Mental Health Options: Search Archives at IMHU.org

Happiness: What Causes It?

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Emma Bragdon

Happiness Research: One Big Finding Decades of wellness studies have identified a formula for happiness What is the central activity that promotes happiness? A century of research gives us the answer: Connection to others. That includes having a conversation with a stranger, e.g. on a train; but more importantly, maintaining close, trusting ties with

Posted in Mental Health, Relationship happiness, Harvard, psychotherapy, research, Waldinger

Reasons to Value Spiritual Experiences in Mental Health

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Emma Bragdon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ZL-axoqKU Expert Summary: How Spiritual Experiences Fit into Mental Health May 17, 2025. Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD, gives his hourlong acceptance speech for the Oskar Pfister Award at the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Conference. Dr. M-A is a prolific researcher, who has also written many published articles and books on the subject of spirituality,

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergence Alexander Moreira Almeida, APA, brain, Brazil, consciousness, life after death, mediumship, mental health, NDE, near death experience, Oskar Pfister Aware, psychosis, reincarnation, spiritual emergency, spiritual experience

Supporting Spiritual Crisis in Veterans

Posted on March 4, 2025 by Emma Bragdon 3 Comments

Monday, March 17, 2025 9am to 5pm ET (New York City Time) FREE–Attend live or virtually Info/Registration: https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/veteran_wellbeing_resilience Veterans, active service men and women, and first responders are often faced with moral distress when they experience something which conflicts with their morals or ethics. For example, someone in the infantry is ordered to kill a

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergency DSM, Harvard, human flourishing, moral distress, moral injury, moral problem, suicide, veterans

Choosing Evolution

Posted on December 10, 2024 by Emma Bragdon 6 Comments

Choosing Evolution Paul Levy is an author, creator, long-term meditator, and consultant. About 40 years ago he underwent a dramatic spiritual crisis, during which he was taken to be mentally ill and hospitalized. He has since gleaned a deep understanding of spiritual awakening, its twists and turns, and supports individuals in this process through

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergency awakening, compassion, creativity, Emma Bragdon, evolution, meditation, Paul Levy, spiritual crisis, spiritual emergency

Support for Spiritual Crisis-A 3-Hour Workshop

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Emma Bragdon

This short video describes who can benefit from the workshop. Saturday, November 30, 2024 11am-2pm ET, 8-11am PT in USA 4-7pm in UK, 5-8pm in EU Support for Spiritual Crisis- 3-Hour Workshop Learn Evidence-based Methods to Assist Those Disoriented or Distressed by Spiritual Experiences in Their Awakening Improve your abilities to recognize

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Crisis

Interview with Phil Borges

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Emma Bragdon

Phil Borges and Emma Bragdon in Conversation On October 28, 2024, I interviewed Phil Borges. He is the co-producer of Crazywise, a documentary film depicting Spiritual Emergency through the real life stories of two individuals. The film also includes short dialogues with spiritual teachers and psychotherapists who offer their perspectives that Spiritual Emergency is

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergency Emma Bragdon, Phil Borges, psychosis, shamanism, Shamans, spiritual emergence, spiritual emergency, stan grof

Francis Lu, Psychiatrist: Adding Spirit to Psychiatry

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Emma Bragdon

Francis Lu, Psychiatrist: On Recognizing Spiritual Issues in Psychiatry An essay Francis Lu wrote with two scolleagues to the APA’s editorial board for the DSM-IV was instrumental in creating the first category in the DSM, called Spiritual or Religious Problem. This category is not a name for a pathology–instead it simply names issues that

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergence APA, cultural psychiatry, DSM, Emma Bragdon, Francis Lu, religious problem, Spiritual problem

Let’s End Public Health Agency Corruption

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Emma Bragdon

Mary Holland Corruption in Public Health Agencies Robert Redfield, MD, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2018 to 2021, has recently called for the end of public health agency corruption and the end of the childhood chronic disease epidemic. Where? In a recent Newsweek op-ed. Redfield writes: “Pesticides are proven risk

Posted in Mental Health big pharma, CDC, corruption, Mary Holland, newsweek, pesticides, public health, robert redfield

Another SELF

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Emma Bragdon

AnotherSelf AnotherSelf is a series of one hour shorts in 8 Episodes/ 2 seasons which has made a big hit internationally. It was just released in late July, 2024 in the USA via Netflix. The 1st season has 8 one-hour long episodes. Its appeal?: 91% of google users like it. Although it has a

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergence another self, anotherself, constellation, expand consciousness, netflix

Emergence Phenomena: Defined and Discussed

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Emma Bragdon 1 Comment

Emergence Phenomena: Opening the Dialogue The experiences individuals have as a result of “spiritual emergence” are many and simple categories often miss the subtle differences that are important to acknowledge. Especially if someone is a clinician and needing to make an assessment, i.e. if a client/patient is in a process of spiritual emergence or not.

Posted in Mental Health, Spiritual Emergence, Uncategorized anomalous experiences, Daniel Ingram, emergence, emergency, emergent phenomena, Frontiers in Psychology, meditation, non-ordinary, Oliver Sandilands, phenomenology, psychedelics, stan grof