with an eating disorder from ages 10-19Having gratitude for our coping mechanismsLearning to sit with our own pain rather than obsessing about the symptom. Learning how the symptom (obsessive thoughts about food + body, or depression, anxiety, etc.) is an indicator of something that needs our attention.Working with diagnoses in mental health: when are they helpful? When are they harmful? Who do they serve? Who do they disempower?How a mental health diagnosis can feel like a trap to some and empowering to others. Everyone is the master and expert of their own experience The power differential that can occur between a therapist and client (therapeutic aggression). How we can lean more towards a client centered approach where co-creation is the foundation of the relationship.The anti-psychiatry movementThe history of diagnoses in mental healthPsychiatry is a modern day witch huntThe history of the DSMHow have mental health diagnoses created a broader cultural implication of pathologizing the human experience? Archetypes: pathologizing the neurotic expression vs. the wisdom expressionWhat are the causes of mental illness? Are there some causes that don’t get validated as much as others? At the end of the day- what matters most is how each individual/client works with diagnoses and if they experience it as helpful or harmful. RESOURCES MENTIONED:Dr. Kelly Brogan Medicalization of Everyday Life: Selected EssaysSilvia Federici The post LPP #137 Reclaiming Your Mental Health Experience with Evie O’Conner appeared first on Liveng Proof.