Dear Family,

Jessica Lahey is a mom who believes every substance abuse story begins at home but can be prevented with an addiction inoculation. She uses her Bachelor's in comparative literature and her law school degree in juvenile education as a teacher and a writer. For over twenty years, she's taught every grade from sixth to twelfth in both public and private schools as well as New England's most addicted...

Are you ready for some really great news? Getting together with a friend is not only fun, but it's also great for your health and happiness.   We all know how important our Dear Family, is but our friends might prove to be even more important, especially as we age. Research published in the journal Personal Relationships studied more than 270,000 people in nearly 100 countries. What it found was b...

Jaycee Gossett is a dancer, model, teacher, podcaster, and wanderlust who believes the limitations we experience, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual are tied together- a true mind/body connection. Jaycee shines a light on how movement connects us and brings us so much joy bringing her years of c ompetitive Latin ballroom dancing into schools, to wedding couples, and in her wildly popular ex...

Christine Koh thinks we should all enjoy life by doing less- and this comes from a woman with many businesses and kids who are still at home. She's a music and brain scientist turned multimedia creative who spent a decade in academia and was awarded prestigious fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and MIT. On the verge of becoming a professor and after her first b...

Seventeen years ago, I was 33 and the year was 2004. A highlight of my day was watching the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sitting cross-legged on my couch, I'd give my full attention to my hero on the small screen. Oprah was my teacher who loved teachers and I was a teacher. She made me think, feel inspired, consider possibilities, smile, be moved to tears, and dream big. She showed me by example, how one p...

Susannah Cahalan tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family's inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn't happen. Her New York Times bestselling book "Brain on Fire" was adapted for a movie starring Chloe Grace Moretz as her. It's an unforgettable exploration of memory and identity, faith and love, and a profoundly compelling tale of surviv...

With over 5 million children in the U.S. with an incarcerated parent, Antoine Patton came up with a vital tech business while going to college behind bars. His daughter, Jay Jay was just three-years-old when he went to jail six hours away for gun possession. Jay Jay's mom became a single parent raising two children on her own and couldn't afford to take her kids to visit their dad. The letters and...

I was excited to give my first mental wellness presentation Zoom lesson to middle schoolers since the pandemic started. I'd presented to high schoolers, parents, teachers, and staff virtually before, but this was different. My new audience was made up of a classroom of impressionable 8th graders joining me during their health class period. Thirty-two students from a charter school in Los Angeles w...

Dani Klein Modisett is a comic who could not make her mom who had Alzheimer's laugh so she hired a professional to do it. It worked so well and changed her mom's life in such remarkable ways that she decided to launch Laughter on Call, a company that now helps people all around the globe. Her business also does corporate events like Zoom Happier Hours and kids' comedy classes.   Dani tapped into t...

Last year, as we celebrated not just a new year but a new decade, we never could have predicted just how tumultuous and life-changing 2020 would be. We never could have conceived or truly understood what we were about to be in for:  A once in a century black swan event in the form of an airborne novel Coronavirus that would put us all on lockdown and change life as we knew it as it crossed every c...

Nell Dardie and Tish Granville are Twinpowerment- identical twin sisters who empower others to get past trauma. They're both licensed professional clinical counselors in the state of Ohio where they practice. They specialize in the treatment of most clinical disorders mainly focusing on trauma and inner child wounds.    They treat depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, anger. They...

Heather Vickery grew up with very conservative Republican parents. When she came out of the closet after a decade-long marriage, she became a single mom with four daughters. She also unearthed her authentic self and began a transformational journey to create the life she always wanted by being brave.    Heather took her award-winning Chicago-based event-planning business and her global leadership...

Gabe Howard refers to himself as a literal red-headed step-child because he was adopted by his mom's second husband after his father abandoned him when he was just a baby. His childhood was fraught with depression, anxiety, mood swings, and suicidal ideation because of his yet-to-be diagnosed mental illness.   In 2003, when Gabe was committed to the psychiatric hospital at 25 years old, he weighed...

Nina Cudney is a certified sex coach, speaker, and writer on mental health and sexuality. She also writes erotica and sex toy reviews. She's unfiltered, unashamed, and willing to show how completely imperfect she is which allows her clients to open up and have the important uncomfortable conversations surrounding sex and sexuality. The shame and guilt that can come from body image issues, religiou...

Dr. David Steinman is here to offer a life-preserver to anyone drowning in an ocean of worry and stress using all-natural methods. After studying psychology at UC Berkeley he got his Ph. D. in clinical psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. He went on to practice clinical neuropsychology. He directed the biofeedback program at Austin Neurological Clinic in Austin for nearly thirty years...

*A short solo minisode- The most important election of our lifetime is happening during a once in a century worldwide public health crisis. Scarlett red, electric blue, or a shade of purple in between, one thing we can all agree on is the value of HOPE, ACTION, and GRATITUDE in moving us forward in the right direction. For four years a shocking news cycle has not let up. Anxiety and stress due to...

Yasmin Irfani is a Pakistani-Muslim-American woman who is passionate about speaking up about mental health awareness in her community. Growing up, she was told she was too emotional and sensitive which led her to believe she was broken. After all, South Asian girls like her did not speak up or express their emotions. Whether directly or indirectly she was taught to keep the problems that come alon...

  Jason Schneidman grew up on the beaches of Southern California surfing and seeking the fun, care-free lifestyle it offered. His partying continued into his thirties until his life unraveled completely when he found himself homeless and addicted to crack cocaine. Sixteen years ago, he knew he had to do something otherwise he'd end up in jail or dead and so he asked for help and began the hard wor...

Lisa Klein grew up in Michigan. When she was in college she got a call to come home because she was told her dad died from heart failure. Months later, her brother would take his life in the car in the garage and die by suicide which eventually she'd find out was the same way her dad and her grandmother had also died. She learned from her mother to never discuss suicide out of shame and so she did...

John Lehr is a comedic performer, writer, and producer who works in television, film, and theater. He grew up in Kansas and made his way to Chicago for college. He began to substitute teach while moonlighting as an improvisational comic all the while abusing drugs and alcohol. He made his way to Los Angeles and got roles on TV shows like Friends and Jesse , among others. He is one of the original...

X. ARI is a singer-songwriter-artist and mental health advocate from Toronto currently living in Los Angeles. X. ARI comes from a family who has substance abuse and mental health issues. She herself has dealt with anxiety, depression, PTSD from psychosis, insomnia, sleep paralysis (a very interesting disorder which she will explain in this episode), bipolar, ADHD, and even anorexia when she was a...

Adam Frankel's maternal grandparents survived the Holocaust and built new lives, with new names, in Connecticut. Although they tried to leave the horrors of their past behind, the pain they suffered crossed generational lines- a fact most apparent in the mental health of Adam's mother. When Adam sat down with her to examine their family history in detail, he learned another shocking secret. His be...

Terri Cheney was a successful entertainment lawyer who represented some of the biggest names in the business, like Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. All the while, she hid her mental illness and the slash marks on her wrist from a suicide attempt. She bravely s tarted writing about her experience living with bipolar disorder after several horrific suicide attempts, encounters with the law, broken...

Dani Shapiro is a national treasure and to anyone who loves memoir, she reigns supreme. Dani has a way with words and a way of moving you to stop everything and consider what it is that makes you who you are. I can honestly say she has been a guiding light for me when it comes to writing and podcasting. Her writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, examines our memory, history, biology, experience,...

Oona Hanson is a parent coach who has been in education for over twenty years and supports parents of teens and tweens going through the rough stuff and challenges of life after her child dealt with an eating disorder. Passionate about helping parents raise kids who have a healthy relationship with food and their body, Oona writes and gives talks on fostering body image resilience and lowering the...