People First Radio – October 5, 2023People First Radio – October 5, 2023
People First Radio
Bernadine Fox shares her history of trauma and therapy abuse, and explains how those experiences led her to create Re-Threading Madness, a show centred on lived experience. The conversation raises questions about power in therapy, ethical boundaries, trauma responses, and how mental health care might look if consumers had better information and more voice.
0:00•5 Oct 2023
Re-Threading Madness: Bernadine Fox on Therapy Abuse, Trauma, and Taking Back the Mic
Episode Overview
- Therapists hold significant power, so clients need basic knowledge of ethical boundaries, including that therapists are not friends, partners, or daily contacts.
- In British Columbia, anyone can call themselves a therapist, so asking about training, qualifications, and professional associations is crucial for safety.
- Therapy abuse is a crime and can cause severe, long-term harm; victims often face disbelief and institutional minimisation before their experiences are recognised.
- Many mental health diagnoses are linked to trauma, and responses like PTSD and dissociation can be normal reactions to extreme events rather than signs of "illness."
- Peer support, acceptance, and hearing others’ stories can feel more healing than formal treatment for many people living with mental health challenges.
“Victims of therapy abuse suffer catastrophic damage. They are ten times more likely than anyone else in the general public to commit or attempt to commit suicide.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and healing from trauma? This conversation on People First Radio zooms in on exactly that, through the raw and complex story of trauma survivor and broadcaster Bernadine Fox. Bernadine shares how childhood sexual abuse, human trafficking, and later abuse by her therapist shaped her life, and how those experiences pushed her behind the mic as host of Re-Threading Madness.
It’s grown into a programme where people with lived experience hold the mic and say, “what’s true for you?” She talks openly about the catastrophic impact therapy abuse can have, noting that victims are “ten times more likely than anyone else in the general public to commit or attempt to commit suicide,” and describes the long fight to have her own abuse recognised by institutions that initially dismissed it as a “romantic relationship.” Bernadine also questions how society labels trauma responses.
She explains that the show began as a way to get clear, practical information to "mental health consumers" about therapy abuse, ethical boundaries, and how to stay safer when seeking help. She argues that many diagnoses, like PTSD and dissociation, are often normal reactions to abnormal events, and worries about how pathologising people strips them of the right to define their own reality.
At the same time, she’s careful to say she’s critical of psychiatry and therapy, not wholly against them, and hopes some professionals listening might rethink how they work. Along the way she brings humour and honesty, from yelling at strangers in traffic during her rage phase to describing peer support as sometimes more healing than any psychiatrist.
The episode speaks directly to anyone who’s been harmed in therapy, anyone wary of seeking help, and anyone trying to understand trauma with more nuance and compassion. It leaves you asking: what would mental health care look like if people’s lived experiences really came first?
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