Beautiful Voyager

Dr. Tameika Lawrence holds a doctoral degree in counseling psychology and is a member of the Hudson Valley Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. She's the author of Outgrow Your Comfort, a 6-step self-help model and book. In this conversation, Dr. Lawrence and I talk about how she felt "different" growing up, and how it helped later in life. We also talked about her dissertation work about African-American fathers, and what being a role model means in single-parent families. 

Robert James is a podcaster and mental health coach originally from the UK. Robert developed OCD at the age of 16 and spent his twenties trying everything he could to face it. He read every book he could find on the topic and made a commitment to personal development. This rough ride taught him some lessons along the way, and now he helps others to do the same while sharing what he learned.

In this conversation, we talk about how he landed in Barcelona, some of his favorite books about anxiety, and how he learned to think differently about his mental health experiences. To get in touch with Robert you can head over to his website.

Caitlin Schiller and I first met on the audio platform Anchor many years ago. I liked her immediately: she clearly has a love of language and is sharp as a whip. Caitlin lives in Berlin and works as an Executive Producer of New Content at Blinkist, where she produces and co-hosts the podcast Simplify. A true word person, Caitlin's been writing online  for more than a decade and has lived in a handful of countries. I admire the way Caitlin approaches new ideas and engages with the world with thoughtfulness.

Comedian Sara Schaefer is proud of her new book, GRAND: A Memoir, and she should be! It is the kind of delightful and moving tale that makes you feel like you know Sara, even more so if you listen to her read it, as I did.  I loved talking to Sara about what it was like to write this book after years of comedy writing, how her own internal critic (nicknamed DOOM) tried to sabotage her along the way, and why the Babadook is a perfect metaphor for loss. If there's one thing I love more than funny people, it's funny people who are real, and that is definitely Sara.

Johnny, aka "The Anxious Beard," is a former nurse who was born and raised in Southern California (though he spent time in Las Vegas as well). He describes himself as having "31 flavors of mental health:" anxiety, panic, and agoraphobia disorder, as well as ADHD and a learning disability. 

Johnny's been married for 12 years to his high school sweetheart, and they have a family, including a son with autism and Down Syndrome. He's experienced a lot and is beginning to share it more widely in the hopes that he can help others--guys in particular--feel less alone.

Find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theanxiousbeard/

In honor of World Mental Health Day, today's special guest is singer and activist Meredith O'Connor. 

Meredith originally came to attention when her music video for the song "Celebrity" went viral on Youtube. Her music was then featured on Teen Nick, and she began to tour and perform around the world. She then found her voice as an anti-bullying activist. 

Meredith is now releasing a new single "You Are Not Alone" to raise money for the National Alliance on Mental Health, along with other celebrities like Mary Wilson (original member of the Supremes!),  Rebecca Black, Ar'mon & Trey, Italian star Ruggero Pasquarelli, Mackenzie Sol, Lexi Jayde, K-pop star Minzy, Bollywood singer Asees Kaur, and more! 

In this conversation, we talk about Meredith's experiences going viral and her own mental health experiences. 

Born and raised in Quebec City (he's French-Canadian), Patrice worked in pharmaceutical marketing in Boston when he experienced serious mental health challenges that almost took his life. His recovery took him on a new career path and led him to California, where he found a government-funded role I didn't even know existed: Certified Peer Specialist in mental health. Just last week, Gov Gavin Newsom passed a bill to bring this program to CA, which Pat and I discuss in this episode. 

Pat is also a writer, blogger, and speaker, and is building his own platform called Human  Experience: A Peer Perspective On Mental Health. His goal is to humanize healthcare and break the stigma through voicing the Peer Values and the trauma-informed model. He's also got a great sense of humor...which I greatly appreciate!

Amanda Stern is the author of Little Panic, a memoir about growing up in 80's New York with undiagnosed panic disorder. She also wrote The Long Haul, and eleven books for children. She's an advisory board member of the non-profit The Child Mind Institute. 

The founder of New York City's iconic Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, widely considered the gold standard for literary events, Amanda currently hosts an outstanding podcast about books and authors called Bookable. She lives in Brooklyn with Busy, the cutest possible canine sidekick.

Find more information on:

• Little Panic
• Child Mind Institute
• Bookable podcast

Writer Rachel Murphy and I work at Pinterest together. Earlier this year we founded Pinside Out, Pinterest's first mental health employee resource group. Rachel recently launched her own new mental health site, Us & Our Stories, a place to have real conversations around emotional wellbeing from a Christian perspective. 

Rachel lives in San Francisco with her husband, Tom, who also works at Pinterest.

Mental health writer Cassie Clark grew up in Appalachia and moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina when she married her husband Brandon 17 years ago. Cassie writes a blog, Cozy in Carolina, which she describes as "hygge anxiety writing." In this interview we talk about homeschooling, her diagnoses of PTSD, OCD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and what it's like to speak out about mental health in the South.