If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group, or if you've had an experience with manipulation or abuse of power, you'd like to share, shoot us an email at TrustMePod at gmail.com.

If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to TrustMe, the podcast about cult, extreme belief, and the abuse of power from two narrators who actually experienced it, I'm Lola Blonk, and I'm Megan Elizabeth.

And today, for the final portion of our rethinking trauma series, throughout the month of May, we've enjoyed this so much, our guest is Lucy Johnstone, she's a consultant, clinical psychologist in the UK, and one of the authors of the Power Threat Meaning Framework.

We're going to discuss this psychological framework she helped develop with the intention of completely reconceiving how we think of mental illness.

She'll talk to us about why diagnostic manuals are flawed, their position that labels of mental disorders are inherently problematic and how power, specifically ideological power, factors in.

We'll talk about how so-called mental illnesses are adaptive, the importance of creating your narrative, and the questions we can ask without the help of a therapist.

Plus, bonus!

None other than my mother, Dr. Christine Marie, joins us for the outro, something a little different today, discussing her own research on personal narrative, how to construct your own life story, and how our own narratives about ourselves have changed over the years.

Lots of stories stuff today, guys, lots of narrative stuff.

Yeah, it's kind of crucial.

So just to give some context for this episode, for this interview, so the Power Threat Meaning Framework is very specific framework, they have a very particular approach, and I think there's a lot that's really valuable about it.

However, as with all things, take it with the grain of salt, my personal take on this kind of thing is that we just have a lot more research and a lot more to learn about neuroscience, about mental illness, about, um, God forbid, I call it that, but about the things that we experience in our minds, in our bodies,

this is just one way of looking at things, and medication can be great, medication can be so useful.

I am on some medication that is so necessary, especially in extreme cases, so if this doesn't resonate with you, that's totally okay.

We're just trying to offer some different perspectives here.

If something feels disempowering and still empowering, then don't use it, but I think for a lot of people realizing how much affect what's happened to them has on their life is very valuable.

So why not?

Exactly, and we'll talk about this more in the episode, but we're all creating stories about ourselves no matter what, and to be able to take the power of that process back into your hands and really explore that, I think is something that can be really powerful.

As we've learned throughout this month, yeah, truly.

Before we dive into narrative, um, story, and all of these things, the hero's journey, whatever the fuck, Megan, I'd like to know what your cultiest thing this week is.

Sure, I mean, it's been kind of a heavy week, so I'm just going to go with something a little bit lighter that I've seen in the news.

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