Discover + Heal + Grow is the show where a working trauma practice thinks out loud. Joel Blackstock talks with the developers and trainers of the therapies Taproot practices, with his own clinicians about what they see in the room, and with historians and scholars about how American psychology got here. It's for clients who want to understand their treatment, clinicians who want to go deeper than a weekend training, and anyone who suspects the story of psychology is stranger than the textbook.
Episodes worth starting with
The Science Behind the Light: Dr. Steven Vazquez on Inventing Emotional Transformation Therapy
The developer of ETT on how light and color reach the brain's emotional centers, why he built the method, and where the evidence stands.
Therapy Round Table: Lifespan Integration
Joel with Taproot's Lifespan Integration therapists on how the timeline protocol heals complex trauma and attachment wounds.
Part 8: A Psycho-History of American Psychology
Schwartz, Levine, Porges, van der Kolk and Grand: how the somatic and parts-based turn happened.
Jung, the collective unconscious and what American psychology did with it.
Part 3: What Is BPD as a Diagnosis, and How Did It Get Here?
The history of the borderline diagnosis and what DBT was built to do about it.
Collide-A-Scope: How the Internet Is Fusing Our Brains and Changing Therapy, Culture and Politics
Parts, multiplicity and attention in a fused culture.
The Mirror World: Ghosts and Simulacra
Hillman, the daimon and meaning in a simulated age.
Subcortical processing, Brainspotting and EMDR in practice.
A Psycho-History of American Psychology
The show's nine-part series follows the field from Freud's American landing through behaviorism, the cognitive turn, Jung's uneasy reception, the borderline diagnosis, and the somatic and parts-based revolution of Levine, Porges, van der Kolk, Schwartz and Grand, which is the tradition every treatment at Taproot comes from. Parts 3, 5 and 8 are above; the rest are on Podbean and Apple Podcasts.
Guests who built the methods
Dr. Steven Vazquez, who developed Emotional Transformation Therapy, on inventing it. ETT trainer MJ Denis, on the science behind the skepticism. Taproot's own Lifespan Integration therapists, round-table. PYNK Beard on Brainspotting. Joel has also appeared as a guest elsewhere, including an episode on mystical experiences in therapy.
For clients, clinicians and press
Clients: if a method on this site interests you, there's usually an episode explaining it in more depth than a page can; each episode card above links to the treatment it goes with. Clinicians: the interviews with developers and trainers are a way to hear a method from its source before you spend money on training. Press and podcast hosts: Joel is available for interviews on trauma treatment, somatic and brain-based therapy, ETT, religious trauma and the history of psychology; recent coverage includes Shoutout Atlanta, Bold Journey and CanvasRebel. Contact (205) 598-6471 or the contact page.
Where to listen
Heard something that fits?
The methods on the show are the methods in the office and by video across Alabama. A free 15-minute intake call matches you with the right clinician.
Book onlineCall (205) 598-6471