Therapedia the Podcast

In this week's episode, Jenn and Audriannah interview Mindy Derseweh.  Mindy is a holistic healer, meditation guide, and life coach working for Gather and Grow OC.  In this interview, Audriannah and Jenn talk with Mindy about what holistic healing means, who might seek her out for coaching, and why someone would choose to access a multi-practitioner practice.  At the end of the episode, Mindy leads listeners in a beautiful meditation focusing on cultivating self-love and kindness.  For those who are on the nerdy side, there may also be some geeking out about the representation of mental health in video games and Princess Mononoke.

Resources from Mindy Derseweh:
Website: https://www.gatherandgrowoc.com/mindy-derseweh
Instagram: Mindyselfloveteachings
YouTube: GatherandGrowOC and then click on Mindy's Self Love Teaching Episodes

NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.  
RECORDED: 11/15/20

In the first episode of a Foundations of Coping series, Jenn and Audriannah do a deep dive into the "master skill" of mindfulness.   In this time of disconnection and global trauma, tapping into the present moment can be challenging and uncomfortable, but necessary if we want to live our lives fully and with authenticity.  Audriannah and Jenn discuss the origins of this skill and how it can promote honesty, intimacy, gentleness, and connection with ourselves and others.  The ladies also discuss ways to put mindfulness into action in ways that match our goals and fit fluidly into our busy lives.  

Resources/Shout-Outs in this Episode:
- Tara Brach (Clinical Psychologist, mindfulness meditation teacher) - https://www.tarabrach.com/
- Thich Nhat Hanh (Zen Master, spiritual leader, author) - https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/
- Jack Kornfield (Buddhist-trained mindfulness teacher) - https://jackkornfield.com/

NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.  
RECORDED: 10/25/20

This week, Audriannah and Jenn discuss the concept of voting as an invitation to make your desires and needs known, akin to setting boundaries in a relationship.   In a political climate where it is easy to feel out of control and helpless, this episode asks you to engage with your power of choice and step fully into difficult moments and difficult conversations.  Jenn and Audriannah explore the idea of "the personal is political": how choosing to engage - or disengage - with politics is an act that will inform how we feel about ourselves, other people, and the world at large.  With a mindful "zooming out" and "zooming in" perspective, the ladies examine coping skills that can help us experience peace and freedom in a chaotic and divisive world.
NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.  
RECORDED: 10/18/20

After a brief hiatus, Audriannah and Jenn are back at it  with an episode about the challenges of navigating life transitions.   On a global scale, we find ourselves in both a pandemic and a highly volatile political climate, needing to constantly adjust our perspectives and settle into "a new normal";  individually, we experience changes on  a smaller but equally important scale.   Jenn and Audriannah share their recent personal experiences with transitions, as well as observations from the therapist's chair about what makes transitions so universally distressing... and what we can do about it.  The ladies address the fallacies and unhelpful narratives that can sometimes stifle our growth during a transition, and offer different perspectives and tools to more smoothly experience the seasons of our lives.
NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.  RECORDED: 10/11/20

In her first solo episode, Jenn discusses an issue that is plaguing most folks right now: getting adequate, quality sleep.  Topics include: the neurobiology of sleep; the symptomatic presentation of sleep as an embodiment of trauma, anxiety, or depression; the basics of sleep hygiene; rest as an act of rebellion against grind culture; and a layman's guide to dream interpretation.  Rounding this episode out is a walk-through of how to do autogenic relaxation to help your mind, body, and spirit get the rest it needs and deserves.
RECORDED: 8/24/20
NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.
Shout-Outs/Resources in this Episode:
- The Nap Ministry (https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/)
- Sleep Cove (www.sleepcove.com) 

In their first episode directly related to the "lived experience" of mental health, Jenn and Audriannah interview Robin Murray, a singer, actress, and improv comedian living in New York.  Robin opens up about experiencing microaggressions and a lack of representation in her theatre education program, and how this impacted her mental health.  Topics include the struggle of developing self-care practices and an authentic sense of self while navigating conflicting messages and an emotionally unsafe environment.  Having discovered hope and new purpose, Robin shares how she changed her narratives of self-loathing and became inspired her to pursue a complementary career in mental health. 
WARNING: This episode contains sensitive subject material related to suicide, self-harm, and the effects of racism.  If this feels too triggering for you, please consider listening to another episode or proceeding with caution.  
RECORDED: 8/2/20.  
NOTE:  All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.
INTERVIEWEE BIO:
Robin Murray is a singer, actress, and improv comedian currently living in Brooklyn in New York City, but she is originally from the Bay Area.  She is a 2018 graduate of the Circle in the Square Theatre School in Manhattan and currently performs via Zoom with her Manhattan-based improv group Eight is Never Enough.  She performed this past weekend in a livestream event of the play Revenge and Sorrow in Thebes and she is also taking part in a play-reading group called Weekend Reads, based in Chicago. On a personal level, Robin is a Black bisexual woman who has lived experience with generalized anxiety and being in long-term therapy.  Recently, Robin and other BIPOC alumni of Circle in the Square came together to create Circle of Inequity and shared their experiences of racism, sexism, and microaggressive behavior in an open letter that demands change within the program and recognizes White American Theatre as a significant contributor to racial injustice.  This and other life experiences have inspired her to return to school to become a therapist, with a focus on supporting performers, artists, musicians, and specifically performing arts students.  She is excited to begin her BA in Psychology at SUNY Empire State College in the fall!  

 As a follow-up to listener feedback from the previous episode "Answer Your Body's Call" (Episode 103), this is the second discussion of food and body as it relates to mental health.  In this episode, Jenn and Audriannah discuss their personal experiences and global observations of what it is like to "be in our skin" during a public health crisis, as well as the resulting changes in our bodies, minds, and experience of food.  The ladies offer a deep dive into the problems of diet culture, including its racist roots, the restrict/binge cycle, and the inherent morality of food and bodies that perpetuates diet culture mentality.  Audriannah and Jenn discuss how to question the narratives of diet culture and develop a sustainable, healthy relationship with your food and body through the principles of intuitive eating.  Also, they drool over alfredo sauce. RECORDED: 7/25/20. NOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.
Shout-Outs/Resources in this Episode:
Christy Harrison (@christyharrison) - Anti-Diet (book) and Food Psych (podcast);
Megan Jayne Crabbe (@bodyposipanda) on Instagram (author/activist);
Tess Holliday (@tessholliday) on Instagram (activist/model);
Health at Every Size by Dr. Lindo (formerly Linda) Bacon (book) - www.lindobacon.com;
Nicole Byer (@nicolebyer) - Why Won't You Date Me? (podcast);
The Body is Not an Apology (book) by Sonya Renee Taylor (@sonyareneetaylor)

"Denial is a river in Egypt."  This week, Audriannah and Jenn reflect on the strangeness of living in 2020, and the ways in which people may be defending themselves by denying, repressing, or otherwise avoiding harsh realities.  The ladies discuss the Top 10 defense mechanisms as defined by psychodynamic theory, their evolutionary purpose, and how they can present individually, relationally, and globally.  Jenn and Audriannah also present options for coping skills to help get "unstuck" from these defenses, reframe the "dumpster fire" that is 2020, and move into a mindset of personal growth. RECORDED: 7/14/20.  NOTE:  All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.

As podcasters in an ever-fluctuating world, Audriannah and Jenn chose to shift the order of episode releases in the wake of George Floyd's murder in order to address the more pressing issue of racial injustice.  This episode - "Here's Your Permission Slip!" - was recorded immediately preceding Floyd's death, and is a deep dive into movement as an integral aspect of holistic health.  Audriannah and Jenn sit down with yoga, dance, and movement practitioner Ashley Brown to discuss yoga & movement as medicine for the mind, body and spirit.  Topics include: Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), dance as collective healing, moving past internal judgment and prejudices about our bodies, the role of discomfort in healing, and giving yourself "permission slips" to move joyfully, authentically, and intuitively.  In a time where we are all navigating "relative degrees of stuckness" in our minds, bodies, and spirits, we at HDTMYF hope that this helps you to move stagnant energy and grow through your discomfort. 
RECORDED: 5/22/20.  
NOTE:  All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.
INTERVIEWEE BIO:
Ashley Brown has been working with her body for the past 20 years in many different dance styles and body therapy modalities. In 2015, Ashley completed her 200hr yoga certification from Square One Yoga Collective. Ashley’s approach to teaching is alignment and anatomy based, suited for the individual practitioner; investigating how the body can move to the fullest range of motion with awareness of placement and breath. Using the body as a vehicle to process this human experience to feel more free, creative, and grounded to connect to the divine. Ashley’s classes encompass all aspects of the yoga with chanting, mudras, and pranayama (breathwork) honoring the tradition with its many different branches to self-awareness. Drawing from the deep well of Hatha yoga, Ashley also draws from many lineages in yoga. Besides practicing asana, chanting, and meditation, Ashley teaches dance and yoga throughout the Bay Area. Ashley is continuing her education with trauma-sensitive trainings from Niroga Institute, TRE with Brooke Deputy and currently, completed her 500hrs Teacher Training in 2018. Ashley would like to acknowledge that she stands on the shoulders of the teachers and ancestors before her. She is and continues to learn about the harm that has been caused by her ancestors. Her liberation process works to align with the liberation of ALL beings: BIPOC, LBGTQIA+, Animals, and the Elements and recognizes that the health and wellness community disproportionately exclude BIPOC and Queer folks. She recognizes the lineage and practice of yoga has been capitalized and appropriated from its original context and lineage, Sanatana Dharma, and from it's original land, India. Ashley does not claim to have created any of the healing practices she talks about, but only occupies the space of a lifelong student. All of these healing practices are freely accessible to all no matter age, race, ability, socioeconomic status. Website: www.ashleybrowndanceandyoga.org. Facebook: @ashleybrowndanceandyoga.  Instagram: @abdanceandyoga.  

Keeping in line with the podcast's goal of amplifying melanated voices, Jenn and Audriannah sat down (virtually) with Dr. Brigee Jackson to discuss the intersection of racial injustice and mental health.  Dr. Jackson, a Black woman and an Oakland native, identifies herself a woman of faith and serves as the Clinical Counseling Coordinator for Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR).  The ladies get vulnerable and "spicy" as they share personal experiences and professional viewpoints on the Black Lives Matter movement.  Topics include: allyship, the ABC's of coping, vicarious trauma, microaggressive behavior, Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, humility, and the wisdom of the prophet Lil Wayne.  

RECORDED: 6/17/20.  NOTE:  All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding.  Please skip these exercises if you're driving.