I Am Speaking

There is no question that there is a link between physical health and mental health. What do we do, or what can we do, when one informs or impacts the other? Karen Rothstein Pineda, founder of Multicultural Counseling Associates, and our Resident Therapist, leads this discussion on what to look for in therapy as a patient if we are having physical challenges, if we are a caretaker, what might feel...

October 21, over a decade ago: Peter Vishneski was driving late at night with friends and became tired behind the wheel. He nodded off. He woke up in the ICU two days later unable to move his fingers properly.  You will fall in love with Peter, or Mr. Vishneski, as his students call him. The once-physical-therapy-student-turned-HS-Biology-teacher has lessons for his students beyond composition of...

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” - Michael J. Fox Life, in all of its challenges, came at Dana Blanchard, hard and fast in 2020. Ready and packed for a big move to Australia with her husband and two kids 9 days before the world shut down, things started to go sideways. When those plans got put on...

In October 2019, Teresa Janik found herself in excruciating pain. She could barely focus, took her work home, and told her husband “take me to the ER right now.” What she didn’t know what that by entering the ER, she’d be entering a whole new part of her life. A severe bout of diverticulitis led to sepsis which led to a literal live-saving surgery. But that wasn’t the end   She came out of surgery...

Jennie has spent years as an Operating Room nurse, counseling her patients, holding their hands through the pain, hearing their fears and seeing the heartbreaks. Then, one fateful day in 2022, the tables were turned and Jennie became the patient who needed counseling, some hand-holding, whose fear and heartbreak became palpable.  Jennie Ebmeyer was diagnosed, at the age of 39, with Stage I breast...

Vickie spent her life building armor that she believed would save her from emotional pain. After decades of surgeries, medical appointments, dental procedures, scarring, braces, and bone grafts, Vickie thought her emotional armor was pretty solid. Then, her daughter came home from school in 1st grade and told her about a bullying situation that happened. After seeing red and having a “disproportio...

Hearing is different than listening.  Dr. Matthew Kircher is not only a talented surgeon, a brilliant doctor, and an all-around good person, but Shailushi and Kosha also are lucky enough to call him family. He is married to their cousin (and previous guest on IAS) Sheetal. He sits in the Speaker’s Chair this week to discuss his work as an ENT surgeon, how an ear functions, and why Q-tips should ne...

What a freaking fun and interesting conversation.  Marijo has been making the world more accessible, one conservation at a time. For over 30 years, she’s been signing her way, being of service to the deaf and hard of hearing community.  Marijo Fiacchino’s resume is lengthy and her credibility is solid - she has her Certification of Interpretation (CI) and Certification of Transliteration (CT), she...

Holy Crap. There is a reason Kosha isn't the "main host". She lost words. But Shailushi found the words. And Kosha come around eventually. Violet Turner is the most self-possessed teenager you can meet. Violet has a significant stutter. It does take a few moments to get into her vocal cadence, but STAY WITH US because her words and her sentiments will change you. This young woman is on a trajector...

Paul Varghese did his first comedy set in June 2001. Four months later, the world got very scary and very dark for brown people. Twenty-two years later, he continues to take the stage, kill with eloquently crafted jokes, and use his Indian-ness as a source of pride and humor.  Several months ago, one of Paul’s jokes (the iPhone icon joke) went viral. Kosha saw it and showed it to everyone she know...

When David Figueroa was born, his mother was told he would never walk, talk or learn enough to go through school. Last week, David turned 32 years old (Happy Birthday David!). He’s a college graduate, he walked across the stage to get his diploma and now he’s a motivational speaker and youth advocate for underserved and underprivelaged youth. He’s also a cyclist and former 3 sport athlete. What’s...

There are certain events that punctuate a person’s life, and one can’t help but think of life as “before” and “after”. We might think of life “before having kids” and “after having kids”. Or “before the pandemic” versus “after the world shut down”. Anuja Martinez (née Mehta) has her life “before brain aneurysm” and “after brain aneurysm”.  At the age of 29, Anuja finally had th answer to why she w...

To cap off Season 3: Mental Health & Neurodiversity, we have an amazing guest who is fighting the good fight. Nikki Naglich is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at a mental health hospital in the suburbs of Chicago. She talks about treating serious mental illness, the difference between inpatient & outpatient work, and her hopes for her patients’ futures.   We discuss why and when people are brough...

“Athi is deeply committed to our clients, and takes a personal interest in the relationships that she builds through the practice of architecture.”  - Scott Delano, Architect Extraordinaire Athi Toufexis is an architect. She specializes in designing educational environments for learners of all abilities. She supports school districts and communities in transforming their visions into inspiring bui...

Unpacked is a podcast exploring life as messy people. It’s conversations with counsellors, industry leaders, all storytellers discussing their experiences of being human. They talk about the strength that comes from big messy failures and vulnerable moments so we can learn to live more authentically. And today we have the co-hosts of Unpacked as guests on I Am Speaking. Evan & Tara are co-workers,...

Hello, Listeners! Shailushi here... introducing you to this week's guest, my beloved co-host Kosha Carstens.  Kosha has shared her diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) on our podcast.  This week, I spoke to her in detail about her experience-- when she realized something more than regular nerves was at play, how it led to her decades-long battle with disordered eating, and how she is le...

What happens when there is not a biochemical imbalance in our brains? No low dopamine or suboptimal serotonin to explain our mental health challenges? Yet, life keeps happening to us and the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” rain down upon us and we must march forward? What happens when those slings and arrows shake our world views and affect our mental well-being?  Today we have someone s...

”We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world--the company of those who have known suffering.” - Helen Keller  There are few things as isolating as grief, both in death and non-death loss. But at the same time, there is nothing so unifying, so completely shared and universal, as grief. Every person will experience grief from loss - a loved one in death, a job, a fri...

“I literally put everything out there… My hope is for those that listen may hear it and not just feel sadness for this kid…but maybe you might hear yourself at times in it and feel a bit more connected…a bit more seen. And be sure to check out part 2…not to give spoilers, but things get better! Thanks for listening…and if there’s anything you hear that you connect with and you feel any kind of way...

To meet Casey now, you’d think this man has got it made - a great job, recently finished his college degree, living in Chicago, engaged to be married, has an awesome dog. And you would be right - things look pretty good for Casey.  That assumption would do an injustice to Casey’s story. His life has been anything but ideal and picturesque, his struggles have been real, and he came very close to th...

“I am just a little OCD…” ”Stop being so OCD about it!” “I know what you mean, I can’t stand dirty dishes!!” Sound familiar? If it does, it’s probably because you have either heard it said or said it yourself, about being particular, or wanting things clean, or needing to be organized. Unfortunately, the problem here is that phrases like those do not nearly capture what living with OCD is like.  O...

Eric Herrera was 19 years old when he entered the military. It was at the height of the war in Iraq, and Eric was deployed to Baghdad where he was a combat engineer trained to detect IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) on the streets among the trash. During his time in Iraq, Eric was faced with some harrowing experiences, some horrifying losses, and trauma that was often too painful to discuss. Un...

This episode is POWERFUL. There is so much to say, and hardly the words to describe what is contained in this episode with Dawn. Dawn is an old friend of Kosha. They had a falling out and a separation of ways about halfway through high school, and you hear both Dawn and Kosha talk about what actually happened almost 30 years ago for the first time (turns out, 16 year olds tend not to have the emot...

We were blown away by this conversation with Shane Thrapp, our guest today in the Speaker’s Chair  Shane has Adult ADHD, ASD and Social Anxiety. He shares with us what he knows about ADHD, how he coped with the trauma associated with growing up with ADHD, and what he’s doing to stop the cycle of stigma and compounded trauma for people with ADHD now   We know you have not met anyone like Shane (unl...

Not all superheroes wear capes. Some wear slacks and a collared shirt during the school year, and scuba gear in the summer. So is the case with our guest on today’s episode of I Am Speaking w/ Expert Voices. Scott Collins is a teacher of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) at a public high school in suburban Chicago. But to listen to Scott is to understand he is inspiring “Citizen Scien...