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Today's guest is Sean Blackwell, author of Bipolar Awakenings: The Quest to Heal Bipolar Disorder, a thought leader redefining how we understand mental health, trauma, and spiritual transformation. For over a decade, Sean has shared his personal journey and taught others through his YouTube channel and international retreats, helping people explore the intersection of psychology, consciousness, and awakening.
Sean challenges the mainstream psychiatric model that views bipolar disorder as a lifelong, biologically based mental illness. Instead, he presents a compelling perspective: that many bipolar experiences may be misunderstood spiritual emergence processes rooted in unresolved trauma. Through this lens, extreme psychological states such as mania or psychosis are not random breakdowns, but the psyche's attempt to heal through the body's natural bio-energetic intelligence.
We dive deep into the somatic and energetic foundations of bipolar disorder, including the role of kundalini energy, the chakra system, and insights from transpersonal psychology pioneer Dr. Stanislav Grof. Sean explains how trauma can create bio-energetic blockages within the subtle body—and how the release of this stored energy can trigger powerful psychological and spiritual experiences often mislabeled as pathology.
Sean also shares the origins of the Bipolar Awakenings Healing Retreat and his trauma-release modality, Bipolar Breathwork, adapted from Holotropic Breathwork training. Through moving client stories, he illustrates how addressing trauma at the energetic level has led to profound healing, reduced hospitalization, freedom from chronic pain, and in some cases, complete independence from psychiatric medication.
This episode offers a radical reframe of bipolar disorder—from a life sentence to a call for deep inner healing—and invites listeners to consider how our greatest breakdowns may hold the seeds of our most meaningful spiritual breakthroughs.
More from Sean here.
