Discover the best way to manage your psychiatric drug taper and minimize withdrawal. Get more control and peace in your life now, and build the free, fulfilling life you deserve.

Confusion + Isolation = Failure.

There’s no one formula for success. But there is at least one formula for failure.

Tapering off meds is complicated.

It can trigger withdrawal symptoms that range from really unpleasant to completely overwhelming and unmanageable.

Even if you find your “new normal” - it’s hard to keep it.

It takes a lot of effort, patience and resilience - exactly what’s in short supply when you’re already struggling with the challenges that come with being human, and the disruptive cognitive and emotional issues arising from drug side effects. 

• Where can you go to get not just technical, but emotional support?

• What do you do when you need to ask more unique, personal questions?

• When you can’t even find the words, who in your life can possibly relate to what you are experiencing - let alone support and guide you through it?

So many things can go wrong if you’re unprepared, or on your own.

If you’ve been feeling insecure and unsure about taper-related decisions, or life after tapering, you’re not alone.

Confusion

The internet is full of confusing, contradictory, impersonal advice.

Even if you have the energy to DIY your taper, you might find yourself overwhelmed by all the conflicting information out there in forums and elsewhere.

How do people overcome the confusion?

• Get “outside expertise” to help you think through and validate your decisions.

• Hear what others just like you have experienced - good and bad - for reference.

• Get help communicating with your doctors and/or family members about tapering and withdrawal so they can support you better.

• Get personalized answers when you are not even sure what questions to ask - let alone find the answers.

Isolation

For most of us, tapering is not something we can do without help.

What’s the first thing you do when you feel off balance? You reach out for something - or someone - to hold on to.

• Venting to yourself is just rumination. 

• Venting to people who don’t get it can feel like complaining. 

• But, venting to people who “get it” is healing. 

How can you really trust reassurance or validation that comes from people with no personal experience with psych meds and tapering? 

Even our family members can feel isolated in supporting us if they don’t have anyone to talk to who understands what it is like for them to see us struggle. 

Failure

Without the information, answers and support we need, we get stuck.

Stuck in fear: fear of failure, fear of withdrawal, and fear of the unknown future. We stay stuck in a miserable loop - or worse, a downward spiral.

Maybe you’ve never tried tapering because of immobilizing fear of what it might be like, or wondering if it will be way too overwhelming. Or, maybe, you’ve just been smart enough to know you were not well-prepared enough yet to take any action.

You could already be in the middle of a taper - you might be thinking it could be going better if you had better information and more support.

If you’ve tried before and it didn’t go well, it is totally understandable that you may be afraid to try again.

And, even if you’ve completed a taper, (congratulations!), no one would blame you if you were worried about falling apart again, or felt you still needed support to continue to build and maintain your new, healthier life.

What if the answers you find are impersonal and the support you have is unhelpful?

Your doctor hasn’t “been there."

Sadly, mainstream medical professionals know next to nothing about how to do it - and don’t have much incentive to learn or help you.

Maybe your doctor doesn’t even acknowledge that what you are feeling are drug effects and not just “symptoms” of your “underlying condition”.

Your family doesn’t really “get it."

Your family and friends may love you, but can’t possibly understand how you feel and may not support the idea of tapering. They may actively oppose your decision.

Even if they support you, how do you get help from someone who has no personal experience with what you’re going through?

Your journey is unique.

Most online information treats tapering like there’s a blueprint. They try to oversimplify it - treat it as just tapering schedules and tapering strips - when it is so, so much more than that.

Most of us have dozens of personal questions that don’t fit a blueprint, with no way to get personalized answers.

And, no amount of spreadsheets, measuring tools, tapering strips, or doctors advice will ever do anything to help you with the emotional roller coaster of tapering and building a new, healthier life.

What if I do it wrong?
…and I create even worse problems than before?

What if it takes too long?
…and I miss out on having a family or a career?

What if it is too hard?
…and I have to go right back to square one?

What if it’s too painful?
…and I don’t know how to deal with withdrawal? 

What if I give up?
…and I go through the pain and effort for nothing?

What if I relapse?
…because I’m unprepared for “normal” life?

Imagine having the help and hope you need to unlock your own power to heal.

What if you felt truly seen and heard, had guidance you could trust, and could start feeling more peace tomorrow - not only after you’ve tapered?

No one can give you a blueprint for tapering off psych meds.

What we can do, however, is give you a place - the right environment - for success.

There are some critical ingredients you need to succeed:

• A Non-judgment Zone - somewhere it’s safe to be open and vulnerable.

• A Support System of confidants, cheerleaders, coaches, and companions.

• To Be an Active Participant In Your Healing

• Expert (Layperson) Guides who can give you clear, personalized guidance

• Accountability Partners and Shared Goals - to work together

• A Safe Haven to Ask Questions and step outside your comfort zone.

• People You Trust Who “Get It” - who respect diverse experiences.

Transformative Support Requires Experience + Empathy + Expertise

Lived Experience

If you engage in group support to help you build a new way of being in the world, to taper off meds and build a healthier future, you don’t want a group led by, or filled with people who have not actually experienced what you are experiencing. 

Part of the power of group support comes from your confidence in the group - the more you trust the group, the better it enables your successful personal growth. If you know that the group “gets it” - you can experience a much stronger degree of confidence.

Informed Empathy

“The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self: the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” David Whyte

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. And, as a powerful skill, many people learn to do this - even when it means trying to understand people who’ve had experiences you haven’t personally had.

But, there is an extra dimension to empathy when it comes from people who don’t have an “imagination gap” - people who have experienced something - maybe not exactly like you - but very similar to what you’re experiencing.

Practical Expertise

For a group to truly help you succeed you need experts with these TWO characteristics:

1. They have expertise in leading groups, coaching and facilitating - specifically in relation to tapering off meds, and building a life after meds. They need to be familiar with the particular challenges and dynamics of a group of people all dealing with withdrawal and all making a significant change.

2. But they also need expertise that is not theoretical, only from books. They need practical expertise. They need to have learned, through earned experience, how tapering really works for a wide variety of people. They need to have experience in dealing with a wide variety of challenges that come up when tapering in the real world - not just in theory.

Introducing

Fortify & Focus
Group Support Program

A Monthly Group Coaching Program for Psychiatric Drug Tapering and Building a Healthier Life Beyond Meds.

The Fortify & Focus Group Support Program is a monthly membership program that gives you weekly guidance and coaching, a community of people who “get it”, and expert, personal answers from Laura Delano.

• Group Sessions

  • Attend from two up to six monthly group coaching sessions, virtually.

• Personal Answers

  • Access our video-based Q&A library for answers to your questions.

  • Submit new personal, practical questions to get new video responses.

• Shared Experience

  • Get support from your peers and learn from their questions and input

• Monthly Newsletter

  • A monthly newsletter with additional answers, advice, tools and resources.

After many years of suffering within the mental health system and on a cocktail of different psychiatric medication, I realized that I was being harmed, not helped. I met Laura and Cooper who were able to validate my experience and I decided I wanted to come off the drugs; they helped me set up a safe, harm-reductionist taper plan and provided guidance, support and newfound hope to me AND my family. Laura and Cooper presented my family and I strategies for healing and recovery. Their first hand experience with breaking free from the psychiatric system offers unique understanding and insight about shedding the diagnostic labels and reclaiming power over one's life."

-Bianca G.

Reclaim your mental and physical well-being from the compounding negative effects of long term, psychiatric drug dependence.

In this Program You’ll Get
Guidance + Support + Answers

This is a group support experience for those starting, in the midst of, or living life after a taper off psychiatric medication.

Our group coaching provides you with weekly touch points with people who understand your experience first hand, who are not experts or medical professionals trying to label, diagnose, or medicate you.

Guidance

• Become more informed about safer psychiatric drug tapering and effective ways of coping with withdrawal symptoms

• Decrease the time, energy, and emotion you expend on thinking about withdrawal

• Feel clear about what it looks like to taper using our philosophy (whether you’re following it to a T or not)

Support

• Feel more confident that you can and will heal—that your body and brain are resilient, and your spirit is strong enough to endure 

• Feel reassured from the knowledge that you have a safe, compassionate community available to you every day who understands you because they’ve “been there”

• Feel validated, recognized, and less alone in your experience

Answers

• Ease your fear and expand the ways you make sense of withdrawal symptoms 

• Learn ways of optimizing the process of healing from psychopharmaceutical trauma

• Communicate and advocate for yourself more effectively with family, friends, and practitioners regarding taper- and withdrawal-related issues

And Accountability

If you want, you can choose to also make this a place that provides accountability for your own activities and goals related to tapering off meds, and pursuing a healthy life that includes living with both pain and joy.

Program Details

When you join Fortify & Focus, you’ll get instant access to the member portal. From there the program is delivered in three primary ways:

• Twice-weekly Live Coach-led group support calls

• A Q&A Resource Library with answers recorded by Laura Delano

• The ability to submit new questions for Laura to respond to via video

• A Monthly newsletter 

Feature 1: “Drop-in” Group Coaching

Attend ANY session, anytime: This program is designed for “drop-in attendance.” 

• Sessions are live and private. No recordings. 

• Sessions are not cohort based - attend any session at your convenience. (We recommend 2-3 sessions per month, and will initially offer a minimum of six sessions per month at various times/days of the month - adding more as we're able).

• No curriculum or sequential lessons or homework. This is a coaching experience, not an instructional course - although there certainly is plenty of educational material.

• Sessions may include: topic discussion, group exercises, writing prompts, optional sharing and feedback rounds, and optional take-home work and writing prompts.

• The session schedule and topics will be published in your member portal.

• We strive to accommodate a variety of time zones and schedules and will be adding more sessions and options over time.

  • At least 6 session per month will be pre-scheduled

  • We'll strive to have 1-2 per week - at different times for various time zones

  • Special events about once per month, like live group calls with Laura. These calls cover special topics ranging from tapering, to organizing family support, to dealing with anger, and more.

Feature 2:  Q&A Resource Library & Personal Responses

• The group sessions may not always be the best place for more practical or personal questions about tapering and withdrawal. For those, use our Q&A resource library:

  •  Get access to our growing library of Q&A videos from Laura Delano

  • Don't see answers to your questions in the library? No problem. Just submit your question to be added to the queue for new video responses from Laura.

  • New answers will be added to the video resource library and may also be featured in our monthly newsletter. 

• This is a great way to get more personalized answers that can’t be addressed in the group coaching sessions. 

• You’ll also learn a lot just by seeing the questions and answers of your peers.

• (Any recorded answers will be anonymized to protect everyone’s privacy.)

Feature 3: Monthly F&F Newsletter

Every month, we’ll release a new issue. The main purpose of this newsletter is to share highlights from Laura's Q&A video responses and the resource library. 

The newsletter will also be a place for spotlighting success stories, sharing information or tools, guest articles, and a preview of any upcoming member events or group session themes.

Unlock Your Own Power to Heal with the Right Guidance, Support, and Answers.

In the midst of a recent crisis during my wife’s tapering journey, Laura Delano proactively reached out to my family on multiple occasions…just to see how we were doing. Laura was not “on the clock” or “just doing her job.” She really cared. Her love and concern for my family was authentic and sincere. Clearly, Laura’s work is more than a vocation…it is a passion and a calling rooted in empathy that could only be born out of her own journey of withdrawal from psychiatric medications. Any family would be blessed to have Laura, along with her encouragement and experience, at their side during what can often be a very difficult season." 

-Kevin

Why Choose Fortify & Focus?

How is Group Support or Group Coaching different from other kinds of taper and withdrawal support out there (courses, templates, books, consulting, etc)?

Coaching is different from "advising" or teaching or telling. It is different from passive reading or passive courses. As your group facilitators and coaches, we

• create a safe, non-judgmental environment where you can be seen and heard.

• create the opportunity for you to connect with others experiencing something similar.

• Help you explore and understand your deeper motivation - your "why."

• Support you in creating a clearer vision for your future, and goals or action steps.

• Empower you to act as the experts on your own body, mind, and lived experience.

• Help the group see the challenges and blind spots that could be preventing change.

• If desired, we also provide accountability and support as you pursue your own goals.

We empower you to navigate through your withdrawal issues by hearing you, believing in you, and directing you to the best resources you can use in your specific situation.

We offer the kind of support that ensures you can successfully build a new, non-medicalized life with the skills and practices that allow you to start feeling joy today, now, not only after you complete your taper or "get better."

We are specifically aiming to avoid the "medical expert" model and the “medication” model that permeates mainstream medicine - the models that got you here in the first place. 

Each of us on the coaching team is a layperson with our own lived experience, supporting each other - We are coaches, and unlike doctors, not psychiatrists, therapists, or counselors - we believe in leaving your well-being in your control. We support you in reclaiming your own life.

If you are here, you are not only getting our support in changing your life, you are offering your support to the group, who are all doing the same.

Hello. I’m Laura.

Everyone behind Fortify & Focus has had personal experiences with psychiatric diagnosis, and with taking and coming off psychiatric drugs. And as the founder, I’m no exception.

It took them four years, but by the time I turned 18 years old, the medical establishment had finally convinced me I was “mentally ill” - bipolar disorder - and would be for the rest of my life. 

Over the ten years to follow, I took nineteen different psychiatric drugs. I accumulated a long list of other diagnoses, including “Major depression”, “Eating disorder NOS”, “Substance abuse disorder”, and “Borderline personality disorder.”  I sought help from countless therapists, outpatient programs, partial hospital programs and hospitalization - and still, I never seemed to “get better." 

Finally, I came to the realization that this system of “help”— the mental health system— was not only unhelpful, but actually making my problems far worse. 

With almost no help or guidance available, I came off my five medications (lithium, Lamictal, Abilify, Effexor, and Ativan); it was, for me, a rocky road. But, I knew with conviction that if I stood a chance at reconnecting meaningfully with myself, I needed to go through this process of liberation. 

For twelve years now, I’ve been working to provide people with all the information and guidance I never received, so that they can find their own way to liberation, while tapering in as meaningfully informed a way as possible. 

I’ve been writing and speaking about my personal experiences and about the broader social and political issues sitting at the heart of “mental illness” and “mental health." 

I’ve worked within the mental health system: providing support to and advocating for the rights of individuals in emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, and institutional “group home” settings.

And I’ve worked outside the traditional system: consulting with individuals and families seeking help during the psychiatric drug withdrawal process. 

I’ve given talks, interviews and workshops internationally, facilitated mutual-aid groups for people in withdrawal, organized various conferences and public events such as the Mad in America International Film Festival, and founded an educational non-profit, Inner Compass Initiative. 

I also educate psychiatrists and mental health professionals about safer tapering protocols, and regularly consult with professional organizations looking to implement withdrawal support and resources.

One thing I’ve realized is that people need more hands-on, practical tapering support. Not only ‘technical’ or how-to, but also emotional support. 

So, I’ve launched Fortify & Focus as a way to expand my ability to reach and support more people in a way that is still very personal and compassionate - and true to my belief that the support needs to come from the real experts on tapering and building a life after psychiatric drugs: those of us who’ve lived it for ourselves. 

Unlock Your Own Power to Heal with the Right Guidance, Support, and Answers.

At times during withdrawal and tapering, I’ve felt like I’m under water, out of air but no sense of which way is up. Laura’s been an invaluable guide for me, not just sharing her wisdom and experience, but helping me to trust myself to know which way to swim to the surface. She’s helped immensely with planning my taper and, more importantly, finding meaning in overcoming what psychiatry thrust upon me.”

-Daniel B.

You Don’t Have to Overcome Pain to Cultivate Joy.

Choosing this path is seen by many as unconventional. And, it is not an easy transformation. (All the more reason you may not want to go it alone.)

There are many legitimate fears that may keep you from starting down this path:

I’m not strong enough / good enough.

Join the crowd! I don’t think any of us have ever really thought we were strong enough. (That is one reason that Fortify & Focus is a group-based offering, not a passive online course you do on your own.) What I can tell you is that many, many people - just like you, who were suffering and struggling as much as, or more than you are now, have successfully tapered off their medication. They’ve discovered a whole new lease on life - a new way of living that returns them to themselves and teaches them to live with, rather than run from, the joy and pain of this human experience.

I’m not ready.

Ultimately, you have to be the judge of when it is the right time for you–and whether it is right for you to taper at all. But, I can assure you that if you decide, like I did, that your current situation is doing more harm than good, you can join our group even to just explore the possibilities and hear from others who are tapering, or have already tapered.

There may never be a time when it feels ‘easy’ - but what you can do, is give yourself the gift of the best possible support.

I can’t afford it. It is too expensive.

We’ve done our best to make this accessible to a wide variety of people. And, we’ve also designed the program so that you don’t have to make any long term commitments. You can join and leave - and even join again later - whenever you want, and whenever you need the extra support.

That said, right now as a new program, we are offering Fortify & Focus at a much, much lower price than it will be in the future. We want to fill the community quickly and iron out any wrinkles before we expand. 

Note: If you feel you still can’t afford it at this lower price, keep in touch and watch my emails. In the future, once we are running and stabilized, we may partner with non-profit organizations to offer new ways for everyone to have equal access.

Get in on the Introductory Offer:

This is a new, limited time offer. If you think, at all, that this could help you, now is the time to try it. If you wait, not only does the introductory price go away, but we are not 100% sure how many people we will be able to accept into the program and still give quality support.

It may be a stretch, but consider the cost of not taking action:

• What is the cost of continuing to feel how you feel now - for another year? Two years?

• How much are you already spending on medication, doctors, remedies, and other products purchased to help mitigate symptoms?

• How much are you losing by not being able to show up in the way you want in your career - or family? 

We have opened this up to a very select group of people first–people who are already “in the know." So, if you join now, you’re going to be in very good company. These initial support groups we form are going to be powerful and create lifelong change and connections.

Consider that one-on-one consulting can run in the $1000’s of dollars per month. Consider the cost of even one short term on-site program or retreat. By making this a group experience, we are able to offer a tremendous experience, at a fraction of the cost of the alternatives.

Retail Monthly Enrollment Fee

Regular Fee: $595/month 

New Program Discount Price:

$395/month

As a new offering, we are temporarily lowering the price to everyone - from $595/m to $395/m as we launch and work out all the wrinkles. This price will go back up soon.

Join Fortify & Focus for
$395/month 

As a “Founding Member”

As a month to month program, you can join or drop the program any time you want - as many times as you want. You can use the group program as a temporary support as you need it.

However, when you enroll at this introductory rate now, you will LOCK in this monthly rate permanently. As long as you remain an active group support member, your price will not increase to the normal retail price. If you drop out, however, you are free to join again anytime, at the current retail price offered at that future date.

We’ll never offer this introductory price again.

40-day Guarantee

We are confident that if you engage in the program and commit to participation, you will love the support and empowerment you experience right away. 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.

Start Building a More Vibrant Life Today.

Regular Fee: $595/month $395/month

New Program Discount: -$200

Your investment: $395/month

I came off a cocktail of psychotropic drugs by cold turkey not knowing how nasty it would get. During my withdrawal I suffered at home without any proper help. As I was experiencing the madness I looked for any information I could find to at least know what was happening to me. I came across Laura’s story on the internet that was made many years ago. It gave me an understanding and hope in my recovery. I finally was able to connect with her and it was encouraging for me because for once I met someone who had shared my misery.  Her words of encouragement gave me hope and strength to continue. It’s been a year now totally free of my psychotropic drugs and I am becoming a human being again."

-Thomas W.

Frequently Asked Questions

I can’t make all the calls - will they be offered at different times? 

The good news is you don’t neet to attend them all. We recommend attending at least two per month. Given that each of us on the F&F team lives in the eastern part of North America, we’ve done our best to pick times that enable people from as many time zones as possible to attend at least two (ideally more!) calls each month. If you are unable to make any calls, please let us know by writing Becca at [email protected]. We’ll do our best to meet the needs of our community members, so if enough people are simply unable to make the times we’ve started out with, we will adjust in whatever way we can to better accommodate them.

Will my privacy in group coaching calls be protected? 

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.

How many questions can I submit for video responses from Laura?

As many as you want– but we respectfully request that you keep them succinct and clear so that Laura is able to give a meaningful, relevant response. Laura will answer all questions as her time permits. In the event that you submit a question that has already been answered and added to the video library, we'll let you know to review that response first.

Do I have to be off all my meds– or in the process of coming off all my meds– to join? 

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.

Can family members and caregivers join Fortify & Focus?

Right now, Focus & Fortify is open to people who are on/coming off/off psychiatric drugs. 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!

Do you help people with tapering?

Group coaching calls are designed to help you explore your personal “why” and stay connected with your own goals and motivations, while the Q&A service with Laura is an opportunity to help you address questions about the “how” of tapering and withdrawal.

What happens if I join in the middle of the month-- will I pay for calls that have already happened?

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 you've already missed.

Is there a long-term commitment?

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 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. Just be aware that the enrollment fees will vary. You may not have access to the same monthly rate you had before if you drop and come back.

What is your refund policy?

We are confident that if you engage in the program and commit to participation, you will love the support and empowerment you experience right away. 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.

What technology do I need to access the group coaching sessions?

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 space. You do, however, need to have the Zoom app downloaded on your device or use Zoom through a web browser to access the event.

Do I need a computer to log into Fortify & Focus?

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.

If I’m already a member of another Mighty Networks community, can I use the same email address? 

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.’ 

Laura Delano and her team are not medical, counseling, or otherwise licensed professionals. The contents herein are for informational and support purposes only. Any information or commentary provided herein is intended to educate individuals on "mental health"-related issues that may affect their daily lives. Nothing in the information or commentary should be considered or used as medical or clinical advice.