Above Ground Podcast

Recovery is never a straight line. Things we do to comfort ourselves can create the most uncomfortable outcomes. But us humans can overcome even the most difficult situations and with good bones we can reanimate the animal within.

Welcome to episode one seventy eight of Above Ground Podcast. This week we are joined by Mike Langone. Mike is the singer for Nippertown based band Black Belt Jones, the promoter of Upstate Punk Rock Flea Market and the bone artist behind Odds, Sweet Things and Dead Ends.

"You can't focus so much on why, it's more like how I can make things better", says Langone about his struggles with addiction. Langone made his way to Nippertown via the Lower East Side of Manhattan more than twenty years ago. 

Langone took his experience and turned it into a career. First as a CASAC (Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor) and now as a Housing Specialist for an Albany, NY based non-profit who helps the homeless population. 

Langone expresses how much his life has changed from living the life of an addict. His vulnerability and choosing to live has provided him a way to stay busy as an artist of the living and the dead. 

https://blackbeltjones.bandcamp.com/album/ep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrzNMmkBJSw

https://www.facebook.com/people/Upstate-Punk-Rock-Flea-Market/100076174182021/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Odds-Sweet-Things-And-Dead-Ends/100045470088401/

https://www.facebook.com/BlackBeltJonesAlbany

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Above Ground Podcast. We are grateful to have you here and we cherish being the "curators of hope". 

TPP will be releasing his new book, Never Underestimate the Power of You, via Amazon very soon. Please follow our socials for all the updates and a link to order. Until next week, get well, be safe, stay ABOVE.

We believe you must feel it to heal it. Embracing what it means to be human makes life a bit easier to manage, at least we'd like to think so. This includes realizing that it's you alone in our decision to unlock the door and escape from within. 

Epiosde one seventy seven of Above Ground Podcast is all about those pesky feelings we need to find a language to discuss.This week we got Inpired by the Flotsam and Jetsam tune, Escape From Within.

We hold the key to our escape. We all have limited time with this thing called life being terminal in all. When we awaken to this idea, it places the responsibility squarely on us to sign the contract of death that begs to be signed when we scream our way out of the womb onto the earth stage. 

Journaling is a great tool to use to filter your feelings. Having the language to describe what sludge and debris blocks us from our path. Byron Katie's The Work, could be a useful place for you to start.

Ellis Paul says the world aint slowin' down and our real time practice in the human condition takes acceptance and action. When we build these muscles it helps us deepen our capacity to juggle. When we juggle the years like chainsaws don't kill the power.

This Saturday Will is performing at Fuze Box 12 Central Avenue Albany, NY. 8pm showtime $10 at the door. Above Ground Podcast fans come see Will & TPP do a very special song to close out the set. Hope to see many of you there. 

TPP is launching his book, Never Underestimate the Power of You, on November 11th, and you will be able to purchase through Amazon. When we have a link we will post it everywhere. Be sure to check in on our social media. 

Thanks so much for listening this week. Continue following, sharing and being the hope dealers we are.

Until next Wednesday,get well, be safe, Stay Above...

"Healing doesn't happen when we're muscling through it", says our guest Melissa Spaulding. Melissa is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and EMDR Practitioner based in Utah, and is our guest for episode one seventy six of Above Ground Podcast. 

Melissa Spaulding is a CMHC at Guided Wellness Counseling of George, Utah. Melissa's mission is to help women move past their past and to live an adventurous life. Melissa helps women work through trauma, depression and anxiety. 

One tool in Melissa's arsenal is EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitazation & Reprocessesing. This mode of therapy allows the receiptient to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in their brains. There are three brains; the head, the heart and the body and as Bessel van der Kolk taught us,  the body keeps the score. 

Melissa looks at our memories like sticky notes. When we think of sticky notes they are usually so you can take a number or name or notation. Something imortant at the time, but may not be necessary to hold on to long term. That's where EMDR comes in. It helps you clear the mental sticky notes and stop holding on to memories that no longer require you to hold on to them. 

Melissa Spaulding can be found at guidedwellnesscounselingut.com.

She can also be found on Instagram @guidedwellnesscounseling

It's a wrap on epsiode one seventy six and we thank you so much for listening for another week.

Please come out to Fuze Box in Albany, NY, Saturday November 5th at 8pm. Will Foley is playing with Black Belt Jones, Gay Tastee and Ike's Wasted World. Come hear Will's brand of hard driving acoustic rock light the fuse on a night of hard driving rock with a metallic gleam. $10 gets you in the door. This will be a special night as Above Ground Podcast will be there and ready to rock, hint, hint. That's right TPP and Will together on the stage of what was once QE2. Oh the history and nostalgia. 

Don't forget TPP's new book, Never Under Estimate the Power of You, is due to release through Amazon soon. When we have a date and link for preorder we will post. 

Also Above Ground Podcast will have a mention in the Winter issue of Capital Region Living Magazine.

Thank you to Abby Tegnelia for making that happen. 

Time to call it an epsiode. We appreciate all our listeners and friends. You can donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee backslash Above Ground Pod

Until next week get well, be safe, stay ABOVE...

Sending out a distress call is usually thought of when in a state of emergency. Today on episode one seventy five of Above Ground Podcast we send a message to those in distress, to urge you to ask for help. Will & TPP’s hope is that we can help you feel less like a castaway, an island lost at sea. This is our message in a bottle.

What's up everyone? It's time for this week's pod and Will & TPP chat about sending out an SOS when you need help, self-care, when you need a break or you are on the breaking point. We urge you to seek treatment. Seek a person-centered treatment if you want to feel you will have a bigger voice, because you do.

You will always be your best voice, but some individuals have an impairment to voicing their needs. It is scary to stand up for yourself. Some individuals have been marginalized for so long it is an enormous task to do.

If you need to learn a language for talking about your emotions in order for you to voice your feelings go thework.com. Byron Katie's website around the concept she pioneered with the book Loving What Is (2003, Penquin Random House).

Will & TPP jam on some topics related to looking at the self in a reflective and helpful way. We mentioned 988 several times, but we have not used it. Here is the link from our fantastic NY State Office of Mental Health.

Remeber know your crisis numbers and keep your loved ones personal information safe. Copy documents and file the originals. Make it part of your Individual Service Plan or ISP. Or your mental health care plan. 

This Sunday we are at the Upstate Punk Rock Flea Market at Empire Live. Sunday October 23rd, noon-6pm. Pogo Beard Company will have their beard and tattoo balm for sale.We will have your resources and we look forward to meeting you all and having a real conversation. 

Saturday November 5th Will is playing at Fuze Box in Albany NY at 8pm. Will is opening for episode 178 guest Mike Langone's band Black Belt Jones. Also on the bill are Ike's Wasted World and Gay Tastee. Doors at 7pm, show 8pm. $10 at the door. Come down to the iconic club that housed the former QE2. 12 Central Avenue, Albany, NY. 

Don't forget TPP will dropping his new book on you soon also. Never Under Estimate the Power of You. When you are ready to start believing in yourself, you too can start this DIY project. Stay tuned for release date and order link. 

Thanks for joining us on episode one seventy five of Above Ground Podcast. Please continue to share, like, follow, and review. Thank you for supporting us and special shout out to Dan for buying the pod five coffees. Please go to our Buy Me a Coffee and continue your support. We are trying to grow and expand. If you can support or our interested in promoting your cause or business please throw an email to Will at [email protected]. 

Thnaks for listening please call 9-1-1 for an immediate emergency. Dial  9-8-8 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or still dial 1(800)273-8255 and that will work indefinitely. Until next week,  get well, be safe, stay ABOVE

This week on episode 174 of Above Ground Podcast we talk joy and connection with Angela Amoia. Angela is a practicing LMFT in Newburgh, NY and an Adjunct Professor at Mount Saint Mary College. Check out our Nippertown InnerView for October where we talk support, insurance, psychedelic assisted therapy and our connection to it all.

"We all come from fucked-up-ness", says Angela Amoia. Something she has learned from her years in practice and her own self knowledge, is that we all have something in our history that needs healing. The roads well traveled to joy and connection are littered with the broken and damaged. 

Angela wants us to understand that healing is possible if you're willing to embark on the ultimate work in the life school. To transcend our life circumstances and becoming the ultimate version of yourself. Through therapy, of all kinds and a belief that you are worthy.

Angela currently is not accepting new clients. Please check out Psychology Today's listing for updates. 

Above Ground Podcast will be out and about Sunday October 23, 2022 at Empire Live Albany for Upstate Punk Rock Flea Market #3. 12-6pm and is a free family, friendly event. Come out and stop by our table for all your Nippertown mental health and substance use resources. 

Saturday November 5 at 8pm Will is opening for Black Belt Jones, Ike's Wasted World and Gay Tastee at the Fuze Box 12 Central Avenue Albany NY. Come out and support Nippertown and it's rocking music scene.

Never Underestimate the Power of You, the new book by our very own TPP, is going to be released in the very near future. That's right, our very own Timmy, has put his heart on paper and created a DIY book for the ultimate DIY project, you. Links to follow soon. When you are curious about what healing can bring into your life but you don't know where to start. Coming soon. 

Thanks again for listening to this episode of Above Ground Podcast and continue to support our mission to reduce stigma and make the conversations around mental health normalized. Until next time, get well, be safe, stay ABOVE.

Sometimes you’re the scariest table in the room other times you’re amongst your tribe. Above Ground Podcast was everywhere and anywhere this past Spring/Summer brining resources, connection and stigma slapping to a neighborhood near you. 

We don’t recognize the power of an experience until we have had some distance from it and are able to look at it with a fresh eye. Fresh eyes are a choice and we choose everyday what we look at. Wayne Dyer says when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. We change too. How can you not? 

 Will and TPP reflect on what they have learned this year. About themselves and how the soil  has become a bit more plentiful to plant seeds of hope. We say thank to everyone we met this Spring/Summer of 2022 here in Nippertown. 

October 23, 2022 is Upstate Punk Rock Rock Flea Market. From 12-6pm for one day only at Empire Live in Albany NY. Above Ground Podcast will be there for this great event.

Gerrad R. Bohl says that he lives with suicidal ideation . Gerrad expresses his ideation is a visitor, that makes a stop under extreme stress and huge life changing situations. Gerrad has been living with these intruders since he was ten years old. This week he shares his story with us to wrap up September, and #suicidepreventionawareness month.

Gerrad R. Bohl is our guest this week on Above Ground Podcast for our last InnerView of September. Gerrad is an author, model, actor and dancer. Gerrad shares candidly his struggles with not only suicidal ideation, but his experiences as part of the LGBTQ+ community in a state like Montana. 

Suicidal ideation comes in two forms; active or passive. Active ideation is when an individual has the feeling and a plan. Passive is having the feelings, but not a plan. Yes, children as young as nine or ten can have these feelings also. Sadly, according to a Stony Brook University Hospital's post, Are suicidal thoughts common?, as many as six million Americans have had thoughts of ending their lives. 

Gerrad, shares how important it is for someone to have connection in their lives, even just one, can make a huge difference. Gerrad shares the story of how his parents, just kids themselves when they had him, had a tough go. Addiction, constant moving and the fact that he was an overweight, effeminate child, led Gerrad to feelings of not being safe and not wanting to live. 

We often judge our thoughts. When we live with something as stigmatized as suicidal ideation, we may judge our thoughts as dark and bad. This in turn has the affect of us, often viewing ourselves in the same light. A dark light. 

Gerrad focused his artistic talents to write, Good Oliver Dooley and the Palace of Keepers, his first fantasy novel that is a space that Gerrad wanted to inhabit. Good Oliver Dooley represents what Gerrad aspires to be. His characters are magnified versions of himself. 

Gerrad just released book two of the Good Oliver Dooley fantasy,  Good Oliver Dooley and the Quest to Save Hobcomney. Gerrad shares hope and light within the lush, Clovercomb Mountains of Northern England. Oliver Dooley goes on a journey of discovery and learning. Oliver fights for his life, just like Gerrad has done.

Gerrad is currently getting out of Montana. Book two of the Good Oliver Dooley series was just released. Please find Gerrad at the links below:

https://www.gerradrbohl.com

https://www.facebook.com/gerrad.bohl.9

https://www.instagram.com/gerradbohl/

https://twitter.com/gerradbohl

Thank you for listening to our final show of September and suicide prevention and awareness month. Above Ground Podcast has dedicated the month of September to this worthy cause and topic since our establishment in 2019. We appreciate everyone listening and visiting our online domains. 

Until next time, get well be safe, stay ABOVE

Our first repeat guest is back with a new ring, a new book and she is helping us elevate peer support. Valery Brosseau is back and the first time she asked us, is it in the blood? But now she is screaming the way out is through.

 We continue with our suicide prevention series with a bad ass story of how Valery went through and has a book of her poetry “through”. She has a lifetime invitation here at AGP and after listening to her you will understand why. 

Congratulations to her and Shane on their recent marriage. We wish them both all the best.  

It’s expensive to be crazy,  jokes Valery Brosseau. About what the cost is to have a mental illness, and run your own business. Val is a self contained creator of sorts. More humor and levity is necessary when combating stigma and allowing for people to see someone they might view differently. 

The universe will come together when you represent what the universe wants to reflect in you, expounds Val., In Through, her first poetry book, she opens up her hope chest and displays it in the rawest of view, for the world to see, to judge.  But judgement don’t matter when you are a black belt in karate and a purple in Brazilian jujitsu. I told you, she kicks ass. 

If you need one person or five people to pick you back up, there is no shame in any of that, expounds Brosseau. Self compassion she views as a key ingredient in healing and moving forward.  Setbacks will happen it is inevitable. The best response is to take a deep breath and explore your body, your mind. We are fallible. We are human doings. 

Little moments of joy and being able to find those moments she acknowledges is the second key to getting over a setback. The only path we have is to move forward.  Val was recently excepted into a Master’s of Social Work program and is pursing her dreams. Val says… “expressing is better than impressing.”

Valéry Brosseau can be found at

https://www.valerybrosseau.com

Val's book of poetry, Through, is available from Amazon.

Thank you for listening to another week of Above Ground Podcast. Sunday September 25th is the 2022 Out of the Darkness Walk for RITA. Taking place at the Saratoga State Park at 9am. Sign up with this link TO SIGN UP

Please come and join us in celebrating the lives of the lost and the survivors who carry on their memories. Walk to raise awareness and end the stigma surrounding suicide and mental illness overall. Sign up now and join us on Sunday. 

Please continue to share and follow us at all our links. Please support Nippertown.com, our partner in community and in platform. 

Until next week, get well, be safe, stay ABOVE

“How can I be thinking about suicide, when I preach suicide prevention!? queries  Andrew Leece on episode one hundred seventy of Above Ground Podcast. For our second Suicide Survivor September InnerView.

Our guest this week is, Andrew Leece. Andrew is a Board Member and Treasurer for the Capital Region Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,  Andrew is also, the co-chair of 2022’s AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk for RITA , on Sunday, September 25th at Saratoga State Park and he lives with passive suicidal ideation. 

Andrew Leece is a friend of the show, but he is also considered a personal friend. Andrew’s story is of the tallest engine that could.  Standing at 7’2. Andrew’s height equals the strength he possesses as a man with a mental illness to overcome his negative voice to end his life and receive the help he needed to save it instead. 

Andrew takes us through his crisis from a lucky appointment with his prescriber, which lead to treatment. From inpatient to outpatient and back into the world. Touting the help he received  from Four Winds of Saratoga, NY. 

“The work on your{model railroad} layout is never done and neither is the work on yourself” emphasizes Andrew. Andrew uses his love of model railroads as a positive coping skill and the momentary relief for his mental health. Andrew's life and       Train Kept A Rollin', because of his ability to ask for help, his treatment and his support system. 

If you or someone you know needs help immediately dial 911. If not in immediate danger, go to the nearest Emergency Room. Dial the new 988 Crisis and Suicide Hotline, 24 hours a day. Call your Primary Care Physician. Inquire with your employer about your EAP program, if you have one available. Seek out a peer group for your diagnosis or one that you feel would serve you. 

Andrew shares with us the struggle with his diagnosis. The roller coaster he rides and tries to hold on to daily. Andrew says thank you to some folks he states were integral in his recovery. Andrew speaks on the importance having the language to talk about your emotions, needs and feelings. Here is a good place to start with Byron Katie's List of Emotions. These lists are the best on the internet and her website The Work is a great place to start your journey of healing. 

Andrew is a dedicated Board Member and Treasurer of the Capital Region Chapter of AFSP. Sunday September 25th 2022 at Saratoga Spa State Park is AFSP Capital Region                  2022 Out of the Darkness Walk for RITA, with the walk starting at 10:30am. Andrew and Above Ground Podcast will be there for our third RITA. Come out and support, remember and celebrate the spirit of those we have lost. 

September is Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. 

Thanks for listening to Above Ground Podcast. Please continue to like, share, rate, review, follow and friend. Until next time 

get Well, be Safe, stay ABOVE. 

Since we established this pod in 2019, Above Ground Podcast has dedicated the entire month of September to Suicide Prevention and Awareness month. We share stories of survival. Attempt survivors, loss survivors and the dedicated individuals who help those make sense of an event that many see as not making sense. 

Our first guest this month is Kathleen Myre. Kathleen was a curator and editor for the I’m Possible Lemonade Stand 3 book. A series of books by Josh Rivedal (ep.144) and his I’m Possible Project. Kathleen became empowered to voice her truth after seeing Josh perform his one man show about depression and suicide. 

Kathleen survived a suicide attempt and is using her pain for empowerment. Kathleen found so much benefit for writing her first story for the first Lemonade Stand, she wanted to continue being an advocate and become co-curator for Lemonade Stand 3. 

Kathleen has worked with Carl Waggett (ep.114) on his Facebook Live show PTSD Bunker Gear for Your Brain.  Another friend of Above Ground Podcast, Rob Learhen (ep.94) wrote his story for Kathleen’s curation. 

Kathleen heralds the beach, writing , EMDR and therapy as tools for keeping her going. Kathleen’s family are her biggest supports and she loves riding on the back of her husband’s motorcycle.  

Please order the Lemonade Stand 3 to read all the incredible stories of resilience and hope. 

Tomorrow, Thursday September 8 at 6pm AGP will be set up at Spitzie’s Harley Davidson 1970 Central Ave. Albany, NY 12205. This is their Bike Night Finale with live music, food and Above Ground Podcast. Stop by and say hi to Tim!!!

Thanks for listening to Above Ground Podcast. Until next week get well, be safe , stay Above.