🎙️ Healing Addiction and Trauma with Microdosing Mushrooms | Keegan Downer of Mindful Meds

📘 Show Notes:

In this deeply moving episode of Linda's Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, we sit down with Keegan Downer, founder of Mindful Meds, to talk about the healing power of microdosing mushrooms, and how it’s helping people overcome addiction and trauma.

Keegan’s journey is raw, real, and incredibly inspiring. Born into generational trauma, he watched his father self-medicate with alcohol and die young. Keegan himself rose to early success, but one decision haunted him and sent him spiraling. After cheating on his girlfriend and hiding it for a year, he was overcome with shame and guilt. He began to drink to numb the pain, ultimately ending up on the edge of a building, contemplating ending it all.

✨ “Don’t ask ‘why the addiction,’ ask ‘why the pain.’” — Gabor Maté
This quote beautifully frames our conversation. Addiction is not a moral failing; it’s a coping mechanism. Keegan’s story illustrates that truth vividly.

Despite surviving that harrowing moment, Keegan continued down a destructive path until his body gave out and landed him in the hospital. That moment was his wake-up call. He entered rehab, learned tools like breathwork and mindfulness, and began the long journey of healing.

But sobriety isn’t a straight line. When life got stressful again, Keegan felt the familiar pull of addiction. That’s when he was introduced to microdosing psilocybin mushrooms—and everything changed.

In 2020, he launched a study involving 40 people struggling with addiction. The results? Life-changing. People found healing not just from substances, but from the root causes of their pain.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How trauma lies at the root of many addictions
• Healing is all about reverse engineering how you got there
• Why guilt and shame can be just as deadly as any substance
• The powerful role mushrooms can play in trauma recovery
• How microdosing helps rewire the brain and release emotional pain
• The difference between managing addiction and healing from it

🎁 Free Gift: Keegan is offering a free 62-page Microdosing Guide and a complimentary 1-on-1 session with a facilitator. Just DM him on Instagram to claim yours!

👉 Connect with Keegan:

• Website: mindfulmeds.io
• Instagram: @mindfulmeds_
  
  

This is a conversation about pain, truth, healing, and the courage it takes to face your darkest moments—and rise. Whether you or someone you love is struggling, this episode offers hope.

A Hospital Without Walls: Redefining Healing with Dr. Ross Ellenhorn
Guest: Dr. Ross Ellenhorn, CEO of Ellenhorn
Website: https://www.ellenhorn.com

In this thought-provoking episode of Linda’s Corner, we’re joined by Dr. Ross Ellenhorn—pioneering psychiatrist, sociologist, and CEO of Ellenhorn—to explore a radical reimagining of mental health care. Dr. Ellenhorn has created what he calls a “hospital without walls,” offering community-integrated services that honor autonomy, human dignity, and the healing power of social support.

Together, we dive into threat assessment theory, which views life’s difficulties as either challenges or threats—and how that perspective shifts based on the resources we believe we have. Many people avoid looking inward because it feels like a threat, not a challenge. But when we are surrounded by supportive relationships and people who believe in us, our self-efficacy grows. We begin to say, “I can do this.”

Key Topics Discussed:

• The dangers of the “fix-it” model in psychological care
  
  
• Why true healing requires respecting a person’s autonomy
  
  
• The importance of collaborative relationships in creating change
  
  
• Why change is a choice—and how people resist it because staying the same feels safer
  
  
• The role of social support in helping people want to change
  
  
• Understanding the fear of hope and how it’s really the fear of disappointment
  
  
• Moving from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What happened to me?”
  
  
• Why depression is not a trait, but a temporary state that can be changed
  
  
• How treating people with respect and viewing them as the experts of their own lives creates the conditions for transformation
  
  

Dr. Ellenhorn’s work challenges traditional models and invites us into a more compassionate, empowering approach to mental health. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in healing, hope, and human potential.

Connect with Dr. Ross Ellenhorn:
🌐 www.ellenhorn.com

Join the Conversation:
If this episode inspired you, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review!
🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen.

Untangling the Past: Dr. Joan Peters on Psychoanalysis, Childhood Trauma, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Episode Summary:
In this powerful and thought-provoking episode of Linda's Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, I’m joined by Dr. Joan Peters—professor emeritus of literature and writing at California State University and author of Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis. Together, we explore Joan’s deeply personal journey through psychoanalysis as she worked to understand the hidden roots of lifelong nightmares, inner turmoil, and a mystery that lingered since childhood.

From the outside, Joan’s family appeared ordinary—a mother, a stepfather, a brother, and a seemingly normal life. But beneath the surface, she was waking up screaming multiple times a week, haunted by dreams where someone was trying to kill her. Why?

The trauma didn’t come from abuse—it came from a little girl’s desperate attempt to make sense of the incomprehensible. When Joan was born, her father was dying of cancer. Her overwhelmed mother administered morphine shots to ease his suffering, often while Joan sat nearby in her high chair. Though she couldn’t understand what was happening, Joan felt that something was terribly wrong—and she internalized the grief, fear, and silence around her. When her father died just before her second birthday, his memory was erased from family life, never to be mentioned again.

Through decades of silence and self-blame, Joan carried the belief that she was responsible—that she was the "angel of death," and that someone would one day kill her because she was bad.

In this moving conversation, Joan shares how psychoanalysis helped her unravel the stories she created to explain her pain—and how retelling those stories with compassion became the key to healing. We also discuss the power of acknowledging trauma, the danger of unspoken grief, and how rewriting our inner narratives can transform our lives.

Learn more and connect with Dr. Peters at UntanglingJoan.com.

Key Topics Covered:

• The hidden impact of early childhood trauma
• How children internalize grief and pain
• The silence surrounding death and how it affects family dynamics
• The power of psychoanalysis in untangling subconscious fears
• Rewriting our personal narratives to find peace and healing
  
  

Connect with Linda:
Website: HopeForHealingFoundation.org
Podcast: Linda’s Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life
Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who may need to hear it. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review—it helps others find the show and join our healing journey. 💛

#UntanglingThePast
#ChildhoodTraumaHealing
#PsychoanalysisJourney
#RewriteYourStory
#EmotionalHealing

Spring Flower: A Journey Through Generational Trauma, War, and Hope with Dr. Richard Perkins-Hsung

Episode Description:
In this profoundly moving episode of Linda’s Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, we sit down with Dr. Richard Perkins-Hsung—university professor, son of immigrants, and the devoted compiler of his late mother Jean’s extraordinary memoir, Spring Flower. Together, we explore the deep impact of the immigrant experience and generational trauma, as seen through the lens of Jean’s powerful life story.

Jean was born into extreme poverty in China, where girls were considered worthless, and female infants were often abandoned. Her own mother endured the ancient, brutal custom of foot binding, breaking and reshaping feet to meet cultural ideals. As an infant, Jean survived one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th century when the Yangtze River flooded, killing millions through drowning, famine, and disease.

Miraculously, Jean was adopted by compassionate American missionaries who devoted their lives to serving the Chinese people. From there, Jean’s journey would span Japanese occupation during World War II, a fateful encounter with Mahatma Gandhi, the terror of the Communist Revolution, and a dramatic escape to the United States—all while leaving behind a husband and daughter.

Through Jean’s story, we see history come alive—her resilience, sacrifice, and determination shaped not only her son Richard’s childhood but also the generational narrative passed down through trauma and healing.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The devastating culture of gender inequality in early 20th-century China
• Jean’s survival through the Yangtze River flood and WWII
• Her inspiring American missionary adoptive parents and their humanitarian work
• Life under Mao’s Communist Revolution and the personal cost of political upheaval
• Jean’s heartbreaking separation from her husband and daughter
• Richard’s journey as an immigrant boy in America and how his mother’s legacy shaped him
• The importance of understanding ancestral stories to find personal healing and identity
• The creation of Spring Flower, Jean’s posthumous memoir, honoring her voice and life

Dr. Richard Perkins-Hsung offers deep insights into how historical trauma becomes generational, and how retelling these stories with compassion can become a tool for healing.

Connect with Dr. Richard Perkins-Hsung:
🌐 YangtzeRiverByTheHudsonBay.site

🌐 https://richardperkinshsung.com/

Mentioned in the Episode:
📘 Spring Flower – A memoir of resilience, love, and survival through war, poverty, and generational trauma.

Thank you for supporting Linda's Corner! Please take a moment to share this episode, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a rating and review. Visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com, and follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest @lindascornerpodcast.

Discover free resources to increase happiness, build confidence, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety at the Hope for Healing website: hopeforhealingfoundation.org.

For a transformative experience in deep inner healing, visit healingbreathworkdetox.com—a digital platform offering life-changing results.

Become the champion of your own story as you overcome life’s challenges and unlock your full potential!

Now I See the Good, Not Just the Pain: Julie Barth’s Story of Resilience, Healing, and Hope

Episode Description:
In this deeply moving episode of Linda’s Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, we welcome Julie Barth—trauma survivor, devoted mother of six, author of Notes from a Blackberry, and founder of the Colin James Barth Outreach. Julie opens her heart and shares a powerful story of navigating life through profound grief, trauma, chronic medical challenges, and ultimately finding hope and healing.

Julie is the mother of Tatum, a remarkable young woman living with primordial dwarfism—a rare and complex condition. At just 24 years old and weighing 24 pounds, Tatum has endured over 40 surgeries, countless medical challenges, and even a battle with a rare form of cancer. Despite severe physical limitations, Tatum shines as a self-taught artist and a bright light of joy to those around her.

For years, Julie carried the heavy belief that she needed to “fix” Tatum—believing that joy and fulfillment could only come if her daughter were “normal.” Over time, she came to a life-changing realization: Tatum is the hero of her own story, and it's okay to let go of the need to fix what simply is. Julie now embraces the journey with love, acceptance, and presence.

Amidst the ongoing health challenges, Julie’s husband Colin was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. His passing left her with deep survivor's guilt and the immense weight of parenting through grief. Eventually, she remarried—but the relationship became emotionally and financially abusive. Trapped in a cycle of self-blame and suffering, Julie believed she deserved to be punished and lived for years on auto-pilot—pretending to be happy while trying to outrun the pain of her past.

Her healing journey began when she bravely chose to stop pretending and start unpacking the trauma she had carried for so long. Julie now uses her experiences to fuel her passion for helping others. As CEO and founder of the Colin James Barth Outreach, she supports women-led households by providing the resources and aid needed to find security and stability in times of crisis.

Julie’s story is raw, courageous, and incredibly inspiring—a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of healing.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Parenting a child with a rare condition and over 40 surgeries
• Why letting go of the need to “fix” can open the door to deeper connection and joy
• Losing her beloved husband Colin to cancer and the aftermath of grief
• Surviving an abusive relationship and rediscovering her worth
• Learning to face the past in order to create a better future
• Julie’s mission to help other women rebuild their lives with dignity and hope
• Her powerful book Notes from a Blackberry and the story behind it

Connect with Julie Barth:
📖 JulieBarthAuthor.net
💛 CJBOutreach.org

Why do we keep repeating the same patterns in our relationships—no matter how much we want things to change? The answer often lies in our attachment style.

In this episode of Linda’s Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, I’m joined by Jack Bohannan, a Relationship & Intimacy Coach and host of the Polarity Unscripted Podcast. Jack helps clients—most often women—heal attachment issues through embodied relationship role play using the Somatica Method. His work offers a path toward creating meaningful, secure, and lasting relationships.

Together, we explore:

• What attachment theory is and why it matters in today’s world
  
  
• The four main attachment styles: secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant
  
  
• How childhood experiences shape the way we connect (or disconnect) as adults
  
  
• The three essential components of healing: understanding, new experiences, and collaboration
  
  
• How Somatica therapy offers a safe space to practice those components and rewire old patterns
  
  
• A powerful conflict repair method that ends fights and deepens connection
  
  

If you’ve ever felt stuck in cycles of unfulfilling relationships or wondered why intimacy feels so hard, this conversation will bring clarity, hope, and tools for change.

Learn more about Jack Bohannan:
🌐 jackbohannan.com

🌐 https://jackbohannan.com/conflict-signup-page

🎙️ Polarity Unscripted Podcast

Raising an Entrepreneur – Helping Your Children Achieve Their Dreams with Margot Machol Bisnow

What does it take to raise confident, resilient, and creative children who achieve their dreams? In this episode, we welcome Margot Machol Bisnow, author of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams – 99 Stories from Families Who Did. With a background in government, including serving as an FTC Commissioner and staff director of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Margot has spent the last decade speaking to parent groups about fostering entrepreneurial spirit in children.

In our conversation, Margot shares key insights from her book and articles featured on CNBC, including the parenting style that all parents of successful young entrepreneurs had in common: Respectful Parenting.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Respectful Parenting Works:

• Instead of authoritarian or permissive styles, successful parents provided structure, support, and warmth.
• They set rules and expectations while allowing their children the freedom to make big decisions.
• Their children always knew they were loved and that their parents were proud of them.

✅ Failure is a Learning Opportunity:

• Protecting kids from failure doesn’t help them—it holds them back.
• Teaching children that failure is part of learning builds resilience and perseverance.
• The ability to struggle, work hard, and keep moving forward is key to future success.

✅ Passion Fuels Growth:

• Every young entrepreneur Margot interviewed had a passion of their own choosing.
• Parents supported these passions, helping their children develop confidence and determination.
• While the initial passion rarely became their career, the skills they learned—hard work, grit, and resilience—were invaluable.

✅ Compassion for Parents:

• No parent is perfect, and that’s okay.
• The most important thing is for children to feel loved, supported, and encouraged in their pursuits.

For more wisdom from Margot Machol Bisnow, visit her website:

GUEST WEBSITE: www.raisinganentrepreneur.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:
https://www.facebook.com/raisinganentrepreneur1/?fref=ts

https://www.instagram.com/margotbisnow/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margot-machol-bisnow-a29550b5/

Tune in to this inspiring episode to learn how you can empower your children to chase their dreams!

Thank you for supporting Linda's Corner! Please take a moment to share this episode, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a rating and review. Visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com, and follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest @lindascornerpodcast.

Discover free resources to increase happiness, build confidence, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety at the Hope for Healing website: hopeforhealingfoundation.org.

For a transformative experience in deep inner healing, visit healingbreathworkdetox.com—a digital platform offering life-changing results.

Become the champion of your own story as you overcome life’s challenges and unlock your full potential!

Instant Personal Transformation – Featuring Craig Polsfuss

In this enlightening episode of Linda’s Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life, I sit down with Craig Polsfuss, psychologist, published researcher, speaker, and the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book Reality-Shattering Insights. Craig shares his powerful story of instant personal transformation — a sudden realization that shifted his perspective from "outside-in" to "inside-out."

🔑 From Outside-In to Inside-Out
Craig explains that most of us view life from an outside-in perspective, believing that happiness and success are external — things we have to seek and work for. But when we shift to an inside-out perspective, we realize that happiness and fulfillment are already within us. We’re not experiencing our circumstances — we’re experiencing our thinking about those circumstances.

🌟 A Client’s Transformation
Craig shares a remarkable story about a client who was a heavy smoker. After working together for a while, they walked past an ashtray, and she suddenly realized that she no longer smoked. She said, "I didn’t quit smoking — I just don’t smoke." Once she understood that her stress and anxiety were coming from her thinking, not her circumstances, the need to smoke disappeared naturally.

🎬 Life is Like a Movie
Craig uses the metaphor of watching a movie in a theater. While the movie might be exciting or emotional, part of us knows we’re just watching a story. Life is the same — we feel our experiences, but they aren’t who we are. When we pause, relax, and allow ourselves to receive fulfillment rather than chasing it, life becomes more peaceful and joyful.

💡 Growth Through Every Experience
Craig reminds us that every experience — good or bad — is working for us, not happening to us. Challenges are opportunities for growth and transformation when we shift our perspective.

👉 Tune in to discover how shifting your mindset from outside-in to inside-out could unlock deep personal transformation and lasting peace.

Learn more about Craig Polsfuss:
🌐 CraigPolsfuss.com
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn

#MindsetShift #PersonalTransformation #InsideOutThinking #EmotionalHealing #PodcastEpisode #CraigPolsfuss #MentalClarity #InnerPeace