Sturdy Glass Sponges

I’m done with mental models that no longer keep me healthy. It sounds like I’m on the right track as  ⁠Dr. Diane McIntosh⁠  – renowned and esteemed Canadian psychiatrist, educator, and author – joins me on this concluding episode of Sturdy Glass Sponges. According to Dr. McIntosh, the world has never been more open to finding ways to expanding the horizons on mental health, and she shares her insi...

It’s alarming to know that at any point in time, 1 in 3 Canadians are struggling with their mental health and those who do feel they need mental health care, can’t access it. It’s unbelievable to think that in this day and age, a time where we’re constantly hearing about the importance of getting help, access to care still isn’t equitable. Psychological services are proven to be an effective way t...

What is a friendship? And why does it sometimes feel hard to define the word the older we get? This episode explores this topic and more as specifically asked for by my podcast listeners. I’m joined by Dr. Miriam Kirmayer, a nationally respected and esteemed relationship psychologist who gives it to us in a straight and clear way.  Social well-being is vital to our total health and while rese...

When glass sponges, deep-sea animals, are threatened or injured, they physically shut themselves off so they can recalibrate their next move. This innate ability to take care of themselves isn’t lost on me – we’ll never escape life’s curveballs and downfalls but it doesn’t mean in any way whatsoever that we’re incapable of taking care of ourselves so that we can move forward. And that we can creat...

This is part 2 of Episode 6 - split into two separate conversations where I’m joined by the ever so inspiring, and Canada’s leading psychological health and safety in the workplace leader, Mary Ann Baynton , and a behavioural scientist and organizational coach and thought-leader in the San Diego area, Victoria Tucker. Listen on to hear my chat with Mary Ann Baynton who gives us a look at her rich...

In this episode, split out into two parts, I’m shifting the well-being discussion to the workplace. Knowing that we all carry our personal experiences with us, we might at times have a ton on our minds and the interactions we have with each other can impact not only how we feel, but our vision for the future. I’m joined by the ever so inspiring, and Canada’s leading psychological health and safety...

Be worth: comes from the Latin word “Valere” – in English? Value. Which is defined as the worth, usefulness, or importance of someone or something. Not knowing who we’re supposed to be can be triggering – stress and anxiety can creep into our lives when we’re on the hunt to create meaning for ourselves. My conversation with this episode’s guest made me realize three things: that purpose comes from...

Every day, we have the opportunity to reframe our attitudes, no matter what we’ve previously experienced. In this episode, we meet Jodi Baxter – a community giving professional and mother of two who lives knowing that at any moment, her eldest son could be unwell. Family health scares are emotional and hard to deal with and yet, like Jodi shows us, they give way to stronger moments of consideratio...

I’ve always been fascinated by the theoretical learnings psychology has to offer and to give my entire podcast series, Sturdy Glass Sponges , some legs, Professor Emeritus (Trent University) and clinical psychologist Dr. Paul Wong joins me on my next episode. We look at his evolving well-being framework, that he’s currently using with his clients, to take into consideration how it is that life’s c...

Made up of glass properties, Glass Sponges are ancient underwater animals that are durable, yet delicate. Unshatterable. And the more I learn about them, the more I realize a sense of sustainable well-being that metaphorically applies to our lives too. In this episode, we meet Melissa Day , who shares her initial reactions to her cancer diagnosis and lets us in on how she acknowledged and later ac...

In this episode of Sturdy Glass Sponges , we meet Jon MacDonald who by the age of 18, had lost his dad, his mom, and his oldest brother. It’s impossible to comprehend what life was like for him. The light in his world wasn’t just dimmed, it was completely shut off. We’re going to learn how he picked up the pieces and once again, was able to carry himself forward by reigniting his light. It involve...

Life is so short and we want it to be light - why, then, do moments of pain and suffering stop us in our tracks? What's the point of it all? We might not know the answers to the questions we ask about why bad things occur, but I think instead, we can change the questions we're asking. I'm Elena Iacono and my new podcast Sturdy Glass Sponges , takes a deep dive in the world of personal suffering, p...