Catching up with Emily Allison this week, we dig into her change in living situation and career path since Heart Camp Los Angeles in early May 2017. You will also hear of the great work she is now a part of in her new service-oriented career path, how that contrasts with her Enneagram personality type, and some of the great self care work that she does to maintain her resiliency day in and day out.

We also walk through the early part of Emily's story, detailing her experience with depression & anxiety, how she knew she was dealing with more than just "everyday life", and how she went about finding help to get to the bottom of it all.

This week's guest is…the host, Rick Osowski. It’s always weird to figure out what your "elevator pitch" might be. Similarly, it’s always difficult to get all your story out within a few minutes when someone asks “what brought you to the mental health movement?”.

Instead of overlaying his story on top of his guest’s each week, he was saving it for when he’d eventually get to his own turn. Rick covers his experience with the effects of suicide at an early age, as a young adult, and late 20s, along with walking through a number of the factors that made him into the Enneagram 2 that he am today.

Rick thanks his wonderful wife Amanda for fulfilling the role of interviewer on this episode, and bringing some great questions of her own to this role-reversed conversation.

The conversations continue this week with Amanda Osowski, not only another member of the Heart Camp family, but a member of Rick’s actual family...his wonderful wife. They cover all of Amanda's mental health journey to date - including the impacts of death at an early age, the impacts of suicide when not much older, the benefits of an intensive outpatient program when therapy or counseling are not enough, as well as their more recent infertility struggles and IVF journey.

It was very surprising to both when they discovered a similar stigma and silence around IVF, as they had experienced around mental health. Amanda explains why she took it as a personal mission to help to break that stigma, silence, and shame around an everyday medical condition and journey that will soon bring them their daughter in a few short weeks.

Jumping back into our traditional interview format, Kim joins us this week and her story is arguably the most powerful story we have been empowered to share on Anthologies of Hope so far. Through Kim’s tumultuous mental health journey, we see a robust toolbox that she has developed over the course of that journey - from a “fake it until you make it” game face, to therapy & counseling, to the use of more integrative mental health practices like an intensive outpatient program (IOP).

Her story is a powerful one and a constant reminder that it is completely ok not to be okay, as well as the fact that being in crisis does not mean you are broken. Rick will be forever grateful that Kim chose to share her story with us and you, our listeners.

Conversations Cafe: The Hero in You

The Conversations Cafe is a monthly event at Sip of Hope Coffee Bar, featuring education and open forum dialogue on the intersections of Mental Health within our communities. This education event is brought to you by Hope For The Day, with support from our partners in prevention, Banyan Treatment Center, Dark Matter Coffee, and Three Run Two.

This episode is dedicated to "The Hero in You - Positive Mental Health Influences in Pop Culture", and unveils a new format for Conversations Cafe where we spotlight our first solo feature guest, comedian Marty DeRosa, to talk about the intersections between comedy, pop culture, and mental health as we gear up for C2E2 weekend.

Carrie Marcella joins us from upstate New York during the most wonderful time of the year: early January. Carrie has a tremendous story, which she has a solid grasp of and the work she has done on her journey shows through her storytelling.

She has experienced a lot along the way, from losing a best friend to suicide, depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, and addiction, but you can see by the way she tells her story that it does not wholly define her in a singular way and she is so much more than all those individual labels put together!

This week is all about breaking the mold! We talk with Eric Adams, a bearded and tattooed Professional Mental Health Counselor from Delaware with a heart of gold. We cover the ins and outs of what it means to be a Mental Health Counselor both professionally and personally, including how scheduling plays a major role in his self care. Eric's story of how he ended up getting to Heart Camp truly gave Rick goosebumps, so make sure to pay attention for that!

Conversations Cafe: All in the Family

The Conversations Cafe is a monthly event at Sip of Hope Coffee Bar, featuring education and open forum dialogue on the intersections of Mental Health within our communities. This education event is brought to you by Hope For The Day, with support from our partners in prevention, Banyan Treatment Center, Dark Matter Coffee, and Three Run Two.

A fantastic episode of Conversations Cafe! We kicked off the event by having Sherri Gross, Community Outreach Coordinator of The Road Home Program, share on being a caretaker and the types of impact that can exasperate among all parties in a household from the perspective of caring and supporting a veteran.

Our tremendous panel shared from their experience and background. Vikki Webster, founder of the Reginald and Paul Sewell Foundation, touched on the impact of losing her brothers to suicide and how that impacted herself and her brothers network of friends that were a form of family, along with touching on her ongoing journey to make peace with her brothers passing.

Amanda Vitrano, founder of Learn For Lauren, approached the topic from the loss of her sister Lauren who died by suicide and shared insights into how her sister’s challenges could be hidden from the family. She also shared how her family and herself have coped and found paths to healing and finding a positive forward path.

John Jonak, a principal at Westmont JH in DuPage county and military veteran, shared lessons learned on confronting silences, stigma, and challenges as a veteran and with the unfortunate loss of his 9 year old daughter Katie, and his family found to find strength and healing.

We had another phenomenal round of participation from our engaged audience who asked great questions and provided for further discussion and understanding! What a great night!

Saving the best for last in Season 1, we have Candice Carpenter joining us this week to discuss some of her journey to find “what works for her” with regard to her mental health, her perspective on approaching life as a series of integrative practices and really striving to be your whole holistic self.

Similar to many of our other guests this season, Candice is a very prolific and talented writer. She blogs on all things geek, comics, movies, and pop culture at “We Geek Girls”, as well as a personal lifestyle, travel, and awesome looseleaf tea blog at “On Wanderwood Lane”. We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as we did recording it!

Katie Mumper joins us this week for another exciting conversation around mental health, writing, and overcoming addiction. Katie is a Whovian, a Penn State superfan, a 4 on the Ennegram, and currently in charge of Social Media for TWLOHA. So we have some back to back continuity with folks doing grass roots, hands-on work with one of our favorite mental health organizations!

Rick had a blast talking with Katie as she’s another one of our guests that has a great grasp of her story, where it was most difficult, where she fought for the light, where she needed the help, and how she got through all of it…while also still acknowledging the power of everything she gained through all of her previous struggles, including an addiction that she talks and writes openly about.