In the Open

America and Theresa are back from their holiday break to bring you a show on the topic on trusting yourself. There is a discussion about personal responsibility and whether or not they each trust themselves. They talk about the importance of healing with others, gaining self-confidence and being vulnerable and trusting yourself with a mental illness. To take a mental health screen, or to find ment...

Emily Skehill and David Riley are back to explore getting the most out of your medication treatment. They talk about discussing expectations with your doctor about what you want from your medication and the first steps to take after you fill your prescription. Emily and David share when they started taking medication and the process of where they are now in their medication treatments, being consi...

How To Stay Positive It’s raining at America’s house so she and Theresa try to bring some light on a dark day by discussing how they try to stay positive. The perception of positivity is different for everybody and these two go to completely different places to distract themselves and try to stay upbeat. They talk about the impact of having a positive people around you, what they do to pull themse...

Theresa and America are talking about the benefits of owning pets and the effects on your mental health. One is a pet owner and the other done is not so they both dive into their current situation and all the pets they’ve owned throughout their lives. Pets can be a real companion in life but finding the pet that matches your needs is key. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health in...

This is the conclusion of the trauma series with learning to connect with others. Theresa and America share their progress through this series and how it’s helped them connect with other people better. They talk about the steps leading to being vulnerable with a group of people, being a part of support groups and finding your community. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health info...

America and Theresa explore the feeling of being stuck. This topic was inspired by a listener question about moving to the action of getting un-stuck. They talk about the ties to trauma and being stuck, how telling people can help push you to do the thing you need to do, turning off your anxious brain and the biggest thing to change behaviors is to change the behaviors themselves. To take a mental...

Theresa and America give insight on building healthy relationships after trauma. They recall how their relationships were before acknowledging their trauma and how conflict was the real test in a relationship. They take a question about repairing relationships and offer some important keys to conflict resolution. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, v...

Theresa and America explore learning how to love yourself in spite of your trauma. They go through their process of discovering how their traumatic experiences affected their personalities. They talk about how they’ve progressed in their self-love, the benefits of positive affirmations and if self-love is tough; try to get to the bottom of why that is and what is preventing you from doing so. To t...

America and Theresa dive into dealing with strong emotions surrounding trauma. There is a conversation about fight or flight and also trying to get a grip on control when strong emotions pop up. They talk about how stress becomes a major contributor to your reactions, some differences in men and women with trauma and finding people who will help you navigate through your strong emotions. To take a...

Theresa and America are continuing the topic of trauma, but they transition to healing. They explore the concept of changing the thoughts you tell yourself which is also known as cognitive restructuring. They share recent moments where things bothered them more than expected and they dive into why they think it affected them plus they narrow it down to two choices: you can avoid you issues or do t...

America and Theresa explore the healing that comes after trauma. They both give a timeline of their trauma in their lives and how they are healing from their trauma. They talk about doing the hard work to unpack moments of failure, the healing journey and the moments when they knew there was hope. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, visit  mhascreeni...

The trauma series continues with how trauma affects your values. They try to differentiate values and beliefs and they identify which values are really important to both of them. They make the connection between worth and ability and having the willingness to receive support. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, visit  mhascreening.org To submit quest...

How does trauma affect our actions? Theresa and America explore how trauma has affected how they react in certain situations and some their triggers that have made them lash out. There is a discussion of some of the subtle and more serious circumstances that they have identified as issues they are sensitive to. They talk about trauma in all relationships, how our insecurities affect our actions an...

Theresa and America remain on the topic of trauma and this time they explore how trauma affects people’s beliefs. They share how trauma can affect your core beliefs and shape the way you see the world. They talk about how the ability to evaluate and change your thoughts and beliefs are critical to getting better and Theresa comes to a realization about some of her coping mechanisms. To take a ment...

America and Theresa bring on Alyson Zalta (Clinical Psychologist/Associate Professor at UC Irvine) to speak about how trauma affects the brain. They share some important factors on how trauma affects the brain like intrusive memories and environmental triggers. They talk about the emotional processing theory, emotional numbing and the benefits of the full body approach when treating trauma. To tak...

As part of their trauma series, Theresa and America explore how trauma affects our sleep. They share what it takes for them to get some good rest and the things that throw them off when it’s time to sleep. They talk about recognizing the signs of how your trauma affects your sleep, the military method for falling asleep and how good sleep centers around finding safety. To take a mental health scre...

The trauma series continues and the focus on this episode is on whether or not you can trust your memories. There is a discussion about how your brain tries to protect you and ways in which you can try to get confirmation that your memories happened. They talk about flashbulb memories, journaling so you can keep records of your personal experiences and the importance of validation. To take a menta...

America and Theresa record their next installment in their trauma series and it’s about how trauma can show up later in life. They talk about feeling stuck or being held back by their trauma and how they move past it. America shares situations where her trauma pops up and how it ties to her worth. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, visit  mhascreeni...

America and Theresa kick off a new series and this episode covers having a traumatic childhood. There is a discussion around trauma and how they are unpacking it 30 years later. They talk about how they’ve both dealt with trauma differently, neglect as a form trauma and they ask whether or not they would ever change anything about their past to avoid their traumatic childhood. To take a mental hea...

This is the final episode in the grief series, turning suffering into action. Once you’ve gone through these different stages of grief, what then? They talk about seeking out meaning and validation, coming to terms with the impact of your grief and how your recovery in grief is best done with others. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, visit  mhascre...

America and Theresa move along in their grief series and pivot to acceptance. Theresa explains a working theory of acceptance and denial becoming hope. They both explore what acceptance looks like for them, how acceptance shouldn’t be the destination and the feeling of being covered in the blanket of grief and seeking light and hope. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health informa...

In this next installment of their grief series, Theresa and America move onto the question what do I do? They explore the idea of how to deal with grief when you have no control. They talk about rooting yourself in what you can control, implementing grounding techniques and some cultural customs tied to grief. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information and resources, visi...

The series on grief continues and on this episode they explore the stage of depression and feeling numb. They both share how they experience feeling numb and the disconnect that comes with it. They talk about how some people pull away during this stage, differences between depression and introversion and how all these stages do eventually get better. To take a mental health screen, or to find ment...

*This episode of “In The Open” contains explicit language* Theresa and America continue their series on grief and in this episode they focus in on anger. There is a discussion on when they both get to the attitude of just “f**k it” and when they respond to anger. They talk about how they process anger individually, how they attempt to move past it and all the experiences across the anger spectrum....

Last time they talked about the stage of denial and in this episode Theresa and America go over the bargaining space. They talk about two sides of bargaining: wishing you were somewhere else and processing through it to alleviate the guilt. There is a discussion about acceptance and why bargaining isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To take a mental health screen, or to find mental health information a...