Jun 16 2024 69 mins 1
In this episode, Dr. T hosts an interview between author Rita Bozi and guest interviewer Matt Russell, as Truth Fairy is unfortunately absent. Rita Bozi is a highly experienced trauma-informed facilitator, psychedelic therapist, author, and director of Brilliant Healing, In. Matt Russell is a private practice psychotherapist and scholar with a background in Spanish Literature and intergenerational trauma studies. Matt interviews Rita about her novel “When I Was Better” which is based on her parents' experiences during and after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, blending personal and historical narratives to explore themes of trauma, survival, and healing.
Rita shares her journey in writing the novel, describing it as a complex and healing process that took nine years and ten drafts to complete. Initially, she was loyal to the real-life events of her family's history, struggling to fictionalize the story, but eventually embraced creative freedom which allowed her to deepen her characters and more fully explore their experiences. The process also involved confronting and processing her own anger and trauma, facilitated by psychedelic therapies with ayahuasca and ketamine. Through these experiences, Rita was able to soften her portrayal of her parents, bringing a more nuanced and empathetic view to their characters in her novel.
Matt, Rita, and Dr. T delve into the significance of the Hungarian Revolution and Rita explains the profound impact of these events on her family and her need to understand and portray this historical and emotional landscape accurately. The interview touches on broader themes of intergenerational trauma and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of oppression, highlighting the importance of kindness and empathy in healing. Through the novel, Rita aims to honor her parents' struggles while exploring the broader human capacity for both cruelty and compassion.
“But it wasn't until I sat with ketamine that I felt into my essential nature and that my essential nature was kindness. And from there I started to build a practice around kindness and I started to decolonize. I started to understand what does it mean to decolonize this brutality, so that then I could, instead of commanding people or … demanding change and demanding that people heal or demand that people behave a certain way, I started to understand more deeply that we behave the way we do because of what's happened to us. In understanding that and understanding, you know, what really happened to my parents, what really happened to my brother, what really happened to my ancestors, and embodying that… then I could start developing a sense of kindness, you know?” - Rita Bozi
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About Rita Bozi:
Raised by Hungarian refugees, Rita is a Somatic Relational trauma and psychedelic-informed Facilitator, a multidisciplinary creator, playwright, and retired professional actor and dancer. For 25 years, her co-written play ‘52 Pick Up’ was staged in Canada, the US, England, Australia, France, Iceland and New Zealand and translated into French and Icelandic.
Rita has been published in The New Quarterly, FFWD Weekly, WritingRaw.com, and Unlikely 2.0. THIS Magazine awarded her 3rd Prize in their Great Canadian Literary Hunt in 2012. Her travel stories have been broadcast on CBC Radio Calgary. She is an Alumna of The Humber School for Writers and a graduate of The National Ballet School. Her life practice is kindness and her life partner is Ken Cameron.
Website: BrilliantHealingSystems.com
Book: “When I Was Better” by Rita Bozi
About Matt Russell:
Matt Russell is a graduate of the MAPS MDMA Assisted Therapy Training. As a certified Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner, he trained with world renowned addiction and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté. He is also part of the facilitation team supporting Dr. Maté in the year-long Compassionate Inquiry training for therapists.
Matt has trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), and Buddhist Chaplaincy. He teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and his therapeutic work incorporates mindfulness and somatic/body-based methods of inquiry. Prior to becoming certified as a psychotherapist, Matt earned a PhD in Spanish Literature from UC Davis, where he researched intergenerational trauma, and taught at various universities.
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Website: PunkTherapy.com
Email: [email protected]
