Today the tables are turned. Hayley Musgreave came on the show a few months back, and the second we stopped recording she said she wanted to interview me. So this one's a takeover. She's running the show and I'm in the guest seat.

We go into my mental health story, which I call rounds instead of episodes (a nod to my boxing days), because every one of them felt like stepping into the ring. Round one hit in 2012 and took my job, my apartment, my education and my freedom with it. Round two came in late 2016 with a house and a mortgage on the line. In between: hospitalizations, diagnoses, medication, and a voice that showed up one morning in the shower and asked me to listen.

We talk about what actually moved the needle, which wasn't what I expected. It started with my dad telling me to do whatever I needed to do to keep the house, leading to my neighbour renting my basement, which revealed the thing I'd been missing entirely: I was alone all the time. Everything else came after that. Diet, walking, sunlight, sleep, magnesium, and eventually coming off medication in 2021.

Hayley asks about spirituality and we go all the way there.

Synchronicities, God, an Akashic reading about a girl in room 402, and a dream eight months later. We also talk about my husband Joel, the box of wedding letters we've had sealed for five years and are about to open, Karl our beloved cat, my twelve month painting project, and the teacher I'm still looking for.

The heart of this episode is a story my old supervision teacher told about a little boy who rocked on the couch, and the caregiver who sat down and rocked at his pace before slowly changing it. That's the whole thing. If someone you love is in it, don't try to pull them out. Get in there and rock with them first.

Thank you, Hayley, for flipping the tables. This was a healing conversation.

Connect with Hayley:

Instagram: @thehayleydawn

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Today I'm chatting with Kevin McNee, a men's coach and mentor, and lead author of The Sovereign Man (Sovereign Acres Publishing)

Kevin and I get into what it means to take off the armour and let yourself be fully seen, and why that vulnerability is a form of strength rather than the opposite of it. He shares the 2013 turning point that cracked his life open, his faith journey from rejecting religion to reading the Bible and attending church, and the "God-sized hole" he sees so many men carrying. Kevin also gets honest about self-worth, cheating, and what he learned about the power of monogamy, plus his long distance relationship with Alana and his Men for More coaching work.

At the heart of this episode: when a man drops the walls and lets himself be seen, he gives everyone around him permission to do the same.

Purchase The Sovereign Man

Connect with Kevin:
Instagram: @the_kevin_mcnee
Website: www.menformore.com

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dee_ogsoul/

Website: https://www.ogsoul.ca/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:57 The Journey of Writing and Publishing

06:07 Vulnerability and Authenticity in Men

09:00 The Importance of Male Voices

11:53 Personal Growth and Healing Journeys

15:03 Faith and Spirituality Exploration

18:05 The Impact of Energy Healing

21:01 Noticing Signs and Synchronicities

23:58 The Ripple Effect of Personal Change

27:29 Expanding Perspectives on Belief Systems

30:31 Navigating Personal Faith Journeys

33:49 The Search for Meaning Beyond Religion

36:36 Vulnerability and Shame in Religious Contexts

38:25 The Misnomer of New Age Practices

41:45 Authenticity in Sharing Personal Truths

44:32 The Power of Vulnerability in Relationships

51:12 Deepening Intimacy in Monogamous Relationships

52:31 The Hot Stove Experience: Learning Through Pain

53:55 Honesty in Relationships: The Weight of Cheating

56:01 The Beauty of Healthy Long-Term Relationships

58:29 Navigating Long-Distance Love

01:01:06 Finding Joy in Relationship Challenges

01:11:18 Men's Coaching: Creating Safe Spaces for Growth

Today I'm chatting with Erin Leonty, founder and CEO of Leonty Consulting and the creator of Power to Care.

Erin spent 25 years in corporate leadership associating power with authority and command and control. Then a coach asked her where she felt power in her body, and she had no answer. What she built from that question is a leadership program grounded in neuroscience, one that treats care as a capability.

We get into what the program actually does. Why leaders grip for control when they feel none internally, what happens in the body under pressure, and how noticing and naming a felt sense starts to shift things. Erin really breaks it down in this conversation: notice the tension, name it, decide what to do with it. She's now taking this into boardrooms and to shareholders, making the case that command and control leadership is undermining business results, and she has the research to back it.

Leonty Consulting has been around for 10 years, but Erin talks about why she built Power to Care as a clear container after years of consulting.

Erin has a Power to Care session coming up this fall on September 10, offered virtually.

SPECIAL OFFER:

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Connect with Erin:
Website: erinleonty.com
LinkedIn: 💡Erin Leonty | LinkedIn
Power to Care: Power to Care

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Erin Leonti and Her Vision

01:57 The Power to Care Methodology and Its Impact

02:08 Introduction and Background

04:16 The Concept of Power to Care

06:49 Erin's Corporate Journey

09:38 Transitioning from Corporate to Consulting

12:37 The Birth of Power to Care

15:15 Practical Applications of Power to Care

17:56 Navigating Leadership Challenges

20:56 The Science Behind Leadership and Care

23:42 Building a Culture of Care

26:32 The Future of Leadership and Connection

33:56 Compassionate Curiosity in Leadership

37:32 Navigating Fear and Compassion

40:30 Transformational Inner Conversations

42:28 Communicating Boundaries Effectively

47:06 Self-Reflection and Personal Growth

51:38 The Impact of Internal Chaos on Leadership

57:24 Understanding Manipulation and Authenticity

01:01:54 The Joy of Self-Discovery and Connection

Today I'm chatting with Shannon Sauer, a fellow co-author in Reclaiming Mental Health and someone who spent close to two decades navigating what gets called anxiety before she found her way back to herself.

Shannon and I get into her chapter and the long arc that shaped it. She talks about being a sensitive, intuitive kid who felt most at home in nature, and how that connection faded as the world took over with jobs, motherhood, and the pressure to always be doing more. We talk honestly about the pharmaceutical road she went down, starting with antidepressants prescribed during postpartum while her father was dying, and the hard reality of how difficult those medications can be to come off of. She shares what brain zaps actually feel like, the years it took to finally grieve, and the experience in 2018 that got labeled a breakdown but felt much more like a spiritual awakening she didn't have language for yet.

A big part of our conversation lives in the gap between Western medical labels and lived spiritual experience, and how the two don't always fit. Shannon opens up about her plant medicine journey, how ayahuasca became a catalyst after years of inner work had already prepared the ground, and what it's meant to come off her medications and actually feel joy again. We also talk about the quieter numbing habits that are easy to miss, the importance of who you sit with if you ever explore this path, and the farm in Costa Rica she and her husband just bought.

Connect with Shannon:
Instagram: shansauer
Reclaiming Mental Health: https://a.co/d/06r2cm9D
Costa Rica wellness center: lamatriztica

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:56 Childhood Connection to Nature

05:59 Mental Health Journey and Plant Medicine

08:57 Anxiety and Self-Criticism

11:59 Pharmaceuticals and Their Impact

15:02 Spiritual Awakening and Healing

18:07 Navigating Quetiapine and Its Effects

21:00 Understanding Spiritual Awakening

23:55 Holistic Approaches and New Perspectives

29:19 The Intersection of Mental Health and Spirituality

31:59 Understanding Dissonance and Alignment

34:38 Awakening to Clarity and Intuition

40:06 Exploring Plant Medicine Journeys

46:58 Connecting with Nature and the Self

49:26 Exploring the Nature of God and Spirituality

52:51 Technology, Nature, and Spiritual Connection

55:05 Plant Medicine Journeys and Personal Growth

01:01:13 The Importance of Safe Plant Medicine Practices

01:02:37 Transformation Through Spiritual Awakening

Today I'm chatting with Jen Morin, a co-author in Reclaiming Mental Health and a contributor to Sovereign Volume 1, who now builds workbooks and affirmation decks to help people reprogram the patterns that keep them stuck.

Jen and I get into her mental health journey, the years inside the system, the medications that never fit, and the COVID crash that became a full reset. We talk about why she no longer accepts diagnoses as identity, how symptoms are really patterns, and what it takes to notice them, write them down, and slowly choose something different. We also dig into discernment, the power of writing by hand, and where hope actually comes from.

Connect with Jen:
Instagram: awake_anddreaming
Reclaiming Mental Health: https://a.co/d/02oVIius

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul
Website: ogsoul.ca

Today I'm chatting with Hayley Musgreave, who I first crossed paths with back in high school in Fort Saskatchewan and then reconnected with years later through a coaching program. She's a farmer in northern Alberta now, with cattle, mini donkeys, and a grain and hay operation, and she's been a steady light every time we connect. We share some similar threads in our mental health journeys, and that's a lot of what we get into here.

Hayley opens up about growing up feeling like the black sheep, the shame she carried as a kid, and the ADHD she only understood later. She shares about being diagnosed with bipolar in her 20s after a breakdown, the two episodes she went through, and what it was like to be handed a heavy load of medication and a sense that this was just how life was going to be, with no real light to look toward. We compare notes on what mania actually felt like from the inside, including the grandiose thinking and the racing mind, and we sit with how strangely real it all feels in the moment.

From there she talks about her Graves' disease diagnosis, how its symptoms mirrored mania, and the path she took to heal it through changing her diet, prayer, and a refusal to accept the outcome she'd been told to expect. We get into her faith and gratitude practice, the tools she leans on now like grounding, sleep, and music, and where she's landed today: not identifying as bipolar, but as someone who came through two breakdowns and kept going.

At the heart of this one is the reminder that you can walk through the fire and come out the other side. We share our stories so that the younger versions of ourselves, and anyone in the thick of it now, can see that there's hope to be had.

Connect with Hayley:

Instagram: @thehayleydawn

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Nerves

02:53 Journey into Farming and Mental Health

06:00 Childhood and Early Mental Health Struggles

12:00 Bipolar Diagnosis and Its Impact

18:00 Navigating Mania and Breakdown Experiences

24:05 Healing Journey and Personal Growth

29:56 Graves' Disease and Its Effects

30:30 Healing Through Diet and Faith

32:15 Managing Mental Health and Medication

33:45 Current Well-being and Self-Identification

34:51 The Role of Faith in Healing

35:10 Prayer and Gratitude Practices

39:41 The Power of Sleep and Mental Health

42:56 Marriage and Support Systems

45:43 Navigating Relationships and Personal Growth

50:48 Resilience and Grit in Life

52:06 Finding Peace in the Journey

55:30 Tools for Mental and Emotional Well-being

57:11 Mutual Admiration and Future Aspirations

Today I'm chatting with Shannon Skelton, a co-author alongside me in Reclaiming Mental Health. We'd never actually sat down and talked before this, so it was a first, and she turned out to be a light, joyful person to spend an hour with.

Shannon's chapter is called "A Walk Down Mania Lane," and it's about a manic episode brought on by a pharmaceutical. We get into the whole chain of events, what the mania was actually like, and the bigger questions it raised for both of us. I felt drawn to get curious with her here because of my own experiences with what's been called mania and psychosis, and there were some interesting parallels between our stories.

We talk about the manic episode that came from a medication, starting with a severe reaction to one drug and then a dose of prednisone that was too high, too fast. Shannon also shares about living with Crohn's disease since she was 16, being told more than once she would never have children, and going on to have two. We get into why she stopped taking a diagnosis at face value, including the seven years she spent being told it was Crohn's before her liver shut down, and we sit with the bigger questions around mental health labels, stigma, and the case for doctors asking what a patient's life actually looks like outside the office. She also talks about what she carried out the other side of all of it: more confidence, more willing to use her voice, and a habit of saying yes.

At the heart of this one is awareness. Shannon shares her story so that someone going through the same thing might recognize it sooner, and so that more of us start asking better questions about the medications we're put on.

Reclaiming Mental Health

Connect with Shannon:

@shannon_shining_through
@skeltoncrew

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

04:19 Personal Journey with Mental Health

07:14 The Impact of Pilates on Life

10:14 Exploring the Chapter: A Walk Down Mania Lane

13:15 The Experience with Hydroxychloroquine

16:24 The Prednisone Dilemma

19:22 Navigating Medication Reactions

24:23 Navigating the Unknown: Initial Reactions to Prednisone

25:23 Personality Changes: The Impact of Medication

26:50 Obsessions and Relationships: The Effects of Mania

28:01 Time Distortion: Losing Track of Reality

30:04 Bizarre Behavior: Chasing Strangers and Consequences

32:06 Recognizing the Problem: The Turning Point

34:09 Challenging Medical Assumptions: The Journey with Crohn's Disease

36:15 Manifesting Dreams: Overcoming Medical Limitations

38:56 Current Health: Managing Joint Issues and Hormonal Changes

42:32 Growth Through Adversity: Finding Confidence in Recovery

46:24 Exploring Boundaries and Connections

47:37 The Complexity of Mania and Mental Health

50:01 Finding Humor in Dark Times

51:07 The Journey of Healing and Forgiveness

52:35 Communication and Understanding in Family Dynamics

54:32 The Writing Process and Personal Reflection

56:31 The Impact of Medication on Mental Health

59:07 Advocacy and the Importance of Patient Voices

01:06:53 Hope and Change in the Healthcare System

Today I'm chatting with Anthony Goodwin, one half of the duo who taught me Improv 100 through Grindstone Theatre and someone whose work sits at the intersection of therapy and improv. Anthony is an Australian-born clinical counsellor and improv instructor. He's the founder of Still Listening, his private therapy practice.

We talk about the full-circle way improv and therapy ended up holding hands in Anthony's life. Anthony shares how the same tools he uses in the therapy room, presence, co-regulation, meeting the world as it is, are the same ones that come alive on the improv stage, and how that overlap led him to develop experimental improv therapy workshops where players give voice to someone else's stuckness. We get into the concept of aiming to be average and we touch on the broader truth that adults need spaces to play together, and how rare and necessary that has become.

Reference

The Grindstone Comedy

Improvise Freely by Patti Stiles

Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone

Connect with Anthony:

Relational Therapy with Anthony Goodwin

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Anthony Goodwin

02:55 Journey from Australia to Edmonton

06:09 The Intersection of Therapy and Improv

09:03 The Philosophy of Improv

11:56 The Role of Discomfort in Improv

15:02 Aiming for Average in Performance

18:05 Challenging Societal Norms

20:54 The Nature of Improv and Authenticity

24:07 Improv as Therapy

26:30 Creating Safe Spaces for Healing

28:08 Exploring Improv Therapy Frameworks

29:47 Navigating Vulnerability in Therapy

33:01 The Impact of Improv on Therapeutic Practices

35:57 Emerging Models of Therapy

39:54 The Need for Alternative Therapeutic Approaches

43:03 Integrating Body and Mind in Healing

50:02 The Joy of Play in Adult Life