Rob Wipond co-founded Inner Compass Initiative and contributed research, writing and editing for the websites of both Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project. Since 1998 he has been a freelance investigative journalist and has garnered a number of journalism and magazine-writing awards for his work. The second feature news story he ever published involved interviewing people about what it was like to be treated against your will in a psychiatric hospital, and while fact-checking the article he discovered that many of the patients and ex-patients he'd interviewed had been both more forthright and often more knowledgeable than the mental health professionals about the effects and risks of many common psychiatric treatments. In some ways, one could say he's been writing about that phenomenon ever since. In recent years, he has also volunteered extensively in community engagement for social change, including co-founding a community investment fund, a housing land trust, and the Building Resilient Neighbourhoods project. Exploring yoga, Holotropic Breathwork and other ways of inducing non-ordinary states of consciousness has been an interest throughout his life, and he credits those experiences, good friendships, and early opportunities to work and play in poetry, theater and music with helping him bypass the mental health system. More information and writings are available at robwipond.com.