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.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.Bernadine Fox Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Fifty Years After I Fled: Rural Alberta is Still Failing to Protect Its Children

    Fifty Years After I Fled: Rural Alberta is Still Failing to Protect Its Children
    Dec 14 2025
    Fifty Years After I Fled: Rural Alberta is Still Failing to Protect Its Children

    In this extraordinary solo episode of ReThreading Madness, host Bernadine Fox steps out from behind the mic to share one of the most personal stories she has ever told on air. Fifty years ago, as a 16-yr old teenager in rural southern Alberta, Bernadine ran away to save her life. She was growing up in a small farming community shaped by isolation, silence, and deeply entrenched cultural norms that left children vulnerable and without protection. In this monologue, she reflects on what it meant to grow up in a landscape where for some danger was ever-present and help was miles away. Now, half a century later, a family estate process brought her back into the systems she had escaped. What unfolded in that rural courtroom echoed patterns she remembered from childhood — disbelief, minimization, and narratives that made her feel unseen. She describes these events from her own lived perspective, exploring how trauma, geography, and culture intersect in ways that continue to leave rural women and children behind. Bernadine also speaks to the broader crisis: in many rural areas, sexual and domestic violence rates remain significantly higher than in cities, and lifesaving services remain out of reach. Silence, she argues, protects the status quo — not children. This is not a story about blame. It is a story about systems, intergenerational harm, and what happens when progress bypasses entire small pockets of the country. It is also a story of reclamation. Bernadine shares her decades of work as a mental-health advocate, writer, disability-rights activist, artist, and host of this very program, reminding listeners that none of us are not defined by what was done to us, but by the life we build in its aftermath. Raw, poetic, and fiercely courageous, this episode challenges us to reconsider what safety means, who receives it, and who is left behind. A necessary listen for anyone concerned with trauma-informed justice, rural equity, or the ways silence travels across generations — and what it takes to break it.

    The episode is rounded off with a re-air of an interview with Jamie Smallboy and Alli Geisbrecht (Gees Brecht) here to talk about a piece of art that was exhibited at Gachet’s Oppenheimer Annual show that addresses issue of MMIWG2S – which stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2 Spirit people. Jame is Cree and single mother of five from Maskwachees, Alberta. She is a full-time student at Langara and te founder of the Red Ribbon Skirt Project for the families of our MMIWG2S. Ally is a child of immigrants from Hong Kong who reside in Vancouver / Chinatown. She is an activist, person of colour, mental health occupational therapist, and a resident of Vancouver’s DTES. The piece of artwork these two collaborated on combines photographic images by Ally and with poetry by Jamie. Jamie shares this poem with us on this episode.

    music by Shari Ulrich and Good Vibes Tribe

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    1 hr
  • Kevin Jesuino Reveals the Magic of Theatre Terrific and Richard Lett Let’s Us in on what Makes Magic for Him

    Kevin Jesuino Reveals the Magic of Theatre Terrific and Richard Lett Let’s Us in on what Makes Magic for Him
    Oct 24 2025
    Kevin Jesuino Reveals the Magic of Theatre Terrific and Richard Lett Let’s Us in on what Makes Magic for Him.

    Kevin Jesuino is a first-generation Portuguese settler, performance-maker, director, choreographer, artist educator, and community arts organizer. He is a passionate advocate for the arts and a firm believer that everyone should have access to both creating and experiencing art and culture. Kevin is continually working to make the arts more inclusive and accessible for all. On his website, he writes: “Since 2004, my artistic practice has been driven by a radical interdisciplinary integration of performance, socially engaged art, and digital media. I create work—including performance, video art, temporary public artworks, and participatory installations—that is fundamentally rooted in the belief that art serves as a catalyst for collective emancipation. My central focus is to establish co-creative spaces that facilitate an embodied exchange of care and dialogue among participants. Through experiential processes, I explore urgent themes such as accessibility, unseen histories, gender and sexuality, and urbanism across both public and private domains.”

    In this lively and insightful conversation with Bernadine Fox, Kevin delves into the meaning and purpose of art—its impact on individuals and communities alike—and shares his deep connection to Theatre Terrific, a vital arts organization in Vancouver, BC. Theatre Terrific pioneers inclusive opportunities for artists of all abilities to develop performance skills and collaborate on original theatrical productions. Its work challenges audiences to confront their assumptions and be moved by thought-provoking, boundary-pushing art. Every class, workshop, and production brings together a diverse mix of people—across physical, developmental, mental health, and neurodiverse spectrums, alongside practicing actors—who are collectively exploring inclusive approaches to theatre-making.

    Most recently, Theatre Terrific presented their newest work, Dance Floors Memoirs, at the Vancouver Fringe Festival—continuing their legacy of inclusive, community-rooted performance.

    Music by Shari Ulrich and Leela Gildray

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
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    1 hr
  • In Memoriam of JD Derbyshire, comedian, theatre-maker, innovator.

    In Memoriam of JD Derbyshire, comedian, theatre-maker, innovator.
    Oct 7 2025
    In Memoriam of the incredible JD Derbyshire, writer, comedian, mad activist, performer, playwright, theatre maker, director, inclusive educator and innovator.

    Tonight on ReThreading Madness we re-air JD Derbyshire talking with Bernadine about being mad and the need for individuals who live with mental health challenges to have agency in their lives and to consider coming out. And laughing - we laughed a lot. But one always did in the company of JD.

    “I don’t think we know much about the human brain and mental illness. The more I talk to other people; it seems like we all have are individual experiences with our moods and our thinking. Medication may be a part of that but we need to empower people to become aware of their emotional lives and thinking styles. Like this idea; Maybe it is possible to learn how you think and feel and know your limits and what happens when you get triggered and to still live a life taking calculated risks.”

    “There are just so many negative representations of people with mental illness in theatre and film and television, often written and performed by people who haven’t experienced mental illness. And these characters are almost always twisted or broken… In my experience and with a lot of MAD people I know, it is not like that at all. “ from Auburn Lane



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    1 hr
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