A Conversation about Group Therapy

In December I was interviewed by Lisa Godfrey, an audio documentarian with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for a CBC Ideas podcast episode on group therapy, both the history and the practice of it. While doing research for the episode, she’d come across my essay “How AA Helped Me Recover from a Mental Breakdown—Even Though I’m Not an Alcoholic” (The Temper, February 2020). The essay was about how and why I’d found 12-step groups more useful than traditional group therapy in the aftermath of my breakdown.

I’m not used to being the one interviewed. It’s odd to listen to a recording and suddenly become very aware of my speech patterns. Fortunately being interviewed or public speaking does not play a large part in my work.

I’d add a link to my essay, but unfortunately The Temper has ceased to exist, and as a result my essay as published has also vanished, leaving only a 404 trace. This really should serve as a lesson to me to export all my published works as PDFs.

Note: A couple of months after the podcast aired, there was a surge of visitors to my website. Most of the IP addresses were California ones, Los Angeles specifically, but Lisa said the CBC doesn’t have an LA affiliate that she knows of. I’m curious whether the surge was connected to the podcast or something else entirely. Let me know via the contact form!