ReThreading Madness cover art

ReThreading Madness

ReThreading Madness

By: Bernadine Fox
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About this listen

 Bernadine Fox brings a rare and powerful combination of lived experience, long-term disability rights advocacy, and creative insight to her role as host and producer of ReThreading Madness, the award-winning radio show and podcast that dares to shift how we think about mental health.

A recipient of the 2022 Courage to Come Back Award, Bernadine is a white settler of Scottish, Irish, and French heritage with a familial connection to the Tsuut'ina nation. She has spent over 30 years advocating for those with lived experience of mental health challenges including survivors of trauma and therapy harm. She is an intersectional feminist, artist, and author of Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist—a memoir that confronts the devastating misuse of power in therapeutic relationships.

Bernadine is not a clinician, but she is a deeply informed mental health advocate with firsthand knowledge of trauma, CPTSD, and disability. Her background includes decades of work as a support worker for survivors of severe childhood trauma, a trauma consultant, and public speaker. She has led expressive arts groups in collaboration with Richmond Mental Health and Gallery Gachet, where she also served on the board and helped publish The Ear magazine. She has served on the board of such organizations as Kickstart (Disability Arts and Culture) which focused on breaking down barriers to creative access for people with disabilities.

What sets Bernadine apart as a radio host is her unwavering commitment to telling the truth—even when it's uncomfortable. She doesn't shy away from difficult conversations; she invites them. With compassion and clarity, she brings forward voices that are often silenced, challenges harmful narratives, and explores the messy realities of mental health, trauma, and recovery.

ReThreading Madness is more than a show. Under Bernadine's guidance, it's a platform for unfiltered, survivor-centered dialogue—one that refuses to pathologize trauma and instead builds community through shared truth. RTM won the Breaking Barriers CRABO award through the NCRA.

Bernadine currently lives in the forest with two cats, raises her grandchild, and continues to create, speak, and advocate for a world where mental health care is ethical, accessible, and just.
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ReThreading Madness is produced and aired on the ancestral and unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We extend our gratitude and appreciation to the Indigenous people who have been living and working on this land from time immemorial.Bernadine Fox Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Exploring Transference with Amy Avalon

    Exploring Transference with Amy Avalon
    Jun 24 2025
    Exploring Transference with Amy Avalon

    Trigger Warning: discusses therapy abuse

    Bernadine sits down (virtually) with Amy Avalon, a retired psychotherapist and passionate advocate for survivors of sexual and emotional abuse by their therapists. Together, they traverse the issue of transference: What is it? How does it play out in our lives, and specifically in therapy? How can we work with it or use it to understand ourselves? When we are experiencing transference with our therapists, how do we talk about it and, most importantly, how should a therapist respond to those disclosures and what they should and should not do? Music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 hr
  • Outsiders and Others with Redrum Sticker Artist

    Outsiders and Others with Redrum Sticker Artist
    Jun 12 2025
    Art at Outsiders and Others with Redrum the Sticker Artist

    “Outsiders and Others is a non-profit art Society with a focus on bringing non-traditional artists to the forefront. Their artists identify as outsider, folk, self-taught, visionary, intuitive, and artists with disabilities.” Outsiders and Others defines outsider art as the work of those who have no formal training, create art for themselves to record their life experiences or document historical events (not necessarily for an audience), and use non-traditional materials (like found objects). In May, Mental Health Awareness month, Outsiders and Others presented Brain Child featuring artworks from Caro Embling, REDRUM, and Gabriel Ostapchuk. We had the opportunity to speak with Yuri Ajars. Artistic Director and Curator, about this exhibit and the gallery. We also chatted with Redrum, the sticker artist (@redrum_ays_crew). Redrum describes the different neurodiverse and disability issues he copes with daily but also how important art has been to his process specifically in inspiration around images and topic. You can find Outsiders and Others In Vancouver and at

    https://www.outsidersandothers.com/

    Music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 hr
  • Off the Map and its Writers

    Off the Map and its Writers
    Jun 11 2025
    Off the Map with writers Angela J. Gray, Venge Dixon, Mary O’Toole with music by Ren

    Trigger Warning: Song by Ren Gill includes foul language

    May 1st 2025 saw the release of Off the Map an anthology of prose and poetry that has to do with mental health. ReThreading Madness had privilege of speaking to 3 of the writers included in this publication. Venge Dixon is a nonbinary lesbian who writes, creates art (and comic books) and make music. She wraps a heart-warming story about a very difficult time in her life around a cat named Linus who showed up and put a wrench in her plan’s to die. Angela J. Gray is an emerging black writer who writes about the “impact of colonization on children of African/Caribbean Diaspora who were adopted into white homes” in what, in her case, looks just like 60s Scoop. Mary Phyllis O’Toole says “ she writes, not only for emotional catharsis, but to shine a light on schizophrenia.” All of them share a portion of their writing with us during this hour. In addition, we have included a song entitled “Hi Ren” by Ren Gill, a musician from the UK who used music to have a conversation with himself about his current state of mental health and in, so doing, gives us an incredible inside view of what his world is like while leaving us all inspired and hopeful.

    Music by Shari Ulrich & Ren Gill
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    1 hr

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