This Music, Creativity & Mental Health podcast is with Jake Isaac, who is a Manchester-based, multi-instrumentalist with a distinctive style as a singer-songwriter fusing soul, jazz and rock. He’s had a stellar career having worked with and supported a diverse range of artists from Sting, India Arie, Ella Eyre, Paloma Faith, Lake Street Dive, Joan As Police Woman, Angus and Julia Stone, Tori Kelly and Elton John. This was a really stimulating discussion and you’ll see what a delightful, gentle and thoughtful man Jake is. Themes in this conversation included: the central role of one’s ‘internal antenna’ or intuition in the creative process; how Jake’s managed a happy medium in terms of family and wellbeing, not compromising his music and learning how to be content with what he has; his advice to musicians to be true to their creative identity, not just to copy others; the spiritual and sacred aspects of music; the role of highs and lows, including suffering in making art authentic and relevant; the centrality of the African philosophy of Ubuntu or ‘I am because we are’ in Jake’s whole approach; and his advice to young artists to both diversify and to get enough rest to sustain and stimulate creativity. It was a wonderfully diverse and well-humoured conversation, and I hope you love it too.

The Sharon Niv podcast on psycholytic ketamine therapy stimulated a deep andvibrant roundtable discussion. We began by exploringg state-dependnet memory - highlighting the fully embodied (cogntiive, motivational, emotional, physiological) nature of memory and the consequent link to somatic-based therapies. We briefly discussed the positive implications of an adffordable and readily available means of accelerating psychological growth. We then dug deep on neuroplasticity (the way the brain restuctures itself to instantiate change). This appears to be the primary action of ketamine, and paired with intentional activity (therapy, journaling, intriospection), this creates very promising outcomes with psycholytic ketamine dosing. We then went broader into the notion of habits and 'loops' being more amenable to intentional change, extending the efficacy beyond therapy to more everyday challenges. Finally, we discussed the centrality of receptivity and openneess in providing the user with a sense of agency and psychological safety.

Dr Sharon Niv, is the cofounder of Joyous, a platform for providing Psycholytic, or very low dose, Ketamine Therapy. The promise here is an affordable, effective mode of treatment that is effective and possible at scale. Sharon takes us through what a psycholytic dose is; how ketamine at this level affects people; the neuroplastic action of ketamine and how this is integrated into therapeutic practice; the safety of the protocol; and details of the actual process. Central to this discussion is memory reconsolidation to resolve trauma and other debilitating psychological patterns that repeat on a kind of psychic loop. In essence, it appears that repeated doses in conjunction with intentional inquiry and/or therapeutic assistance helps separate the memory part of trauma or habitual distress from the full-brain-activated dysregulation that generates a whole system of distress: somatic, episodic memory, nervous system activation, emotional memory processing, and narrative stories. It was a delightful and stimulating discussion.

This was an insightful and inspiring conversation with TJ Dumser from 6 Missing. He’s an ambient artist, award winning sound designer, mixer and composer based in Austen Texas. Themes in this conversation included: how music really helped TJ overcome his addictions, anxiety and depression; how creating ambient music provides a platform for listeners to feel their emotions and to practice a form of mindfulness; the double-edged nature of social media, which can both connect people and make them feel more alone; the therapeutic value of sharing experiences; how quitting alcohol, exercising and changing his eating habits significantly improved his well-being; and the importance of gratitude in dealing with anxiety and negativity. I took a lot from this conversation and I hope you do as well.

The Dr Henry Venter podcast led to a spirited and thoughtful roundtable discussion. Topics included: how do leaders in workplaces 'show up' for young workers who are fully remote? How do we help them with person-to-person connection?; Expanding the conversation beyond the (terrible) impacts on youth ,but also on older folk; thevery real problem of future jobs and vocational assistance to youth; how implementing some 'old-fashioned, in-real-flesh, social life is part of the solution to digitally-induced loneliness.

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My guest on the podcast is Dr. Henry Venter. Henry is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology. He is currently the Program Director for the Master of Arts Human Behavioral Psychology Program and Professor of Psychology at National University. Dr. Venter’s research focuses on the rising mental health issues among young adults, including the increasing rates of loneliness, and the role that declining meaning and purpose has in undermining happiness and fulfillment in life. By current estimates, up to 25% of young people in the USA are suffering from loneliness, a lack of purpose and meaning accompanied by a type of general resignation and withdrawal into a digitally mediated world. Today’s podcast focussed on the nature of this loneliness, its causes and impacts – especially social media and excessive online life, and how modern life is creating the conditions for social disconnection, disengagement and lowered wellbeing - especially for youth. Henry suggests what needs to be done, specifically that young people seek therapy, coaching or mentoring to help them and to do this proactively before they may become unwell. He urges any type of exercise, playing sport or just ‘moving’ - engaging in activities outside the home. He also emphasises the importance of interacting with real people in real life situations, especially sharing common interests in clubs or shared pursuits. He is a voice of calm reasoned optimism and practicality in the face of great need.

The first topic in this roundtable on the Portair podcast was self-concern versus egolessness and that learning to co-exist with self-doubt creatively leads to more authentic experience. We also discussed how: self-concern Is typically not very objective; metaphorical and symbolic levels of significance in works and art entrain vast networks of significance and meaning beyond our conscious grasp; the ‘listener’ co-creates the artwork and that ‘the song you (the artist) like the least will be more most popular song’; the artist is like a conduit for life experience and how experiences ‘write us’; how crippling self-doubt and lack of confidence can be to someone’s talent; and how creative process and evolution act as an analogue for each other: just try and do and some of it will catch fire and that creativity is about ‘finding the diamond in the rough’.

This is a roundtable discussing my podcast with Dr David Clarke on the promise of neuroplastic symptom therapy for chronic pain and ilness. Neuroplastic symptoms are those that are generated by the brain. Topics discuss included: whether people could self-treat if they understand the theory and practice of the approach; the disctinction was drawn between neuroplastic symptoms following organic issues or damage, versus those following psychological trauma ; there was vibrant discussion about neuroplastic treatment bringing hope and relief to millions who either can't find traditional medical treatments, or for whom those treatments are ineffective; the scale of the issue was higlighted with millions of people in the USA alone affeccted by neuroplastic symptoms; discussion of transcending mind-body dualism; the issue of being 'ready' for such an approach and that a subset of peolpe would likely resist the implication that it is 'all in your head'; the importance of mediacl practictioners having this understanding to complement their practice.