A path to life beyond
psychiatric drugs and diagnoses.
Fortify & Focus is a three-phase group coaching program designed to guide you through the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and relational journey of tapering from psychiatric drugs and
finding your way to life beyond psychiatrization.
Why am I still not getting better after all these years?
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What does it even mean to be well?
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How do I trust myself again after so many years of being told not to?
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What if I'm too far gone to find my way back?
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How do I do this when no one in my life understands what I'm going through?
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Why am I still not getting better after all these years? ・ What does it even mean to be well? ・ How do I trust myself again after so many years of being told not to? ・ What if I'm too far gone to find my way back? ・ How do I do this when no one in my life understands what I'm going through? ・
Built by People Who've Been There.
🌿Three-Phase Journey — A clear arc with intention-setting at the start and reflection built throughout, so you always know where you are and where you're headed.
🌿Group Coaching Calls — Live calls with with coaches who've navigated their own versions of this journey.
🌿Reflection Prompts — Questions designed to surface and challenge the frameworks you've inherited, and help you build new one.
🌿Monthly Circles with Laura — Space to speak honestly about what's hard with someone who understands from the inside.
🌿Guest Expert Calls — Regular calls with specialists sharing tools, techniques, and perspectives to support every dimension of your journey.
🌿Resource Library — A curated collection of answers to the most common questions about tapering, family support, and more so you're not left searching the internet alone.
Total Investment: $295/month
Meet Your Coaches
Curtis Murlor
F&F Coach
Curtis became interested in the deeper questions of healing and transformation after his own experiences within the mental health system. Given an ADHD label in his teens, he spent much of his twenties on a combination of stimulants, SSRIs, and other medications, accumulating additional diagnoses along the way. Over time, he began to question the frameworks that had been used to define his experience, resulting in a long process of unlearning and reorienting toward a more self-directed understanding of health and human development.
His work is grounded in supporting people as they reorient toward their own direct experience, rebuilding trust in their bodies, perceptions, and inner sense of direction. He draws from contemplative traditions, somatic awareness, and his background in spiritual care and hospice, where he encountered the complexity of suffering, meaning, and change in a direct and human way.
He approaches coaching as a space for careful inquiry, where inherited narratives can be questioned and new ways of living can begin to take shape. Curtis lives with his partner Carly and their two young children in Southern Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie.
Leela was first introduced to SSRI drugs when she was a sophomore in high school, and subsequently spent years identifying as someone who had mental health problems and who needed medication to exist in the world. Her deep desire to understand herself and her experience lead her to getting both a BS in Psychology and an MA in Professional Counseling, before she realized that ultimately her own answers and her capacity to help others would never be found within anyone else’s paradigm or framework. She tapered off of medication over a 5+ year period in her late 20s and early 30s. She continues to unlearn and relearn, fostering as much curiosity within herself as she can along the way. Her work and the rest of her life are guided by her unwavering belief that within each one of us already lies the capacity to heal, and that as long as we are alive there is reason to have hope. She is passionate about helping her clients tap into their own curiosity, agency, and power as they find their way forward. Leela lives in the South-Eastern Pennsylvania countryside with her partner, their two cats, and numerous honey bee colonies. Learn more about Leela at www.leelaehrhart.com.
Leela Ehrhart
F&F Coach
Nick Taber
F&F Coach
Nick is interested in what it looks like to heal and develop oneself after being shaped by forces we didn’t consent to. As a teenager, he experienced many corners of the mental health system, including some of the darker ones. He teaches what he’s learned about self-healing and self-development coming out of the mental health system, dysfunctional families, and coercive schooling - settings that often inhibit the development of our emotional, intellectual, relational, creative, and physical potential. Nick’s background is in international economic policy with a focus on authoritarian systems of political economy. He enjoys somatic meditation, connecting with people, hot springs, coffee, and studying countercultural philosophical and sociological ideas. Find more about his work here: https://imaginal-cell.org/
You don’t have to do this alone.
The process of reclaiming your life outside of psychiatric drugs and diagnoses asks you to question things you were told by people with authority over your life. But the questioning itself needs witnesses — people who can say, yes, I was told that too, and I'm not sure it was true either. Our group coaching program can give you the kind of confirmation that comes from people who have been there, who don't need you to explain yourself,
and who will sit with you in it.
You’re not the only one.
Hearing your exact thought come out of someone else's mouth is not a small thing. It changes the shape of what you've been carrying.
Accountability as a form of care.
Not the kind the system imposed on you. The kind that comes from people who know the terrain, who want to see you move through it, and who will keep showing up for you while you figure out how.
More than one mirror.
Working with a coach gives you structure, expertise, and someone who has walked people through this before. Working with a group gives you people who are walking through it right now, in real time, alongside you. You need both.
FAQs
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The good news is you don’t need to attend them all. We recommend attending at least two per month. Right now, all calls are taking place from 1-2:30PM EST (NYC time) on Tuesdays and Thursdays given the availability of our current members. However, we have recently grown our coaching team in order to be able to add new calls at different times when the need arises. If you wish to join F&F but are unable to make this time, please let us know by writing Farah at membership@optoutinstitute.com
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As a group of members, meeting live, we will all agree to a set of ‘rules’ - including respecting each other’s privacy. What is shared here, stays here. Group calls will not be recorded or transcribed for your privacy, but you will be there with others, and we encourage you to take advantage of those connections. There is a healing power in being together, sharing, being open and present in the group calls. That is part of what makes group coaching valuable. You are, of course, not required to share anything you don’t feel comfortable sharing.
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Most certainly not! We are not “anti-drug;” we are pro-informed choice. We all have our own unique risks and benefits, pros and cons, life circumstances, resources, supports, and stressors, and what’s “right” for one person might be “wrong” for someone else. All are welcome here.
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Right now, Focus & Fortify is open to people who are on/coming off/off psychiatric drugs. However, we are offering a special Family and Friends Support call led by Laura in late March, where members of this program can invite any of the people in their support network to attend! Laura will discuss important issues related to helping your family and friends better navigate their roles as caregivers and supporters to you. Sign up now as a member and watch your email for the invitation.
Lastly, if you’re a family member looking for support and coaching around caring for someone who is tapering off meds, however, please let us know: if we see a large enough need, we will explore adding in offerings for family members and caregivers!
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Group coaching calls are not specifically designed to be taper education focused. Instead, they intend to help you explore your personal “why” and stay connected with your own goals and motivations. There is an option for members, though, to submit personal questions asynchronously to Laura, which is meant to help you address your more specific questions about the “how” of tapering and withdrawal, along with anything else on your mind.
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Members are billed on a 30-day cycle, as opposed to month-to-month cycle, so no matter when you join, you won't pay for anything that’s already happened.
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We believe that the most benefit to you will be found by sticking around for at least three months, so that you can get to know the coaches and other members and to receive the greatest benefit from the 3-month cycle. And you can stick around for as long as you want. However, there is no long term commitment. You simply must pay for a full month at a time, as there is no prorating. In fact, you can join, drop and join again later if you feel like you need a little extra support again. We offer the ability to “pause” your membership for up to three months at a time, twice a year, if the need arises, which means you can re-join at whatever your previous rate was three months after you drop, after which point you’re welcome to re-join at whatever the current rate is.
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We are confident that if you engage in the program and commit to participation, you will notice meaningful, even profound shifts in how you’re making sense of yourself and your circumstances, and living your life. If, after 30 days, you feel like it is not a fit for you, you will have a grace period of 10 days after being billed your second month to cancel and still get your second monthly payment refunded. Your first month’s payment is non-refundable.
After month two, as a monthly program, you are free to cancel at any time. When you cancel, you’ll have access through the end of that paid month, and will not be billed again the following month.
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Group coaching sessions happen on Zoom, but great news: you don’t need your own Zoom account to join, just the URL link that you’ll find in each event within the Group Coaching calendar. You do, however, need to have the Zoom app downloaded on your device or use Zoom through a web browser to access the event.
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You can use a computer OR your phone to log in and access our online community and all calls– and even better, you can download the Mighty Networks app on your phone to have an even more optimized mobile experience! If you haven’t yet done that, go to your Welcome Checklist (once you're logged into your F&F account; you can find it in the Discover section of the Global Features in the top left) for step-by-step instructions.
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Yes, you sure can! Since each Mighty Networks community is its own standalone entity, you can use the same address multiple times with no issue– and even better, you can toggle back and forth between your different communities by clicking ‘Switch Networks.’
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Please feel free to email us anytime at membership@optoutinstitute.com.