Welcome to the Madden America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.

Hello, my name is Robert Whitaker, and today I have the great pleasure of speaking with Beatrice

Birch.

She is the founder and director of Inner Fire, a residential program in rural Vermont, which for me is unique in one particular way. It provides support for taping from medications,

including antipsychotics, which is an essential aspect of the therapy. Welcome Beatrice

to Matt and America Radio. Thank you very much, Robert. Well, let's aspect of the therapy. Welcome Beatrice to Madden America Radio.

Thank you very much, Robert.

Well, let's start at the beginning.

You've been doing this for 10 years, which is quite an accomplishment.

But tell us, why did you start Inner Fire?

What was your experience that led you to want to start what I think we can call a very unique program?

Thank you.

Well, to be totally honest, I had no idea I was going to be doing something like this.

But for about 35, 40 years, I've been working as a Hauska artistic therapist in Europe.

And I was working out of rehab in the United States upon my return.

And a number of the residents realized that I was not really from the system, how I met them.

And so they developed a trust in me.

And after about three years of working there, a number of them unbeknownst to each other, which I find very

curious, but they all came into the artistic therapy space and one at a time looked me straight

in the eyes and said, I hate being medicated. Is there a choice? In the places where I work,

the clinics I worked in Europe, we never medicated anybody.

And I could see the difference.

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