On this episode, Matt Speaks with Aaron Wisniewski of OVR Technology – Aaron has been called the “Indiana Jones of Scent,” due to his lifelong obsession with the power of scent and how it can benefit the human experience. This has led him around the world collecting and bottling scent memories. Prior to founding OVR Technology, Aaron spent years crafting experiences around taste, flavor, and aroma, working as a professional chef, a mixologist, a sommelier, and sensory artist. OVR Technology is the second olfaction-based company he has co-founded on his over 20-year journey combining the art and science of our oldest most primal sense and technology to produce meaningful, measurable human outcomes.

Matt and Sarah speak with Janelle Banat, who is an EXECUTIVE COACH and NOT A THERAPIST. The only reason this has to be made clear is because she is, in fact, Matt’s Executive Coach.

Matt and Sarah chat with Rick about his family’s journey through suicide, alcoholism, and ultimately reconciliation which inspired Rick’s book called “One Small Step”. The three also talk about the challenge of going into the holidays during a pandemic and how this year it is especially important to practice gratitude.  Rick shares some helpful tips on how to practice gratitude with family and challenges Matt and Sarah to share something specific that they are grateful for.

Matt and Sarah speak with Nanea Reeves, Founder of TRIPP, partner of the Center and tech industry veteran. Discussion ranges from TRIPP itself to the challenges women face in a majority-male industry, to the time she spent at The Arcade as a kid, ultimately leading her down the path to becoming one of the first women in a leading role in the gaming industry.

Debbie and Matt speak with Scott LoMurray, executive director of Sources of Strength, an organization dedicated to changing the conversation about mental health among students.

Matt and Debbie speak with Solome Tibebu, a mental health advocate, digital health investor and behavioral health technology strategist. As a self-described Former Anxious Teen, she has built both non-profit and for-profit startup organizations aimed at changing the dynamics of delivery of mental health care.

Learn more about the Upswing Fund – https://wp.me/aaEfN9-ou

Overview for Grant Applicants to the Upswing Fund –  https://wp.me/aaEfN9-ow

Matt and Debbie chat with Alex Doman, author, entrepreneur and founder of Vital Neuro

This episode is packed and includes:

• Alex’s family background in brain wellness and helping people realize their full potential
• Alex’s research in therapeutic music and the profound influence it had
• The evolving mission of Vital Neuro to help people reach their greatest potential and find homeostasis and mental wellbeing through the power of music and technology
• More about Vial Neuro and their product that reads brain activity in real time and sends personalized music to you and the benefits it has over time
• What’s in store for Vital Neuro in the next year and when the product will go to market
• Learn more about Vital Neuro: https://vitalneuro.com/

In this episode, Matt and Sarah chat with Dr. Jennifer Dore, a board certificated psychiatrist specializing in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychopharmacology

Some of the topics discussed on the podcast include:

• Her journey from being a general surgeon to psychiatry
• Starting a private practice at the end of her physiatry residency to allow for more creativity to help people where they were as opposed to following a standard algorithm
• Noticing the limitation of tools for people who were still stuck which led her down a path to ketamine assisted therapy
• Writing the first published paper on ketamine assisted therapy
• The history of ketamine
• Preparing clients for the ketamine experience and the integration process

Matt and Debbie interview Paul Gilmartin, comedian and host of The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast. This is our longest episode to date, some of the topics discussed include:

• Paul’s experience hosting Dinner and a Movie + his struggles with addiction
• Paul’s focus on being successful and never feeling like he succeeded
• The impact of his podcast and hearing his peers talk about mental illness and struggle
• Paul’s hobby of making furniture
• This episode includes sensitive topics and adult language
• Listen today and give us your thoughts

In this episode, Matt and Sarah sit down with five-time Olympic Gold-Medalist Missy Franklin. They discuss the challenges she faced as an elite athlete and public figure while grappling with depression and anxiety, authentically representing herself and meeting the incredibly high expectations of the World’s most accomplished athletes.

In this Episode, Matt and Sarah explore the promising potential of equine, or horseback therapy with Robin Gabriels, Tamara Merritt and Cori Pabst.

Study Flier – http://crazedpodcast.com/study-flier-colorado-site-v6-april-2020/

Randomized Controlled Trial of Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gabriel et al 2015 – http://crazedpodcast.com/gabriels-et-al-2015/

In this episode, Matt turns the podcast over to NMHIC’s interns, Lena Schneck and Zach Smith. They interview Elissa Wolf-Tinnsman, a highschool teacher in the Denver Area about some of the implications around returning to school this fall. Concerns about COVID-19 and adjusting curricula for a more inclusive education are addressed.

Matt and Debbie sit down with Christopher Schneck and Aimee Sullivan to discuss their findings while implementing an exciting new approach to the treatment of bipolar disorder: Family Focused Therapy! Family Focused Therapy is a psychoeducational approach to treating bipolar disorder. Amy and Chris explain the three pillars of the treatment: communication skill training, problem solving, and early prevention. In addition to sharing their own work and research with the treatment, Amy, Chris, and Matt discuss the mental health impacts of the pandemic and how FFT has adapted. 

Matt and Nima meet with Dr. Jomar Suarez, the founder and Executive Director of 7 Healing Stars, and Barry Raphael, the archivist of the Lumonics School of Light art. 7 Healing Stars presents a holistic way of looking at mental health through recognizing that well-being relies on nutrition, sustainability, education, health, arts, spirituality and community. By gathering a collective of artists, healers, and musicians, 7 Healing Stars has built a sustainable approach to building health, wellness, and community across the world. Barry and Dr. Suarez describe the benefits of art and creativity for mental health and discuss how autistic clients interact and benefit from the school. 

In this episode, Matt and Debbie meet with Ben Lewis and John Sockell of Limbix to discuss their digital therapeutics products to help adolescents deal with depression. Ben and John explain Limbix Spark: an FDA-approved digital therapeutic app that is designed to support adolescents with depression. Increasingly, they explain how Limbix is actively creating prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) to enable doctors to prescribe digital, evidence-based, therapeutic interventions for adolescent mental health. 

In this episode, recorded in the studio prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, Matt and Lauren sit down with Jared Wigdor, vice president and chief development officer for Bright By Text, a text-based outreach model to help guide parents through early parenting. Jared, Matt, and Lauren discuss the challenges of child development and the pressure that is put on parents to raise a healthy, intelligent, and empathetic child. Bright By Text assists parents by providing various materials to encourage social-emotional learning, healthy lifestyle choices, and a coherent family environment

In this episode Debbie and Matt meet with Alexis DeCosimo, an art therapist and friend of the Center. The conversation ranges from a mysterious cryptocurrency startup to Celine Dion (again) to the project Alexis and Debbie worked on together to help families use the film Inside Out as a way to talk about their feelings.

Matt and Sarah Meet Virtually with Aubrey Shick and Tim Enwall, of Fine Arts Miracles and Misty Robotics, do discuss how robots are being used as an augmentation for therapy.

Matt and Sarah speak with Brian and Brooke Griese, founders of Judi’s House, a community center for families experiencing loss, with a direct focus on childhood bereavement. Brian, a former NFL player, 1998 Super Bowl champion, and son of Football Hall-of-Famer Bob Griese, lost his mother at a young age. Brooke decided at a young age to become a child psychologist. Together, they are making incredible strides for science-backed and community-oriented improvements to the way kids and their families deal with grief and loss.

In this episode, Sarah and Matt interview Sharon Raggio, CEO and President of Mindsprings Health, a community Mental Health organization serving a large catchment area in the Rocky Mountains. They discuss providing mental healthcare for rural communities, and the acceleration of telemedicine as a result of COVID-19.

Matt and Sarah talk with Robert Valuck, CEO of Opisafe and faculty at the Skaags School of Pharmacy. OpiSafe is a tool Doctors use to reduce potential harm and abuse when prescribing opiates and is making waves in the medical community by applying innovative thinking to one of Healthcare’s most urgent challenges.

In this episode, recorded prior to the COVID-19 Outbreak, Matt and Sarah Boland sit down with Wes Williams, the Chief Information Officer of the Mental Health Center of Denver to talk about their innovative approach to community mental health, via their Digital Front Door, Human-Focused Design, and meeting the need Denver’s population in whatever way they can, including haircuts.

In this episode, Matt and Debbie sit down with Dion Gonzales and Jeff Dorchester, the founders of the anonymous peer support app IRel8, to discuss how and why they created their anonymous, peer-to-peer mental health app.

Matt and Debbie sit down with Scott Cypers, director of Stress and Anxiety programs at the Johnson Depression Center, at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus to discuss the implications of COVID-19 on the family and on parenting.

Matt and Sarah sit down with James and Don of Osiris Labs to discuss using virtual reality to train soft skills to help better workplace productivity and build empathy. The group discusses how technology and these skills apply in response to COVID-19 and how these skills may be different in a post COVID-19 world.

Matt and Q Saeed meet (remotely) to discuss the role of leadership in organizations, and the way COVID-19 has caused unprecedented change in the way teams work.

Matt has a remote meeting with Mimi McFaul, Debbie Boeldt and Gwen Gaumond from NMHIC. All three guests are telehealth experts, and they discuss the ins and outs of online therapy, paying particular attention to it’s increased prevalence during the COVID-19 crisis.

Thank you for listening! Here are some helpful guidelines for therapists hoping to provide services via video session during the COVID pandemic. Remember to always read Terms of Service and Business Associate Agreements prior to provision of services. Thank you for continuing to provide excellent support to the people you serve as therapists. Continue to check back with the Crazed podcast and on the NMHIC web page for further guidance and support during this challenging time.

Reference blog post for National Association of Social Work NASW, American Counseling Association ACA, and American Psychological Association APA guidelines regarding ethical guidelines for tele-therapy: http://mentalhealthinnovation.org/blog-post/tips-for-therapists-conducting-teletherapy-in-response-to-covid-19-recommendations/?preview=true&_thumbnail_id=1655

CMS – Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services directive announced March 6 expanding tele-therapy: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/president-trump-expands-telehealth-benefits-medicare-beneficiaries-during-covid-19-outbreak

Simple Practice free to new users for 30 days, embedded tele-therapy: https://secure.simplepractice.com/users/sign_up

Zoom tips for educators, events and security: https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html

Matt and Sarah have a remote meeting with John Vogl, Matt’s nephew and a Work from Home veteran, and discuss strategies for focus, keeping your head in the right place, and a secret trick that prevents Matt from ignoring your email.

Matt sits down with special guests Rachel Davis, MD and Robert Rosenthal, PhD to discuss self care and support for students during COVID-19

Matt chats with Steven Berkowitz, MD and Laura McGladery, PMHNP about First Responder Stress and Resilience for COVID-19.

In this episode, Matt chats with two Psychiatry residents here at the University of Colorado who are leading a pilot study with OxfordVR and examining what the real world implementation would look like to run a VR clinic. They discuss the often skeptical side clinicians have of technology assisted therapy and how tools such as VR can help take the burden off the therapist and in turn, increase the case load that a clinician can carry.