From Pretrial Therapy To ADHD Tools And Mythic Healing

Start with a map, end with a compass. We take you across a week of standout sessions that connect legal clarity, neurodiversity-informed practice, social class, power in the therapy room, and the deep mythic layers that help clients move from rupture to integration.

We begin where stakes are highest: pretrial therapy. Learn why your notes must be written for clinical care rather than criminal proceedings, how to differentiate reasonable from speculative legal requests, and how consent and pacing protect both clients and your professional role. You’ll hear grounded, real-world guidance on pushing back against fishing expeditions and holding firm to ethical due process.

Next, we pivot to ADHD with tools that actually work. Discover why stillness meditation often backfires and how active, repetitive tasks like walking or folding can become effective contemplative practice. Explore cognitive tiredness, a crucial but overlooked form of overload, and redesign organisation systems—internal plans and external setups—to reduce sensory demands rather than increase them.

The lens widens to class, naming poverty as both cause and consequence of mental distress, and exposing barriers hidden in plain sight: rigid schedules, transport costs, and alienating language that assumes spare time and money. We argue for integrating class into core training alongside race, disability, privilege, and intersectionality, so support becomes feasible, respectful, and real.

Power then steps into focus. Framed as a neutral, relational force, it shifts moment by moment in therapy. Clients’ online research can feel intrusive, yet it’s also an attempt to balance asymmetry—material we can use to deepen trust. With a little sociology, we read the currents of status and structure shaping the room and respond with clarity, humility, and skill.

Finally, we head into story and shadow. The Inuit myth of Sedna illuminates how loss can birth sovereignty and how ritual “combing” releases what is stuck. A singer’s journey through lost voice shows shadow as a path wanting recognition, not erasure. Woven together, these sessions offer a practice that is precise, class-aware, power-literate, neurodiversity-informed, and anchored in meaning.

If this sparked new questions or gave you a tool you can use tomorrow, follow, share with a colleague, and leave a review. Your feedback helps us grow a library that serves real clinicians doing brave, careful work.

Transcript

What’s New In The Library

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Deep Dive. This is where we look at all the latest additions to our amazing learning library and give you that fast track to what's new and what's essential.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Aaron Powell And what a week it's been. We've added an incredible stack of new resources all for the week, ending November 29th, 2025.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Aaron Ross Powell We are so excited to share what we as a community have gained.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Aaron Powell It's a huge range, really. It goes from very practical, essential requirements all the way to some really deep psychological exploration.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Aaron Powell So our mission today is to walk you through these sessions. They're all available right now in the online events learning library.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Aaron Powell Yeah, the idea is to help counselors, psychotherapists, and, well, helping professionals like you get a quick handle on the most important, actionable insights.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Aaron Powell The sheer breadth of knowledge is it's kind of astounding this week. We're stretching from legal necessity all the way to ancient mythology, so let's not waste any time.

Pretrial Therapy And Legal Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Aaron Powell Where should we start?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

I think we have to start with what is, well, arguably the highest stakes topic for any practitioner right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Aaron Powell The legal side of things.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Exactly. Navigating that intersection of our clinical practice and the legal system.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Aaron Powell Okay. So first stop is Irene Hagioni's session. It's called Pretrial Therapy, Your Questions Answered. And this is just it's foundational.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Aaron Powell It really is. For any of us who might have clients or even our notes, touch upon criminal proceedings.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Aaron Ross Powell Irene's core message felt like a like a therapeutic anchor in a storm.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

That's a great way to put it. She's so focused on helping us remain solidly grounded.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Aaron Powell And that stability, she argues, it only comes when we're proactively well informed about our legal responsibilities and just as important, our professional boundaries.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Aaron Powell Right. When you're dealing with requests from the police or the CPS, you really need that solid footing.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

And the foundational principle she offered is one we should all, you know, probably just commit to memory.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

We write notes for clinical purposes and not criminal proceedings.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yes. The moment we forget that, we risk. Well, we risk getting displaced from our therapeutic role.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Aaron Ross Powell We become an investigative tool, which is not what we are. Our notes are there to serve the client's healing journey, period.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Aaron Ross Powell That City is just invaluable. But what really struck me were the practical, actionable steps she outlined.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

About transparency and process.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, exactly. She stressed that everything has to be clear with the client. You need signed release forms, but the pacing of it all is key.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Oh, absolutely. She really highlighted that we don't have to rush just because a legal entity is asking for something.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

She gave a real-world example, didn't she?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

She did. She mentioned a case where getting the consent, talking through the implications, and then writing up the documentation took a full month.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

A whole month. And that was okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

It was perfectly reasonable. It's such a powerful reminder that we operate on the client's therapeutic timeline, not the court's schedule. We have our own due process.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Aaron Powell And speaking of due process, she also clarified a really crucial legal nuance.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Aaron Powell The difference between a reasonable and a speculative line of inquiry.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yes. So a reasonable inquiry, we're pretty much obligated to respond, but a speculative one.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Aaron Powell That's basically a fishing expedition. They just want to look at notes, just in case something might be relevant.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

And Irene was so clear about this.

Reasonable vs Speculative Legal Requests

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Crystal clear. We are well within our professional rights to question it, to challenge it, and ask for clarification. It's about protecting client confidentiality.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Got one distinction. It just transforms everything. It takes you from a passive position to an informed, professionally assertive one. It's why this session is so vital for everyone in our community. So moving on from those legal necessities, let's pivot a bit. Let's talk about specialized clinical skills. It's specifically neurodiversity. It's such a growing area for all of our work.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

It is. So this week we were thrilled to welcome Nia Clark. Her session is ADHD Strategies, Navigate Everyday Struggles with Confidence.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

And Nia's work is just so practical. She immediately moves away from that generalized advice to something personalized.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Totally. She really emphasized that your strategies have to be tailored to the client's specific type of ADHD, inattentive, hyperactive, combined. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

What really jumped out at me was her deep dive into the concept of rest.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

We all talk about burnout, but she broke it down into four specific types: emotional, social, digital, and the one that really hit home for me.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Cognitive tiredness.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Cognitive tiredness, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

It's that state where your brain is just it's overloaded. It can't absorb or process any more information.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And for someone with ADHD whose brain is already working overtime, recognizing that specific fatigue is it's everything. It's the point where trying to push through is actually harmful.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

I wonder if that's a concept we should be formally integrating into our assessments. You know, actually asking clients about that kind of exhaustion.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Aaron Powell, I think we should. And she also gave a really strong warning about one of the most common recommendations we make traditional meditation. Dull meditation, yeah. She said for about 95% of ADHDs, forcing stillness doesn't bring calm. It does the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Right. She said instead of quiet, it brings this chaotic flood of thoughts. She compared it to an eight-lane motorway jammed with traffic.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Which is such an important correction for us as practitioners. So if stillness doesn't work, what's the alternative?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Her idea was brilliant. She suggested using active, repetitive physical tasks as the context for meditation.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Like walking.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Walking, or even something like organizing a kitchen cupboard or folding laundry. It accommodates that need for movement while channeling the cognitive energy. The goal isn't to stop the thoughts, but to channel your attention through action.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I love that. She also talked about organization, didn't she? The difference between internal and external.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Internal being things like planning and decision making, and external, you know, managing your physical space. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

And that little insight that organized clothes by color often doesn't work for this population. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Because the visual stimulus is already so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Exactly. It just shows how much we need these truly customized systems. The session is just it's full of strategies that move us beyond simple symptom management.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

It really is.

ADHD Strategies And Cognitive Rest

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And that idea of connecting personal experience to a deeper systemic understanding. It's a perfect lead-in to our next two resources.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Aaron Powell Okay, yeah. Because our clients don't operate in a vacuum, do they?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Not at all. We have to look at the wider world. And that brings us to Carly Reed's session. It's called The Neglected Characteristic: A Conversation About Class.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Wow. And Carly's core argument is um well, it's pretty sobering.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Aaron Powell To say the least, that poverty is both a cause and a consequence of poor mental health.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Aaron Ross Powell And yet the people from poor economic backgrounds who often need support the most have the least access to it. It just points to these massive systemic flaws.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

She was very specific about the barriers too, like the inflexibility of therapy appointments for people with low occupational autonomy.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Aaron Powell Right. If you're doing shift work or you can't just ask for time off, a weekly 9 a.m. session is impossible.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

But maybe even more profound is the feeling she described of cultural alienation, of judgment.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

That quote she used was so powerful. How am I meant to open up and talk to someone who doesn't get it?

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Hmm. And that speaks directly to the language we use, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

It really does. Carly cautioned against framing self-care around things that require discretionary time or money. You know, telling someone to take an hour for yourself can sound completely alienating if they're juggling three jobs.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

So her call to action for us as professionals is that class has to be actively integrated into our training curricula.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah. Given the same weight as discussions around race, diversity, privilege, and intersectionality.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

And that idea of integration flows perfectly into our next resource, which is all about power. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Right. So if Carly's session is about the systemic power structures outside the room.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

This next one brings that energy right into the dynamic within the therapeutic relationship. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

This is John Award's session. Explore power and authority in unconscious client processes.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And he defines power so simply, just the ability to exert social influence.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

And he stresses that it's dynamic, it's relational, and this is so important. It's neither necessarily good nor bad. It's a neutral force. Exactly. And the therapy hinges on how we understand and manage its flow. He connects it to the relational unconscious.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

That shared co-constructed process.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

But what John talked about that felt so relevant to modern practice was how clients can exert power.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Through an imbalance of knowledge power.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yes. The reality that clients research us online, they look up our writing, our training, even our family status.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Aaron Powell, which can feel a bit invasive sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

It can. But Johnno's point is that we should see it as an active attempt by the client to balance the inherent power asymmetry in the room.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So we can work with it therapeutically.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Precisely. It's why he stressed that practitioners need some basic understanding of sociology to grasp these broader impacts of social structure and power.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

And that deep contextualization. It lets us move from the sociological and analytical into something else entirely.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Enter the deep psychological and mythological.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

It's a great way to show the full spectrum of our resources this week.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, this segment takes us deep into the collective unconscious, starting with Jennifer Ramsey's session. Sedna. Fairy tales and myths for challenging times.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Jennifer really leans into that Jungian idea that myths are a collective depersonalized dream.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

They're expressions of universal themes: loss, conflict, transformation.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

And she focused on the Inuit myth of Sedna.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

A really powerful myth. Sedna descends into the ocean, she loses her fingers, and becomes the mother of the sea.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

And the symbolic meaning of that loss. It's about letting go of old, rigid, often patriarchal structures, the boat, the men who rejected her.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Right. In order to find this immense new potential and power in the deep, watery realm of the unconscious, it's such a potent metaphor for clients who feel trapped by expectations that no longer serve them.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

And the healing ritual is just as important.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

It is. The shaman has to comb Sedna's hair to release the trapped sea animals and all the rubbish and pollution.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

So it's about reciprocity. The community only gets what it needs if it engages in this act of purification and healing.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

And Jennifer noted the timing was apt with the current watery astrological energy of Scorpio, which is all about deep emotional transformation.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

And that focus on transformation through difficulty connects perfectly to our final resource we'll touch on today.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

This one is from our Slay Your Dragons with Compassion series. It features Amanata, and it's called Losing a Singing Voice became the door to healing.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Amanata shares this incredibly personal journey of losing her singing voice, and she came to link it in a vision to silencing the voice of justice inside her.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

So this huge loss became her portal to a deeper practice, which she calls nying meditation.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

And she defines that as deep shadow work, addressing transgenerational repetitions.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

And her core insight, which is so critical for anyone doing depth work, is that the shadow is a path, not a definition.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

It's not something bad to be fixed or eliminated.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

No. She says the shadow fundamentally wants to be seen and heard. It demands acknowledgement, not eradication. It reframes the whole process as a journey of integration.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Which, when you think about it, is a beautiful way to anchor this whole week's learning. And we should briefly mention Dr. Emma Bede's foundational session on autism and attachment.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, because that provides such a crucial framework for understanding the scripts we have, how we expect to be seen by other people. It connects all these threads.

Organisation Systems That Actually Work

SPEAKER_00 11:46

What an incredible week of learning for our community. I mean, we've gone from the absolute necessity of legal boundaries in pretrial therapy to practical strategies for managing cognitive rest in ADHD. We've addressed systemic class issues, the power of our professional language, and then dived into this potent, mythic, shadowed work.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

And every single one of these sessions is available right now in the online events learning library. We are so proud to be able to provide this kind of content to support your lifelong learning.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

So if you're not yet taking advantage of this, well, now is the time to join us. Our Netflix style learning library has all these new weekly editions, plus thousands of hours of existing content.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

It's all for only$9.99 a month. It's a huge commitment to your professional development for a minimal cost.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

We really invite you to dive in and explore what calls to you.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

And as you do, maybe consider this final thought. Whether you're working with policy, personality, or mythology, true professional impact so often begins with that willingness to face and ultimately transform that which we've previously rejected.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Whether that's a systemic flaw in our profession, the personal shadow that wants to be heard, or those painful wounds like sadness that actually lead to profound power.