Waking Up Bipolar with Chris Cole | Bipolar disorder, spiritual awakening, and everything in between.

Latest Episodes:

Marc Azoulay: Group Dynamics, Sociopolitics, and Depth May 10, 2021

Show notes

Marc Azoulay is a psychotherapist in private practice in Boulder, CO and the past President of the Four Corners Group Psychotherapy Society. He helps clients that have a harmful relationship to their inherent aggression or who are stuck in the pain of their repetition compulsions. Many of his clients struggle with addiction, anxiety, and self-sabotage. Marc helps people uncover and destroy the unconscious barriers that cripple them by using a blend of Modern Psychoanalytic and Contemplative Psychotherapy. His therapeutic style can best be described as irreverent with surprising moments of profound depth.

Chris Cole hosts the Waking Up Bipolar podcast, focused on the intersection of bipolar disorder and spiritual awakening. He is the author of The Body of Chris: A Memoir of Obsession, Addiction, and Madness, inspired by his own journey of spiritual unfolding and mental health challenges. Chris Cole offers life coaching for any number of mental health conditions, specializing in bipolar disorder and spiritual emergence. Chris’s experience with addiction, disordered eating, body dysmorphia, psychosis, and spiritual emergency allows him to relate to a wide range of clients. He utilizes a holistic approach to mental health which views wellness in physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual domains. Learn more about Chris and his work at colecoaching.com.

In the podcast notes, please find the link to Marc Azoulay’s links, where you can find more information about collaboration and digestion.

Alright everybody. If you enjoyed this conversation and want to contribute your OWN thoughts, experiences, and resources, check out our Waking Up Bipolar Facebook group. You can also head to wakingupbipolar.com to join the email list. This has been another episode of the Waking Up Bipolar podcast. For more episodes, visit wakingupbipolar.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or TuneIn, and if you feel so inclined, please rate the podcast or leave a review so other folks may have an easier time finding this. If you want to learn more about me and how I came to care about the intersection of bipolar disorder and spiritual awakening, you can check out my book, The Body of Chris: A Memoir of Obsession, Addiction, and Madness, or visit colecoaching.com for life coaching, blog posts, videos, emails, social media, and of course, more episodes. Be well until next time.

Marc Azoulay’s Links:

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MarcAzoulaySpeaks

Visit my webiste: marc-azoulay.com

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcmazoulay

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcmazoulay/

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcmazoulay

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marc.azoulay/

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Dave Cowen: Shuffle Synchronicities Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

Dave Cowen has written humor for The New Yorker and McSweeney’s. He’s self-published six books, including two that were featured in The New York Times. He also writes a daily Substack called Shuffle Synchronicities about music and memoir. He’s a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He grew up in snowy, cloudy Rochester, New York but now calls sunny, warm Los Angeles, California home. He identifies as neurodiverse.

In the podcast notes, please find the link to Dave Cowen’s links, https://linktr.ee/davecowen where you can find more information about collaboration and digestion.

Links: https://linktr.ee/davecowen

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Dr. Daniel Bober: Depression in the Times of Coronavirus Nov 22, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Bober attended medical school at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his Adult/Child/Adolescent Psychiatry training at the Yale University School of Medicine and a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. Dr. Bober served as a mental health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate through the American Psychiatric Association and the Yale University School of Medicine. While working in Congress, he championed the cause of veterans and active duty service members with mental illness. He currently holds a faculty appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine while overseeing his private practice. He is currently the Chief of the Department of Psychiatry for Memorial Regional Healthcare System.

Dr. Bober is Board Certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Forensic Psychiatry, by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Additionally, as a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, Dr. Bober is a certified Addiction Medicine physician. He is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and American Society of Addiction Medicine.

In the podcast notes, please find the link to the Dr. Daniel Bober’s website, drbober.com, where you can find more information to work with him.

Links: http://drbober.com

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Sean Blackwell 2: Bipolar, Spirituality, and Rebooting Nov 04, 2020

Show notes

In the podcast notes, please find the link to the Sean Blackwells’s website, bipolarawakenings.com, where you can find links to schedule, get involved, and support Sean’s retreat work.

Links: http://bipolarawakenings.com

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

When Depression is Awakening: Attachment, Faith, and God Feb 26, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole shares a recovery talk for the Center for Spiritual Living Boulder Valley, a spiritual center of worship based on the teachings of Dr. Ernest Holmes.

The purpose of the Center of Spiritual Living Boulder Valley is to celebrate divinity, embrace humanity, and create community. Their mission is to provide tools and support to awaken the community to its spiritual magnificence. And the vision is to inspire and uplift every one of us to transform the world.

The New Thought tradition dates to the 1880s and has its roots in the Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s. New Thought has a long and respected history, and includes luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Phineas Quimby, and Emma Curtis Hopkins. Some of the better-known authors today whose writings parallel such thought are Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, as well as many others.

These teachings incorporate the ancient wisdom of all the spiritual traditions through the ages. People of all spiritual paths – Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, New Age and others – are all welcome in their communities.

As you’ll hear in this talk, mental health crisis, and depression specifically, provide fertile ground for self-examination and the sort of spiritual inquiry that may deepen our faith and connection with the divine. I am so grateful to the community for inviting me to speak, and I hope you get something out of a dialogue about the transformative potential of times of deep despair.

Visit the Center for Spiritual Living Boulder Valley’s website: https://cslbouldervalley.org/

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Internalizing Insanity: Presenting Psychosis as Trauma, Diversity, and Insight Feb 13, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole shares a recovery talk for for the Interfaith Network on Mental Illness, a non-profit in Boulder, Colorado that helps our many spiritual and religious communities have greater access and resources for mental health.

INMI, the Interfaith Network on Mental Illness, maintains the mission to increase awareness and understanding of mental illness among clergy, staff, lay leaders and members of faith communities and help them more effectively develop and nurture supportive environments for persons dealing with mental illnesses and their families and friends.

INMI envisions a future in which people freely seek the mental health services they need without fear of embarrassment or stigma. Faith communities are leading a cultural shift that permeates our society with compassion for people with mental illnesses and their families.

As you’ll hear in this talk, psychosis offers an opportunity for all of us to open our hearts more fully, to feel more deeply, and to know a love big enough for recovery and care. My hope is that more communities throughout the United States of America consider the opportunity for reconciliation of spiritual, humanistic, and trauma-informed mental health reform.

Visit INMI’s website: http://inmi.us/

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Natural Highs: Radical Recovery, Inner Change, and Social Engagement Feb 10, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole shares a recovery talk for Natural Highs, a non-profit in Boulder, Colorado that helps young people connect to sober living and each other.

Natural Highs is an interactive strengths-based substance abuse prevention/intervention peer mentor program that is co-created by teens to empower teens and their communities around healthy lifestyle choices and creating a positive peer culture.

Our MISSION is to empower teens and adults to become INSPIRED LEADERS around HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CHOICES and to work for POSITIVE CHANGE in their communities.

Natural Highs provides healthy alternatives to drugs and alcohol through offering workshops, drop-in classes, groups, presentations, sober events, and entrepreneurial and leadership opportunities for teens. The goal of the program is for teens to learn about the effects of substance use, discover healthy alternatives, support each other with healthy choices, and take on leadership roles to positively impact teens and adults in their communities.

The larger vision for this program is to create a positive peer culture around healthy lifestyle choices for teens and adults. We serve over 2000 teens per year in the Boulder, CO area. The intended outcome for these participants is to increase the number of teens who make healthier choices around drugs and alcohol. Our goal is to empower teens to step up as leaders in creating a positive peer culture in their communities.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Natural Highs offers a chance for deeper connection as a way to avoid the pitfalls of the sort of isolation and anxiety that marks drug use and pervasive ambivalence. I feel strongly that our young people are the future of our country, and I couldn’t be more proud to serve the local youth toward holistic health and wholeness.

Visit Natural High's website: http://naturalhighs.org

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Dan Griffin: Me Too, Man Rules, and Liberating Dichotomies Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole speaks with Dan Griffin—addictions expert, public speaker, and host of the Man Rules podcast.

Dan has dedicated his life and work to exploring and redefining what it means to be a man in the 21st century. He is committed to helping men be better men, by understanding the impact of the Man Rules on their lives. Dan also helps men find the success in their personal lives they are striving for in their professional ones. Griffin’s book, A Man’s Way through Relationships, is the first book written specifically to help men create healthy relationships while navigating the challenges of the “Man Rules™” — ideas men internalize at very young ages about how to be real boys and men.

Griffin’s professional background includes over two decades in the mental health and addictions field. In addition, he is the author of A Man’s Way through the Twelve Steps, the first trauma-informed book to take a holistic look at men’s sobriety. He co-authored Helping Men Recover, the first comprehensive gender-responsive and trauma-informed curriculum for addiction and mental health professionals. Dan served as a senior fellow at The Meadows, world-renowned experts treating addictive disorders and trauma, from 2015 to 2017. Dan earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Kansas. For his graduate work, Dan completed the first qualitative study centered on the social construction of masculinity in the culture of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Dan grew up in the DC area and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nancy, and his daughter, Grace. He has been in long-term recovery from addiction since he graduated college in May of 1994.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Dan Griffin embodies authentic masculinity in his daring articulations of mens’ trauma. Due to my own location in nonbinary gender advocacy, I find men like Dan refreshing and warm as we all try to come to terms with our own gender and healing.

Visit Dan Griffin's website: http://dangriffin.com

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Sara Gael: Zendo Project, Transpersonal Healing, and the Psychedelic Renaissance Nov 09, 2018

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole speaks with Sara Gael—transpersonal psychotherapist and Director of Harm Reduction for MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Sara began working with MAPS in 2012, coordinating psychedelic harm reduction services at festivals and events worldwide with the Zendo Project. Sara is a Sub-Investigator for the MAPS Phase 2 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in Boulder, CO. She received her Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University and maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Sara believes that developing a comprehensive understanding of psychedelic medicines through research and education is essential for the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and the planet.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Sara Gael holds a holistic, transpersonal view of non-ordinary states that lends itself to transformation of body, mind, and soul. Over time, I’ve taken a special interest in psychedelic research because of the parallels to my own experiences of psychosis and spiritual emergence. Please enjoy this rich dialogue around intersections of non-ordinary states and healing.

Visit Sara Gael's website: http://www.re-membering.com/

Learn more about Zendo Project: https://www.zendoproject.org/

Learn more about MAPS: https://maps.org/

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com

Amber Wood: Mind-Body Connections, Discovering Purpose, and Shifting Authority Sep 13, 2018

Show notes

In this episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole speaks with Amber Wood—licensed clinician specializing in functional and evolutionary medicine.

Amber Wood is passionate about medicine that is natural, evidence-based, and effective. Her primary goal is to help restore vitality. Amber brings a wealth of knowledge as a clinician to both her personal life and her clients. When she became a mother, Amber decided it was much like being an extreme, endurance athlete. She learned the critical role of managing stress, eating well and resting enough, discovering that overdoing it combined with the wrong diet can equal serious health consequences.

Prior to studying medicine, Amber trained as dancer and traveled extensively. This led to problems with her joints, hormones, and energy at a young age. Like many people, she suffered from gut issues that didn't make sense and often affected her in strange ways. She discovered how much she needed a healthy immune system in order to handle stress.

Today, Amber works with people who are fed up with being in pain, having low energy, and not sleeping well. If you want to trust your body, feel at home in your skin, and live a full, vital life, then Amber Wood is your person. She instructs folks along the lines of true medicine, noting that the best medicine catches and prevents disease before it is full blown.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Amber Wood utilizes a rich meditation practice to inform a humane and empowering orientation to holistic health and healing. We met on a recent meditation retreat, and I just loved what she had to say about holistic healing practices and especially the role of hormones in mental health. I hope you enjoy!

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3c4l8AO1Muw

Watch on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wakingupbipolar/videos/718224531849307/

Visit Amber Wood's website: https://amberwoodhealth.ca/

JOIN THE DISCUSSION at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wakingupbipolar

The Waking Up Bipolar podcast in now available on the following platforms:

Apple Podcasts | apple.wakingupbipolar.com

Google Play | google.wakingupbipolar.com

Stitcher | stitcher.wakingupbipolar.com

TuneIn | tunein.wakingupbipolar.com

wakingupbipolar.com