Dr. Fred Moss is a holistic Physician, Restorative Coach, Podcaster, Psychiatrist Expert, Witness at Welcome to Humanity with Dr. Fred Moss. Dr. Moss arrived on Earth on March 01, 1958 and from that very second has been earmarked to be a healer. The family he was born into, was in chaos, and in many ways was counting on his arrival to bring health and wellness back into balance. Little Freddy had his hands full and over the next 6 decades, he has made it his business to bring healing to the world around him, not only to his family and friends, but to the community and world at large, what a journey it has been.
Questions
- Could tell us in your own words a little bit about your journey?
- Could you share with us as an organization, maybe one or two things that you can do as leadership in an organization or putting in place some form of programme to support team members where mental health is concerned in order to strengthen the customer experience?
- If there was one thing to do immediately to assist ourselves when we’re feeling out of balance. What would you suggest that one thing would be?
- Could you share with us what’s the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can’t live without in your business?
- Could you also share with us and I’m sure you’ve read many, many books across your lifespan, especially in the field that you are in, but maybe one or two that have had a great impact on you, it could be a one that you read a very long time ago, or even one you’ve read recently, that you’d like to share with our listeners?
- Could you also share our listeners what’s one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about, either something you’re working on to develop yourself or your people?
- Where can listeners find you online?
- Do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge you’ll tend to revert to this quote? It kind of helps to get you back on track if for any reason you get derailed or get off track. Do you have one of those?
Highlights
Dr. Moss’ Journey
Me: I know we read a little bit about your journey. And I didn’t read your entire bio. But if you could tell us in your own words a little bit about your journey, I know your bio, the part that I did read did indicate that you have been doing quite a bit of work since you landed on Earth. And so, could you just share with our listeners a little bit about how you got to where you are today?
Dr. Moss shared that it has been a long strange trip. It’s been a little over 64 years now and young at heart for sure. And there’s lots of work to do. He arrived on that March 01, 1958 with the whole idea of being counted on to bring joy and pleasure and love and reconnection to that family. And for the first couple years, he probably did pretty good until his brothers got annoyed and irritated with him, he had two brothers, still do who 10 and 14 years older than him. And they taught him how to be precocious. They taught him how to read and write and do math, even before he arrived in kindergarten. Because when he arrived there, he was ahead of the class, he was doing things that most of the kindergarteners didn’t want to do, he was like interested in flashcards and books and stuff like that.
He was also bored, so he became a class clown, there’s nobody in elementary school, no teacher he ever had who certainly ever forgot him as a student. Because what he was really interested in more than anything, he thought school was going to show him how to communicate, he loved the way that his parents and his brothers communicated with each other, he could just watch him from the playpen. And he knew that there was something special in the world of sharing ideas with each other and he really wanted to learn how to do that become a master of communication. But low and behold, elementary school was not a place to learn that and he thought, “Oh, maybe the bigger kids, Junior High.” And when he got there, it was even worse. He thought, “Okay, High School.” and then that would be even worse, all you had to do is sit down and regurgitate what the teacher said, and that they would call you a good student and move you ahead. And he just thought that was so absurd.
Eventually, he went to college and with the whole idea again, he went to the best college he could possibly think because he loved their football helmets and that was a University of Michigan. And he went there and again, was kind of disillusioned with the idea that what he really had to do was just follow what the professor said and say whatever they wanted him to say and then pass, that wasn’t open discourse and that’s what I really wanted. So, he dropped out of college and he did what any self-respecting American dropout would do in the late 70s. He had boarded a Greyhound bus and went all the way to Berkeley, California so that he could learn, just figuring out who he was. He had a great summer in Berkeley, but realized he didn’t have a job and not much of a future.
So, his mom convinced him to come back and try school one more time. He came back, there was a new field that was just growing, you might have heard of it, it’s called Computer Science and the only computer that was there in Michigan was happened to be at the University of Michigan. So, it was a two-acre facility, he spent his day and night there, pulling up batch cards like punch cards and then hoping that the batch would run and he did that for a little while until he realized that wasn’t going to work, so he dropped out again. This is when the story starts getting interesting because in 1980 when he dropped out, his mom, again convinced him that she should probably get a job. And I thought, yeah, making some money so he could buy a car so he could go around the country and figure out what his life is about made some sense.
So, he started working at a state hospital for adolescent psychiatry, State House Psychiatric Hospital for adolescent boys. And that’s where really his journey in some ways with this whole idea of mental health began.
On January 05, 1980, he began that job and he was a communicator, he knew that he could communicate with these kids and then when they communicated and connected as human beings, well, healing took place in all directions, not just for them but for him as well and maybe even for the people around them. Like treating these people like they were just people and not sick kids who are defective or afflicted but just people just like him who don’t really know what to do next, and aren’t really sure what their next step was, and really just acknowledging them for being human.
He really, really strongly learned that communication and connection was at the heart of all healing of all conditions. The thing he really disrespected though, was the way psychiatry was dealing with these kids. He hated psychiatry, he hated that they would call the psychiatrist and they would come by and interview the child for three seconds. So, they’d say like, “Johnny’s up too late.” or “Timmy and Tony got in a fight.” They’d interview the kid for 3 seconds, and then interview them for like 5 seconds and then take out their pen and write an order. And then they have to go haul the kid into the quiet room and hold them down against his will and then fill his hip up with adult grade anti-psychotic injectable medication. And if this puts him out of his misery for the next 12 or 24 hours, they’d somehow call that a success. He found that to be so barbaric and it’s still going on in our world today, if you need to know. It’s going on every single day in many different hospitals around the world.
But he just decided that communication and connection really were what he wanted to be a stand for. And he went back to school solely to become a psychiatrist so that he could bring communication back to that field because he saw the opportunity that psychiatry had to really make a difference in the world that they did that.
Over the next 13 years, he completed his degree and completed his residency and completed his fellowship. And low and behold, he graduated as a psychiatrist from a great medical school and a great residency. And there he was, the truth is that psychiatry had gone through a significant change at that time and began medicating people. This whole idea of diagnosing and medicating and Biological Psychiatry falls on the heels of a drug called Prozac. And Prozac had been introduced in 1987 while he was in training, and now he too was becoming a psycho pharmacologist. Now, you can guess that there was some soul sacrifice there, there was a massive heart ache because he didn’t want to prescribe medicine, he didn’t want to diagnose people, he went into the field so he wouldn’t have to do that.
But there he was actually living a life that was inconsistent to who he was. And over the next 15 years, he did his best to bring communication there but more and more, he was being contracted and constricted away from the psychiatric field. In 2006, he decided that he would finally start taking people off of medicine, he took some of his low risk people off of medicine, and they just got way better, reliably better. As soon as he took the medicine away, their diagnosis often disappeared. And he thought he was onto something like maybe the medicines actually perpetuate to conditions. Maybe in fact the medicines actually worsen or cause the conditions at times. Now, this made him really angry, and he didn’t know exactly how to manage it, but over time, and it’s been, what, 15, 16 years since 2006, he’s really learned how to really get respect for not medicating, not diagnosing and then they call him the un-doctor, un-medicated, un-diagnosing, and then un-doctornating people. Really getting that if you’re having a miserable time as a human, if you’re uncomfortable, anxious, fearful, depressed, sad, confused, scattered, any of those things, it’s entirely okay.
And it’s part of being a human, to be highly uncomfortable at times, to be miserable at times is okay. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. We don’t blame a log for burning in the fire, if you put a log into fire, it’s going to burn, if you put a human on this world, we’re going to be uncomfortable. And we start really looking at that and he’s back to getting the connection is at the heart of all healing.
So, he created a company called Welcome to Humanity in 2015. And that was self-explanatory, all things human are okay. The possibility of seeing all people for who they are and who they’re not is okay. The possibility of accepting and even having some compassion and forgiveness for the misery that we all feel is all okay. And they started really communicating and connecting as a healer, instead of as a doctor that he had been prior to that.
After Welcome to Humanity, several other different things have sprouted, there was global madness where he was going to go around the world like Anthony Bourdain, and really see that psychiatry is different and the whole idea of mental health is different in Jamaica. And it’s different everywhere. It’s like what’s sick in Jamaica isn’t the same as what’s sick in California. And so, it can’t really be if you have a broken arm in Jamaica, you’re going to have that same broken arm if you fly to California, but that’s not true of mental health and mental illness.
And so, the idea that it’s variable, meaning that it’s transformable, meaning that we can alter this whole idea of what mental health and mental illnesses through conversation. Meaning that we can actually make a difference with people without having to put them on a couch 4 times a week or send them to Tibet or India. Or even give them a bunch of ganja, those aren’t the only ways to find peace and we can find peace by recognizing that each of us are in this together.
The true voice technology is his most recent finding, after doing the creative eight, the creative eight really took advantage of the art, music, dancing, singing, drama, cooking, writing, gardening, all the creative acts in life can really lead to a reduction of the symptomology. And the Find Your True Voice technology, his most recent book, which he can offer to listeners, actually, is a technology that takes a deep dive into finding our authenticity in the face of any world experience and then speaking our exact truth, like what’s really important to us, because you’ve probably noticed, a lot of people are no longer speaking their truth and they’re just saying things that they don’t even mean, or not saying things at all, because they’re afraid they’re going to be dismissed or discounted or censored or cancelled or hurt.
And he thinks in these difficult times in the world, more than anything, we really have to count on people to speak their true voice, because we’re not going to be taking care of any of the very major problems in the world like COVID or like climate change, or racism or sex trafficking, or war, or all the many things that have really come forth in the last few years as super problems. Unless we have a conversation going, we’re not going to be able to deal with those but the future looks pretty grim if we’re not going to be able to deal with those things, it looks like pretty calamitous. And the only way we’re going to get there is by really finding a way to communicate together. And that’s what he’s a stand for now, as he’s been since the moment he arrived on Earth March 01, 1958.
As an Organization, Programmes that Can Be Put in Place to Support Team Members Where Mental Health is Concerned to Strengthen Customer Experience
Me: Thank you so much for sharing Dr. Moss. Now, mental health is a real thing, I don’t think a lot of companies or even countries for that matter, really gives it the attention that it needs and dedication that it requires. Could you share with us as an organization, maybe one or two things that you can do as leadership in an organization or putting in place some form of programme to support team members where mental health is concerned in order to strengthen the customer experience?
Dr. Moss thinks if you’re really up to having a healthy workforce, a healthy payroll, people who are really able to stand up for what’s important in a customer experience, he thinks the number one thing to really get is that all people really want more than anything is to be heard, to be heard, and to be listened to, to actually be cared for, to be appreciated, to be acknowledged.
So, if you’re going to do anything, he thinks to create an atmosphere in your company, or in your corporation or in your small groups, or even in your experience with the customers were the primary goal is to listen intently to what’s being said. And not only what’s being said with words, but what’s being called for, how can you move the needle forward in a progressive way? What is the environment or the circumstances calling on you to present or you to be with including the possibility of saying nothing?
Can you listen for what’s being called for to move that conversation forward and provide that creatively? We’re all super creative, every one of us, including those of us who think we’re not, that’s just an old injury when you think you’re not. The truth is we’re all very creative and we are all listening at our own pace and our own level, and more than delivering what we think is right. And what he’s saying is that more than anything, it’s not a matter of speaking, it’s a matter of listening to those people who are struggling to say that which is really important to them, whatever way they’re doing it. So, he believes that more than anything, the secret ingredient here is definitely listening.
Me: So, we need to listen more because everybody wants to be seen, they want to be felt, they want to be heard. I think it’s a process for sure.
Dr. Moss shared that when people disagree with us, we think it’s okay to disregard them and dismiss them and unfriend them and never talk to them even if they are our siblings or best friends beforehand. So, these days we’re cancelling people out of our worlds because they disagree with us on some certain issues and that’s happened to him and it’s happened to most people. He’s lost friends in the last couple years and it’s really quite painful. What’s really here or there then is, listening is an act of occupation, it’s not just what you do in between the time you talked and the time you’re going to talk next, it’s actually having those ears open and being super curious about what that person is saying, or what they’re trying to get across in a way that really acknowledges and respects and accepts and maybe even forgives that person for being as confused as they are when they’re confused. Because after all, if you haven’t noticed, each and every one of us is thoroughly confused, some of us pretend like we’re not and going to get it done. But each and every human on this planet is totally confused. Of course, how could you not be, there’s some crap going on out there. Let’s be fair about it, those of us who pretend that we’re not confused, are almost more confused, they’re more confused, they actually think that it’s possible not to be confused.
Me: The ones who think they’re not confused, they’re deluding themselves.
Dr. Moss agreed, exactly. Come on. Let’s be real about it.
Suggestions to Assist Ourselves When We’re Feeling Out of Balance
Me: Now, Dr. Moss, if there was one thing to do immediately to assist ourselves when we’re feeling out of balance. What would you suggest that one thing would be?
Dr. Moss thinks it’s pause. Hold on a second, re configure yourself. Allow yourself to make a mistake, allow yourself to learn, allow yourself to regroup and get curious again, give yourself compassion, forgiveness, acceptance. He guesses you only asked for one thing, and he sees this as one thing. It’s like, pause and reset. You can do that multiple times per day, if you want. Pause, reset, pause, reset, it doesn’t take very much work.
Me: And I guess the average person is just going and going and going and going and it’s like they don’t actually take time. I think generally people feel like if they stop, and they’re not doing something that their productivity will decrease. But in order for you to be more productive, you really do we need those pauses, don’t you?
Dr. Moss agreed yes, you do. He knows how to run like the devil, he’s a doctor. So, they trained him in medical school to be up 24 hours in emergency rooms, and in psychiatry to deal with suicide, and with homicide, and with alcoholism and drug addiction and overdoses and all those things. He knows how to run hard. But the truth is, in those moments where he can get maybe even 5 minutes, let alone 20 minutes. So, just stop and sit or stop and appreciate. No one ever told him he’d be alive forever. And no one definitely ever told him that this life was not without any misery. So, the truth is, there’s massive misery, massive overwhelming misery all over the world. There are great reasons for it, it’s not in your head, it’s very real.
There’s nothing wrong with you for being miserable in a miserable world when it’s going on, for some reason, we have the capacity to recuperate or to reset ourselves because, have you noticed that some days when you’re just so totally spent, like you don’t have another ounce of energy left, that later in that same day you might have blissful moments, you might just realize the absolute beauty of life on the same day. That is a gift that came from us on creation and it’s extraordinary that this too shall pass still works. Even in this world where calamities are just happenstance, they’re just every day, there’s shit going on that is just thoroughly and totally unacceptable.
App, Website or Tool that Dr. Moss Absolutely Can’t Live Without in His Business
When asked about online resource that cannot live without in his business, Dr. Moss shared that he saw that question coming down the pike and he was thinking like, “Where am I right now with that particular question?” And he thinks the cheapest way would be to say something like email or messaging, but we’ll go past that. He thinks that Slack is really interesting, although it has flaws. And he thinks that all of the apps, they have significant flaws. He thinks that Google Docs and Dropbox are super interesting, he has no idea what he would do without those two in particular. How would he handle life without Google and Dropbox? There’s a lot of his stuff locked up in there, he doesn’t even know how to find it.
But he thinks some of the more interesting, newer apps, as he learns about them, he’s 64, so he’s sort of on the back edge, he’s not as quite as savvy as some of the 30 somethings like his son whose birthday is today (July 20th). But he thinks that some of those new apps are so extraordinary as they come off the press and the things they do. Some of these apps, they just do amazing things. But he thinks ultimately, the one he can’t live without is he’d have to say, unfortunately, is through Google Suite.
Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Dr. Moss
When asked about books that have an impact, Dr. Moss shared that he likes spiritual books. He can’t go very far without saying sort of like The Torah, The Talmud, The Mission, or the basic Old Testament Jewish texts, he loves those. He’s not reading them this very moment, but the truth is, when he does, his whole life gets re-centered. So, it’s hard to not pay attention to those books.
The books recently that he’s really been enjoying, he’s so excited about are by Alan Watts. He thinks Alan Watts is so brilliant, and just re centers all of this nonsense so easily in 10 and 15 minutes snippets. So, you can read little chapters, it’s generally readable. And he just takes on this whole idea that time is just an illusion, or space is just an illusion, or that all we really have is now and he does it in a way that he finds to be so entertaining and refreshing.
Now, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, he’s sure other people have answered that question, has answered it with that book. He thinks it’s a fine book and everything, he doesn’t know that it’s life changing book in his life. For some people, it really is. But once he gets past the Torah, then he has to get to what he’s reading now. He’s got so many books open in his living room. He has like 40 books that are open in his living room right now that he’s like almost done with or partially through and he just keeps reading. He just pulled off “To Kill a Mockingbird,” he’s like, “Oh, yeah, someday I’m going to read To Kill a Mockingbird, because I understand that that’s going to really change my life.” But he’s got like 23 books to read before he gets to that one. And then life goes on.
What Dr. Moss is Really Excited About Now!
When asked about something that he’s excited about, Dr. Moss stated that that’s a great question. He’s working on both with himself and with his people and the new course that he’s developed is called The True Voice Course. And it’s about your voice mattering. Basically, it’s an online course but it’s mixed in with a mastermind, you get his two books, you get access to him, and you get access to a community of like-minded individuals who are really out to bring their true voice forward.
He’s graduated over 50 people in his courses to move them from zero to podcasters. So, that’s one group of people you get, but you also get people who are really interested in bringing their voice forward. The technology he’s developed is comprehensive and he’s super excited about rolling out that course, you can find it at www.truevoicepodcasting.com and the first 10 people who come into that course are actually going to get it at half price. And that’s a significant savings. And they really just want those people to come in, take the course, let them know what works and if there’s parts of it that are vague, or maybe they overlook so that they can make this course spectacular for everyone. This course is running out, starting this week and next week, so by the time that this airs, it should have a number of people that are in it. He’s super excited about it because it really incorporates his books and his experience right there into a course where he can source people to find that true voice and bring it over to a world that’s waiting.
When he says that there’s a personal aspect to this, he’s doing the same thing with his wife. He has a wife, a gorgeous, unbelievable, amazing human being who he calls his wife. And they have 3 cats, and they live in a pretty cool house and they’re just kind of trying to figure out how to create a relationship every single day. And that’s the same thing, using the same technology, because if you’re not speaking your true voice, and no one is ever going to know you. And that’s the way he is with Alexandra (his wife) as well on the way she is with him, and they bring forth art and communication and creativity like the Creative 8 asked for as well as The True Voice, as well as her own special style, which is through dance and art to really create a relationship that’s never been done before. So, those are the two things and they’re kind of related and these are special times to be able to have come through this life and still be banging away on things that truly do matter, like human connection.
Me: Now, for those of our listeners that would want to tap into this programme, is it that it is geared towards a particular type of person? Or is it open to anyone regardless of where they are in their life?
Dr. Moss shared that it really is open to anyone. But he thinks what they’re really looking for, what they’re finding are the people who have felt muted, who feel muffled, who feel fearful, who feel that their voices are not being heard, or that they’re not speaking their true voice, and they’re eager to do so. Maybe there’s a new level of urgency given up all the world issues that we’re now experiencing. And these often turn out to be mothers, this often turned out to be mothers on the other side of an empty nest perhaps, or a divorce, or maybe even just mothers who want their children to have the voices. They start realizing that up until now, they’ve been caring for so many people, but, “What about me? Like, what about the things that really matter to me?” It’s the what about me people who are really taking this course by storm, who are like, “Yeah, I forgot how to speak my truth. I want to find my truth. I want to refine my truth. And then I want to deliver that truth.” And podcasting is one spectacular way to do that, it’s not the only way, they help people find their voice and then naturally they find when to deliver it and how they’re going to deliver it, even if it’s just in their family, or if it’s on a stage in front of 1000s of people. Either way, it’s the same general criteria, they help you take a deep dive to finding that authentic self of yours, rediscovering it, refining it, and then delivering it to the world that really is ready and willing to listen to you.
Where Can We Find Dr. Moss Online
Instagram – @drfredmoss
Facebook – @drfredmoss
LinkedIn – Fred R. Moss, MD
Email – [email protected]
Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Dr. Moss Uses
When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Dr. Moss stated that there’s a couple that come to mind. He used to answer this question with a Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.”He thinks that’s a sweet quote. He thinks there’s something else, there’s, “This too shall pass.” That is a beautiful quote. And that we are spiritual beings living a human experience, there’s something very beautiful about that too. He thinks that we are spiritual beings living a human experience can be very helpful as well, getting us centered into the here and now and getting that calamities and disasters and all those things that we hate, no one ever said that wasn’t going to be part of this live. So, this idea of really listening in order to learn seems like it comes very easily from this notion that we are spiritual beings living a human experience.
Me: So, we’ll have those two, the Rolling Stones, and this too shall pass. Really appreciate that. Now, thank you, again, Dr. Moss, for taking time out of your very busy day to hop on this podcast with us and share all of this awesome content on what you are doing, how you are trying to help people to have more real conversations to really get their message out there and just to be their most authentic and true self, it really was a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much.
Dr. Moss shared that it’s his pleasure. And thanks for working through all the all the technological challenges, it really was a beautiful conversation, and he appreciates Yanique and really to Yanique and her listeners. This isn’t a pitch for his product, he has a product, it’s true. But it’s not about that, these are difficult, urgent, real times. And what he really wants people to get is, if you don’t speak, no one will ever hear you and if you don’t speak your true voice, no one will ever know you. He has a capacity to source people to actually find that true voice and whether you use him or someone else, he’s just really, really, really is interested in people who are ready to put their foot down and get that yeah, in what’s left of this short life, even if it’s 10, 20, 40, 60 years from now, you want to get heard, you want to be loved, you want to be appreciated. Okay, then let’s start really getting with who you really are and making that happen. And whatever it takes to do that he implores the listeners and yourself to really step up because that’s all that’s left to do as far as he sees.
Me: Dr. Moss, so you have a gift for our listeners, please go ahead and share.
Dr. Moss shared that he has a gift, he wrote a book this year that he’s really proud of and it takes a deeper dive into this whole notion of how this technology works. He knows the title of the book will surprise the audience, it’s called Find Your True Voice and he’s going to send the actual book to the listeners if they just sign up for the book, and you can find that at www.findyourtruevoicebook.com. And he’ll send you a copy. And after that, he just want to hear what did you think of that book? Is there something there that can move you forward? Or where is it that this book or his talk is valuable? Because he’s super interested in delivering talks, and having people really get that if we don’t speak well….the future looks pretty grim.
And if we do speak, we can end all wars. And that’s what that book is about really finding a true voice and it’s simple to read, fun to read, fun to write, and he invites listeners to sign up for a free copy.
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