photo by Sabrina Huff
Bios:
Bernadine Fox – Media-Ready Expert on Mental Health, Trauma, Disability Rights, and Survivor Advocacy
Bernadine Fox is an award-winning mental health advocate, disability rights activist, author, artist, and public speaker with over 30 years of lived experience and leadership in trauma-informed, survivor-led advocacy. Based in Vancouver, BC, she is a respected and media-savvy voice on complex issues related to mental health, trauma, therapy abuse, disability justice, and systemic reform.
Bernadine is the host and producer of ReThreading Madness, an internationally syndicated radio program and podcast that explores mental health, trauma, and recovery through a critical, survivor-centered lens. Airing weekly on Vancouver Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM and carried by CJUM (Winnipeg), CKXU (Lethbridge), and the global Mental Health Radio Network, ReThreading Madness reaches listeners across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. With guests ranging from mental health advocates to activists and those with lived experience, the show challenges dominant, colonial, and pathologizing narratives in mental health — centering lived experience and pushing for systemic accountability and social justice.
Known for her clarity, authenticity, and deeply personal insight, Bernadine brings rare depth to conversations about the real-life impact of psychiatric harm, complex PTSD, and therapeutic betrayal. Her groundbreaking memoir, Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist, is widely used by survivors, clinicians, peer networks, and advocacy organizations as a resource to understand the subtle and overt dynamics of therapy abuse.
Bernadine’s advocacy extends into peer-led support initiatives, including her role with TELL (Therapist Exploitation Link Line), where she supports survivors of therapy abuse worldwide. She facilitates trauma-informed workshops and peer support groups with a focus on healing, safety, dignity, and survivor empowerment.
A trained visual artist from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Bernadine integrates creative expression into her work, using art and storytelling as tools for healing and activism. Whether she’s appearing on a podcast, delivering a keynote, curating an exhibit, or advising a documentary film team, she brings a thoughtful, accessible, and often transformative perspective.
Bernadine Fox is available for:
Immediate access: (604) 300-3425 (text is best)
🔗 linktr.ee/bernadinefox
or use this contact form
Bernadine Fox is an award-winning mental health advocate, disability rights activist, author, artist, and public speaker with over 30 years of lived experience and leadership in trauma-informed, survivor-led advocacy. Based in Vancouver, BC, she is a respected and media-savvy voice on complex issues related to mental health, trauma, therapy abuse, disability justice, and systemic reform.
Bernadine is the host and producer of ReThreading Madness, an internationally syndicated radio program and podcast that explores mental health, trauma, and recovery through a critical, survivor-centered lens. Airing weekly on Vancouver Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM and carried by CJUM (Winnipeg), CKXU (Lethbridge), and the global Mental Health Radio Network, ReThreading Madness reaches listeners across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. With guests ranging from mental health advocates to activists and those with lived experience, the show challenges dominant, colonial, and pathologizing narratives in mental health — centering lived experience and pushing for systemic accountability and social justice.
Known for her clarity, authenticity, and deeply personal insight, Bernadine brings rare depth to conversations about the real-life impact of psychiatric harm, complex PTSD, and therapeutic betrayal. Her groundbreaking memoir, Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist, is widely used by survivors, clinicians, peer networks, and advocacy organizations as a resource to understand the subtle and overt dynamics of therapy abuse.
Bernadine’s advocacy extends into peer-led support initiatives, including her role with TELL (Therapist Exploitation Link Line), where she supports survivors of therapy abuse worldwide. She facilitates trauma-informed workshops and peer support groups with a focus on healing, safety, dignity, and survivor empowerment.
A trained visual artist from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Bernadine integrates creative expression into her work, using art and storytelling as tools for healing and activism. Whether she’s appearing on a podcast, delivering a keynote, curating an exhibit, or advising a documentary film team, she brings a thoughtful, accessible, and often transformative perspective.
Bernadine Fox is available for:
- Television, radio, and podcast interviews
- Op-eds and expert commentary
- Panel discussions and roundtables
- Trauma-informed training and professional development
- Guest lectures on therapy abuse, disability rights, peer support, and survivor activism
- Film and media consultation on disability rights, therapy abuse and exploitation, and dissociation
- Therapy abuse and the ethics of mental health care
- Lived experience of complex PTSD and therapy abuse and exploitation
- Disability justice and access to safe, equitable care
- Peer-led mental health movements and survivor advocacy
- Creativity as a healing tool for trauma survivors
- How media can responsibly report on mental health, trauma, and disability
Immediate access: (604) 300-3425 (text is best)
🔗 linktr.ee/bernadinefox
or use this contact form
Issues Bernadine can speak to:
Impact of Ethical and Sexual Boundary Violations in Therapy:
A Workshop for Professionals.
“I was trained about ethical boundaries and what would happen to me if they were transgressed but no one taught me what would happen to my client.”
A Workshop for Professionals.
“I was trained about ethical boundaries and what would happen to me if they were transgressed but no one taught me what would happen to my client.”
Regardless of gender, therapeutic modality, or geographical area, survivor accounts of therapy abuse and exploitation are analogous, the actions of their abusive therapists predictable, and the catastrophic impact on the victim consistent. Participants of this workshop will learn: how to delineate between the therapist who made a mistake in therapy and one that has groomed and exploited their clients; able to identify the warning signs of therapy abuse, the grooming process, the various forms of exploitation, and the ways in which abusive therapists retaliate when faced with exposure and being held accountable; and know of how this abuse impacts on clients, their families, and the field along with identifying the therapeutic issues that can arise in subsequent treatment.
Some Interview Questions To Ask: (but let's talk about others)
Why use "mental health" as opposed to "mental illness"?
You say Freud did a disservice to all those who live with trauma and mental health challenges. Can you explain?
You have Dissociative Identities. Tell me, from your perspective, what that is and how you live with this?
You were exploited by your therapist. What happened?
You stayed with this therapist for years. What influenced your inability to break free from the therapist?
What are ethical boundaries in therapy that mental health consumers should know about?
What to do if your therapist has transgressed an ethical boundary?
How has surviving an exploitative therapist continued to impact on your life?
You volunteer your time supporting other survivors of abuse in their therapy? Can you tell me more about that?
How does stigma impact on mental health?
You wrote a book, Coming To Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist. Why is this book important? Where is this book available?
You say Freud did a disservice to all those who live with trauma and mental health challenges. Can you explain?
You have Dissociative Identities. Tell me, from your perspective, what that is and how you live with this?
You were exploited by your therapist. What happened?
You stayed with this therapist for years. What influenced your inability to break free from the therapist?
What are ethical boundaries in therapy that mental health consumers should know about?
What to do if your therapist has transgressed an ethical boundary?
How has surviving an exploitative therapist continued to impact on your life?
You volunteer your time supporting other survivors of abuse in their therapy? Can you tell me more about that?
How does stigma impact on mental health?
You wrote a book, Coming To Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist. Why is this book important? Where is this book available?
Books by Bernadine
Coming to Voice: Surviving An Abusive Therapist
Examining Ethical Boundaries in Therapy: A Checklist
Circles: Short Story - a short story about a battered woman
Examining Ethical Boundaries in Therapy: A Checklist
Circles: Short Story - a short story about a battered woman
Previous Press: (condensed list)
Business Insider, Therapy with AI, October 2025 (link tba)
The Clarified Life, Reclaiming Your Life after Therapy Harm, Oct 2025 (link tba)
Hill Times, Therapy Harm and AI, Oct 6 2025 (link)
Living Your Truth w/Tavares, Believing in Yourself w/Bernadine April 2025, with Tavares Garrett (link TBA)
How to Find a Therapist, Jan 2025, Link to Come, with Kerie Logan (link to come)
People First Radio, Oct 5 2023, Re-Threading Madness to Change the Conversation around Mental Health, Joe Pugh
Burnaby Now, May 2022, Pain at hands of her counsellor: A Burnaby woman's story of surviving authoritative abuse, Jess Balzer
City News (CityTV) May 19 2022, Courage to Come Back: Mental Health award recipient survived the ultimate betrayal. John Ackermann
Global TV News, May 16, 2022 recap of winner of Courage to Come Back (2022) awards
The Courage to Come Back awards, Global TV, May 14 2022. Whole Program. Segment/Bernadine
The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn, BC Could Soon See Psychotherapists Regulated. Dec 2019
"A Very Pernicious System - After decades of inaction psychotherapist may finally be regulated in BC." - CBC Dec 2019
CBC Dec 16 2019: The need for regulating therapists and counsellors in BC. Early Edition - Stephen Quin .(Bernadine is quoted about halfway through)
CKNW (2017) with Simi Sara: Surviving an Abusive Therapist and the need for regulating counsellors
“The F Word” - Philosopher’s Café aired on Tricities TV
Artsy-Dartsy Nov, 2010
AHA Media, Not My Love(r) opening, Oct 29, 2010
cont.... use drop down menu below
The Clarified Life, Reclaiming Your Life after Therapy Harm, Oct 2025 (link tba)
Hill Times, Therapy Harm and AI, Oct 6 2025 (link)
Living Your Truth w/Tavares, Believing in Yourself w/Bernadine April 2025, with Tavares Garrett (link TBA)
How to Find a Therapist, Jan 2025, Link to Come, with Kerie Logan (link to come)
People First Radio, Oct 5 2023, Re-Threading Madness to Change the Conversation around Mental Health, Joe Pugh
Burnaby Now, May 2022, Pain at hands of her counsellor: A Burnaby woman's story of surviving authoritative abuse, Jess Balzer
City News (CityTV) May 19 2022, Courage to Come Back: Mental Health award recipient survived the ultimate betrayal. John Ackermann
Global TV News, May 16, 2022 recap of winner of Courage to Come Back (2022) awards
The Courage to Come Back awards, Global TV, May 14 2022. Whole Program. Segment/Bernadine
The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn, BC Could Soon See Psychotherapists Regulated. Dec 2019
"A Very Pernicious System - After decades of inaction psychotherapist may finally be regulated in BC." - CBC Dec 2019
CBC Dec 16 2019: The need for regulating therapists and counsellors in BC. Early Edition - Stephen Quin .(Bernadine is quoted about halfway through)
CKNW (2017) with Simi Sara: Surviving an Abusive Therapist and the need for regulating counsellors
“The F Word” - Philosopher’s Café aired on Tricities TV
Artsy-Dartsy Nov, 2010
AHA Media, Not My Love(r) opening, Oct 29, 2010
cont.... use drop down menu below
Quotes from Bernadine:
“My healing process has always been grounded in sharing what I know and working to effect change for myself, and those who have yet to find their voice or come behind me.” – Bernadine Fox
"Freud left us with some terrible ideas about those who live with trauma and mental health challenges. For instance, clients can not discern between truth and fantasy and he designated therapist to speak on their behalf. I was traumatized as a youngster. Then, I was sexually assaulted by the very person tasked with helping me: my therapist - the same person authorized by our society to tell you what was true about me. That fact meant that , as I reached out to police, victim services, sexual assault centres, and her professional association - it was an uphill grind to hold her accountable. None of these institutions did the right thing to begin with - not one. I was effectively silenced." - Bernadine Fox
"Freud left us with some terrible ideas about those who live with trauma and mental health challenges. For instance, clients can not discern between truth and fantasy and he designated therapist to speak on their behalf. I was traumatized as a youngster. Then, I was sexually assaulted by the very person tasked with helping me: my therapist - the same person authorized by our society to tell you what was true about me. That fact meant that , as I reached out to police, victim services, sexual assault centres, and her professional association - it was an uphill grind to hold her accountable. None of these institutions did the right thing to begin with - not one. I was effectively silenced." - Bernadine Fox
Photo taken by Bernadine Fox
(high res photo available)
Suggested Hashtags
#mentalhealth #DID #multiplepersonality #plural #abuseintherapy #metoo #mentalhealthawareness #sexualabuse #sexualassault #abuse #domesticviolence #survivor #rape #trauma #sexualviolence #childabuse #ptsd #rapeculture #emotionalabuse #rapevictim #feminism #rapesurvivor #consent #womenempowerment #sexualharassment #feminist #domesticabuse #healing #women #physicalabuse #awareness #nomeansno #abusesurvivor #cptsd #ReThreadingMadness #bothsidesnow #VancouverCoopRadio #CFRO #BernadineFox #radioshow #podcast #publicaffairs #youtube #selfcare #selflove #anxiety #mentalhealthmatters #depression #health #mindfulness #loveyourself #inspiration #mindset #wellbeing #recovery #ptsd #art #trauma #mentalhealthsupport #growth #mentalhealthadvocate #humantrafficking #stigma
Links to Podcasts
Re-Threading Madness radio, Vancouver Coop Radio, CFRO 100.5 FM (radio host)
Both Sides Now, Vancouver Coop Radio, CFRO 100.5FM (radio host)
Both Sides Now, Vancouver Coop Radio, CFRO 100.5FM (radio host)
Connect with Me on Social Media
How i will promote Your show/podcast
I will post your event on all my social media platforms for 1 month to 2 weeks leading right up to the event.
Photo credit Valerie Arntzen
