It's time to reframe the 200-year-old blame game and stop holding yourself responsible for your pain and suffering. Let's place the blame where it truly belongs. 

In this course, I'll teach you to identify archetypal mental health villains that send a ripple of harm from the therapy office to the home, classroom, workplace, and even our own brain space. 
Just like the list of logical fallacies is something you can use to filter information, this list of 9 mental health villains is something you can use to spot systemic cultural myths when they pop up in any microculture. 

This is for cycle-breakers, cult survivors, and neurodivergent seekers who came to the system for help but got retraumatized. This is for professionals, educators, and parents, and anyone who wants to create spaces for unblaming and unshaming. 

I will be leading us through a top-down process of psychoeducation that gently invites you into a bottom-up process of transformation in your own space and time outside of the class. 

I will invite answers to specific questions instead of encouraging open discussion due to the sensitive nature of this topic. To protect against re-traumatization, we will not be sharing details about our trauma in this group.

6 weekly sessions. Live and asynchronous options. Lifetime access to recordings. Private group for questions between sessions. Sliding scale and scholarships available. 

When we see our brains and bodies as the problem, that story harms our psyche. No one's body feels safe with the idea that they are a broken person.

Self-blame for our suffering was learned first through trauma and abuse. As children, when bad things happened, we believed it was our fault. Children feel psychologically unable to blame the adults while they are still dependent on them.

The abuses of psychiatry and harms of the mental health system are responded to like a neglectful or abusive parent. We think it must be our fault because we feel dependent on this system that claims to have all the answers. 

But is this system interested in helping us or in a million other things?

What are the actual goals of the current mental health paradigm? and how can we update them for 2025? 

Rethinking western mental health frameworks is more than an intellectual exercise. It has been an essential part of my nervous system healing. 

Fixed beliefs and conditioned assumptions—especially those rooted in shame, pathology, or rigid ideas about "normalcy"—can keep our nervous systems in a state of chronic stress, tension, or dysregulation.

When we internalize harmful narratives about ourselves and the world, our bodies remain on high alert, bracing against these ideas. This can lead to chronic stress responses, making it difficult to access true rest, connection, or a sense of safety.

As we challenge internalized shame, release oppressive expectations, and embrace more compassionate perspectives, our bodies no longer have to operate in survival mode quite as often.

Releasing self-blame allows our nervous systems to shift toward greater ease and stability, deeper self-trust, and more relational safety, while placing blame where it truly belongs motivates us to work to build a better world.

Whether you’re navigating the mental health system as a neurodivergent person or working within it as a professional, this series is designed to help you identify harmful narratives, reclaim agency, and foster affirming ways of thinking about mental health. 

Since mental health is one of the most trending topics in public discourse, systemic assumptions from the mental health field impact almost every other aspect of society.

As you practice recognizing the 9 villains of mental health as they show up in the therapy office and in our minds, you will be able to start seeing them in many spheres of life. 

The 9 Villains of Mental Health

This is not an exhaustive list. You can learn about other mental health villains like racism and queerphobia from experts on those topics. These are the 9 we will focus on in this workshop series.

  • Weeks 1-2

    Individualism, Saviorism, Capitalism

  • Weeks 3-4

    Neuronormativity, Sanism, Behaviorism

  • Weeks 5-6

    Mind-body dualism, Materialism, Scientism

Who is this for?

This is anti-bias education. 

Students are likely to be helping professionals or neurodivergent people who want to understand their experiences with the mental health system. 

If you are interested in analyzing systemic assumptions in mental health with the goal of unlearning harmful conditioning in a group context with others who are doing the same, you're invited to join us. 

It is important that everyone who joins the course be interested in critiquing the system and dreaming new possibilities rather than defending the current mental health paradigm. 

You'll get the most from this experience if you already have some basic nervous system education, but there are no prerequisites for taking this course. 

Who is this not for?

- anyone who is actively in mental health crisis or extreme trauma. Topics in this group may feel uncomfortable before they feel helpful. 

- anyone looking for a replacement for interpersonal nervous system support. It's best if you have someone to coregulate or process with. 

- anyone who wants to use this space to retell trauma stories. For example, there is a vast difference between referencing the fact that school shootings happen and describing in detail the experience of a lock down drill. 

- anyone who thinks naming societal problems is divisive, unhealed, or unnecessary. If you don't like it when people name things like racism, homophobia, sexism, and cultural supremacy, you will not like this space.

- anyone who values psych manuals or professionals opinions over ND lived experience. The DSM is not in charge of our experience. 

- anyone who limits science to what can be peer-reviewed. We'll be talking about the human spirit, energy fields, extra-sensory perception and other things people might consider "woo."


Deconstructing Mental Health is a Lot like leaving a Cult. 
It's easier with company.


I am the only one of my immediate family to escape being a 3rd generation victim of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) cult.

As an Autistic PDAer, I was doing deconstruction intuitively long before I understood what the word meant.

I questioned and wrestled with the dogma I was expected to accept, eventually leaving their church at age 20, because my neuroceptive drive for autonomy gave me no other choice. I could not survive and stay in the church. 

This early deconstruction journey paved the way for a lifetime of deconstruction projects. Breaking down the status quo is one of my top favorite special interests. I'm deconstructing what I've been taught about gender, romance, friendship, family, school, work, and more. 

Deconstructing mental health is something that I've been doing ever since my first therapy experience in 2014. Psychiatry was almost as damaging to me as my child-hood trauma. When they taught me I was depressed because I am deeply intrinsically flawed, it was the same dehumanizing story the church taught just with different words.  

Deconstructing has been one of the biggest things that helps me build safety for my nervous system. Through this process, I've identified and change fixed beliefs that are overwhelmingly destabilizing for my nervous system. 

Most of my deconstruction journey happened alone, but then several years ago I met a number of other people who left the same cult, and connecting with them healed something deeper than I could reach alone.

My goal with this course is to model my own deconstruction journey in the realm of mental health and nervous system science and offer support with this process through community connection. 

Deconstructing mental health means noticing the assumptions and beliefs that shape how we think about mental health. This process involves questioning dominant narratives, challenging historical and cultural biases, and exploring alternative perspectives.

I cannot promise a trigger-free space. My goal is a brave space rather than a safe space. We'll talk through some heavy and hopeful things, including personal experiences of harm caused by the mental health system and how we can heal from those experiences by reclaiming our personal narrative and working towards collective healing. 


What is the course like?

  • Zoom sessions

    The core of this course is 1 weekly live zoom call for 6 weeks. The video call lasts about 90 minutes. Arrive late or leave early if you need to. Replays of each session will be posted in the course page the next day. Transcripts are available for each recording. If you're joining live, it's best to block off 2 hours because we might start late or go over time.

  • 3 Modules

    Each module spans 2 weeks. We'll start with looking at why this social analysis is necessary, then we'll explore 9 mental health villain. We'll talk through examples of ways each villain shows up in societal systems. You may want to bring a notebook or journal for reflection questions. As we go we'll also talk about what mental health support COULD look like if the blame was placed where it belongs.

  • Private Group for Discussion

    We will have a private Facebook group that supplements the zoom sessions. This is a place to share about our process, connect, continue discussions, and support each other as we deconstruct mental health and nervous system science.

Pricing options

The cost of the full series is $300. If that amount is financially difficult, you may choose a payment plan or you may pay half price, no questions asked. If the reduced cost is inaccessible, please scroll down to the end of the page to find the scholarship sign up. Scholarship spots are for anyone who would have trouble paying for necessary items if they purchased the course.

Tentative Schedule

Janae may change the schedule due illness or loss of verbal capacity. If the schedule changes, we will inform participants via email. Make up sessions (if necessary) will happen at the same day and same time on a different week, extending the course later into December or January.

  • Module 1

    Nov 12, Nov 19

  • Module 2

    Nov 26, Dec 3

  • Module 3

    Dec 10, Dec 17

Facilitator / Teacher

Janae Elisabeth

Trauma Geek

Janae (they/she/he) is an information synthesizer who has been studying polyvagal theory and related nervous system models for 6+ years. Their specialty is tying together threads of information from many different fields to create a holistic understanding of the nervous system and neurodivergence. Janae has deeply studied these topics in an effort to understand herself better as an AuDHD PDAer with complex trauma. Since 2018, they have been teaching about trauma, the nervous system, and neurodiversity through local peer support circles and through the advocacy and education project, Trauma Geek. Past students in Janae's courses have reported transformational experiences including more self-love, more gentleness with themselves, more understanding of their own bodies, more acceptance of themselves, and more connection to community. For legal reasons, please note, Janae is not a counselor or therapist.

FAQ

  • Does this course cover religious decontruction?

    No, we will not focus on religion. We may point out some parallels between the process of deconstructing mental health and the process of deconstructing a religion. You are welcome to talk about religious deconstruction as it relates to mental health in our private FB group but it won't be a focus of the workshops.

  • Can we access the course after the dates if it takes us more time to process?

    The course will be available here on this site for at least 6 months. If we move away from this platform, you will receive a link to a private YouTube channel where the videos will live indefinitely after that.

  • Would this course work for a high school student?

    Teens may take the course if they have an adult in their near-community take the course at the same time. It's important for young adults to have someone to process the material from this course with.

  • Are there CEUs?

    Check with your supervisor! My in-person groups count for CEUs but online groups have varying requirements. If you need a certificate of completion, you can create one and I will sign it for you.

  • Can I buy the course as a gift for someone else?

    Yes! When you go to the checkout page, you can click the box next to "This is a Gift" and then add the recipients email address.