Hope Illuminated Podcast: Helping the Helpers Bring Light to Life’s Darkest Moments

For many of us, we have experiences in our life that mark “before” and “after.” For people in long-term recovery, one of those moments is the date they decided to take significant action in fighting their addiction. Most recite this date with pride and mark it as a milestone as the months, then years, then decades pass. As a psychologist I can’t say that I gave 12-step programs much more than a pa...

When we look at mental health awareness and supports in Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI — or AANHPI when we add in Native Hawaiian) communities we need to take into consideration many important factors. First the communities that have been aggregated into “Asian Americans” are very diverse. What may describe common mental health experiences of refugees from Burma are often very different fro...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode covers distressing content about domestic violence and physical, sexual and emotional assault. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” ~Marianne William...

There is a growing scientific field called “ecotherapy” that has demonstrated a strong connection between time spent outside in nature and improved well-being. Shifting our attention to the sounds, smells, and beauty is calming for many. On brain scans we can actually see reduced activity in. the parts of the brain that are linked to rumination — or repetitive negative thoughts. In this episode, I...

When it comes to overcoming mental and emotional challenges, we have a problem. In fact, according to Cope Notes we have several: PROVIDERS: Our mental health providers are often overwhelmed with demand, that accessing services in a timely way can be challenging. Once we find an available provider, we often can’t afford the level of service we need, and, even if we can, we find that many providers...

NOTE: Abigail Echo Hawk will be keynoting at the American Association of Suicidology’s Annual Conference on Friday, April 23rd at 9:00AM ET. You can listen to her and the many other diverse speakers virtually or in person at the conference in Orlando. Her keynote is entitled: Decolonizing Data: Restoring Culture and Building Beauty REGISTER HERE: https://www.aasconference.org/registration Overview...

NOTE: Fenway Jones will be speaking at the American Association of Suicidology’s Annual Conference on Thursday, April 22nd at 2:00PM ET. You can listen to her and the many other diverse speakers virtually or in person at the conference in Orlando. Her TED-Style talk is called: “Building and Reaching a Community” REGISTER HERE: https://www.aasconference.org/registration Overview Jasper’s Game Day W...

When it comes to the field of Suicidology, we often work in silos. The researchers, clinicians, public health practitioners, advocates, and crisis service stakeholders often focus primarily in their own communities, finding comfort and validation in joining with others who share similar culture, values and priorities. When it comes to groups implementing best practices, collaboration with research...

What is transformational leadership? Transformational leadership happens when people come together to rise for a daunting challenge to benefit the common good. Transformation leaders focus on impact and empower others to reach for higher and higher levels of motivation and morality. Transformational leaders are: Bold Idealized influencers Creativity encouragers Role models for a compelling vision...

“Falling in love is easy. Falling in love with the same person repeatedly is extraordinary.” Every so once in a while, many of us in long-term relationships find we need to reboot our relationship — routines may have made relationships go stale and perpetual conflicts breed resentment. In this episode I speak with Marriage and Family Counselor Lisa Stull, an expert in the Gottman method of relatio...

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, nearly 2/3 of all gun deaths in the US are suicide fatalities. A surge in firearm purchases during the last year have many in the suicide prevention field concerned about increasing suicide rates long term, because the research is clear — easy access to lethal means for suicide increases risk for people when suicidal intensity surges. In this podcast, I speak...

In today’s world, we are set up for polarization. How do we turn our 5-alarm fights into something more constructive? Conflict for many is unpleasant at best. Often when conflict is particularly intense or prolonged in high stakes relationships, the psychological pain can be excruciating. As humans, when we experience things that cause pain we tend to escape, avoid or react. On one hand, retreatin...

Overwork. Burnout. Resentment. Churn. Bullying. Exclusion. Gossip. These qualities define the toxic work conditions that Mari Ryan calls a “dive hive.” She makes the argument that personal and community resilience are highly influenced by the cost-saving and life-saving preventative care we cultivate at work. Instead of a ‘“dive hive,” we need an “alive hive” filled with purpose, joy and impact. I...

At the heart of civility is respect. Respect and dignity are essential for psychological safety, especially when others have diverse experiences and viewpoints. Civility is not about complacency or placating. It’s not about denying or pushing away strong feelings that can emerge when conflict emerges. It’s about temporarily suspending our alarm bells for a period of time so we can do the hard work...

How we see ourselves often is shaped by the many voices of our experience —- intersecting identities, some which may be aligned, others in conflict with one another. The voices we internalize may come from our parents or other influential adults from our childhood, or our religions and cultures more broadly. Still, other voices may be those of our ancestors, whom we have never met, but whose exper...

When we face adversity or toxic environments, how we respond makes all the difference. Breathing helps us create space in between the stimulus and our response, and in that space we can sometimes find calm, gratitude and possibilities. In this podcast I chat with Reggie Hubbard, a man who found yoga as he tried to cope with workplace toxicity and transition. His three criteria for finding tools to...

When we ask “What do you do?”, what we often mean is “What WORK do you do?” In many ways — at least in the United States — our culture tells us, “You ARE what you do for a living.” Not only as a provider for your family and a meaningful contributor to society (and “meaningful” is often defined by the paycheck and the status") but as someone who is earnestly chasing the “American Dream.” The origin...

Children, Teens and Young Adult Grief When we look at developmental needs and abilities across the lifespan, we are aware of the need for different approaches to support our children. Our youngest children ages 0 to 2 are often preverbal but still very aware that something is not right when a family experiences a major loss. School-aged children are often concrete thinkers and don’t always have th...

What is self-awareness mindfulness? “The awareness that emerges through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn Self-awareness, of our own emotional states is just one of the key tenets in collaborative social and emotional learning being taught in our schools. As a foundation for developing emotion...

In this episode, I interview Professor Silvia Sara Canetto, the leading scholar on critical studies of gender, culture and suicidal behaviors from intersectional and global perspectives. Professor Canetto is most well-known for her research on the gender paradox of suicide, a term she coined, with Isaac Sakinofsky, to refer to the fact that girls and women are more likely to report suicidal though...

Critical suicidology is an emerging area of scholarship and advocacy that brings together expertise from diverse perspectives to re-examine all that we have believed to be “true” about suicide prevention. Critical suicidologists question the highly medicalized framework of understanding a suicidal person and see suicide in context by understanding how other frameworks — like social justice — expan...

Centuries of discrimination and brutality have led to historical trauma impacting generations of people of color in the United States. Add to this significant current trauma of racially fueled violence the fact that communities of color experience disparities in access to qualified care, and it’s not surprising that we are seeing increased despair among BIPOC people. We are also seeing incredible...

Can Employers be Held Accountable for Driving Workers to Suicidal Despair? Waters, S. (2020). Suicide Voices: Labour Trauma in France. Liverpool University Press. https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/53177/ Waters, S. (2020). Suicide Voices: Labour Trauma in France. Liverpool University Press. https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/53177/ Internationally, over the last...

Global Trends in Suicide Prevention 2020 IASP Logo.png I have the tremendous privilege of traveling internationally to do the work of suicide prevention and suicide grief support. On hand, it’s very humbling to see how this tragedy shows up all over the globe. On the other hand, it’s very inspiring to see how different countries and cultures find innovative approaches to address suicide. In this p...

Leadership is tested during times of crisis, controversy and social unrest. The best leaders rise to the occasion and can create opportunities for meaningful and lasting change. In the world of suicide prevention, voices of activists are challenging established ways of doing things, and in many ways the field is at a crossroads. Many are finding themselves re-examining the questions and methods of...