I write about mental health, psychosis, altered states, trauma, yoga therapy, nervous system regulation, philosophy, spirituality and the many ways people find their way back to themselves. My work lives at the meeting point of psychiatry, psychology, yoga, ancient wisdom traditions and what I call Original Medicines: the practices, relationships, rhythms and ways of knowing that reconnect us with body, community, nature and meaning. After more than 25 years working in mental health as a psychiatric nurse, therapist and yoga therapist, I’m especially interested in what becomes possible when we widen the conversation beyond diagnosis and symptom reduction — without losing discernment, safety or good clinical care. Through Terrapy, I work with individuals and groups and teach healthcare professionals, therapists and others who care. I also share reflections from my books, research, conversations, trainings and the questions I’m currently exploring.If you’re curious about a broader, more humane and integrative approach to mental health and healing, you’re very welcome!
Falling through the basket 🧺
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5 min read · Full (hunter's) moon | October 26, 2026 Every transformation has a moment when the old way of being stops working. The ground crumbles. What held you (the roles, the certainties, the masks, the story of who you are) loosens its grip. And there is nothing yet to replace it. Like a free fall into a never-ending depth. The Greeks called it katabasis: the necessary going down into the underworld, the un-doing before again becoming. I know this place. I have gone through it, and I still walk its edge, feeling its pull. Especially when something new is awakening in me — because what wants to be born asks the old to let go. Like right now, as the making, the artist in me, re-enters my life: through earth, clay, graphics, art. The telling of stories. A life force, a creation force pulls... and it is the same pull. Down, and toward life, at once. The working through my story, with my hands, learning new skills, writing poetry... while meeting you here, in these letters, and myself. A melting pot between worlds. It shakes the old forms loose. A possible breakdown, a dis-order, the beginning of an end — the end of who I thought I had to be. While underneath the chaos, something in me, silently, trying to be born. Scary AF. Because a very old, very familiar voice in me whispers: now they’ll see who you truly are, they will see through you. We have an expression for this in Dutch: door de mand vallen. Literally, falling through the basket. Being fully exposed. I choose to expose a tender part of an unfinished song I am writing. Maybe it’s a poem. Maybe it’s a no-thing: I lost the floor, the practice, the map, and breathed anyway, answering the pull toward the brightest pearls. Knowing I am held. Alone to the bone. Breakthrough as a ray of light... I’m showing you this while the path isn’t there yet. Something is being born in its own time, and I don’t fully know its shape. I only know I have to step towards it anyway. Crisis as catalyst Many traditions know this terrain well. The initiate descends into the underworld. The seed splits open in dark soil before it reaches for the light. In some cultures, the healer’s own breakdown marks the beginning of the calling. Crisis was a threshold: dangerous, yes, and sacred too. In twenty-five years of clinical work I have sat with many people at that same threshold too, and still do to this day: Spiritual emergency. An unknown darkness. Grief too big to carry. A body that suddenly refuses. So so often I see the same thing: the crisis carries information. Invisible at first — It shows where life has grown too narrow to hold who we are becoming. That doesn’t make it gentle. A catalyst burns. It asks for safety, for support, and for people who don’t flinch when things fall apart. A few questions to sit with If you are in the middle of something right now, or remember a time you were, you might ask yourself:
There’s no need to answer them today. Let them keep you company for a while. A breaking can also be an opening. Walking this together This is the heart of my work, and of Chapter 5 of Wisdom of Psychosis: Crisis as Catalyst. On 3 and 4 November I’m teaching it live, in one 2.5-hour session where we tune into this descent and return. The same immersion offered twice so you can join from wherever you are:
We’ll explore how crisis can be catalyst together, with gentle movement and a regulation practice. Deep and interactive. Even if you didn't read the book, join! €49.
And if this letter touches something in you, just hit reply. I read and answer every message. And if you know someone who might need these words right now, feel free to pass this email on. Warmly, |
Terrapy | The Original Medicines
I write about mental health, psychosis, altered states, trauma, yoga therapy, nervous system regulation, philosophy, spirituality and the many ways people find their way back to themselves. My work lives at the meeting point of psychiatry, psychology, yoga, ancient wisdom traditions and what I call Original Medicines: the practices, relationships, rhythms and ways of knowing that reconnect us with body, community, nature and meaning. After more than 25 years working in mental health as a psychiatric nurse, therapist and yoga therapist, I’m especially interested in what becomes possible when we widen the conversation beyond diagnosis and symptom reduction — without losing discernment, safety or good clinical care. Through Terrapy, I work with individuals and groups and teach healthcare professionals, therapists and others who care. I also share reflections from my books, research, conversations, trainings and the questions I’m currently exploring.If you’re curious about a broader, more humane and integrative approach to mental health and healing, you’re very welcome!
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