Changing Lenses: Diversify Your Perspectives

Do you feel overwhelmed, lost, and alone?

Are you engaging in unhealthy behaviours to avoid the things you can’t face?

Are you struggling to find the energy and motivation to make it through the day?  Or maybe, you’re too “on” and can’t switch “off”?

Dave Addison and I have both been there in different ways. You are definitely not alone, and most importantly –

THERE. IS. HOPE.

In this vulnerable episode of the Changing Lenses podcast, Dave shares his personal battle with alcohol addiction and mental illness, while working as a corporate executive in sales, marketing, and not-for-profit. Now as a Peer Support Champion and Mental Health Advocate, he talks about how employers can be more supportive – and how sufferers can find help, and hope.

For parents of children and youth going through substance abuse and mental illness (which Dave has lived through too), he also shares resources and help available to families.

Dave welcomes you to contact him [on LinkedIn] for more info, to ask questions, or just to talk.

In this episode:

[00:03:03]  Dave’s story of alcohol abuse, mental illness, and HOPE
[00:16:00]  Dismantling stigmas and debunking myth
[00:26:50]  Changing the conversation
[00:34:30]  Peer Support Champions and employer supports
[00:43:12]  Where to get help – for yourself, a coworker or loved one

Full transcript available here.

Dave Addison is a Mental Health and Addiction Advocate, and Board Director with Families for Addiction Recovery.  Dave’s background includes corporate leadership roles in sales, marketing, and not-for-profit.  Now, Dave draws on his work experience and personal journey with mental health to support business leaders and people struggling with mental health and addiction.

2020 marks Dave’s 10th year of sobriety – congratulations, Dave!

Contact Dave: LinkedIn

For parents/families of mental illness patients:

• Families for Addiction Recovery Canada - https://www.farcanada.org/ , 1-855-377-6677 Ext. 207
• Family Navigation Project (Toronto) - https://sunnybrook.ca/content/?page=family-navigation-project  

Are You in Crisis?

If you are experiencing a mental health or addictions related crisis:

• Call 1-833-456-4566 toll free (In Quebec: 1-866-277-3553), 24/7 or visit www.crisisservicescanada.ca.
• Call your provincial helpline (numbers below)
• Call Kids Help Phone (Canada-wide) 1-800-668-6868
• Call 911
• Go to the nearest hospital 

Additional resources mentioned:

• “Am I an alcoholic test” (two common ones):
• https://canadiancentreforaddictions.org/addicted-alcoholic-take-test/ 
• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/substance-use/problematic-alcohol-use.html#a8
• Alcoholics Anonymous:  https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/find-aa-resources 
• Hope & Me (MDAO) - https://www.mooddisorders.ca/ 
• Mental Health Innovations - https://mhic-cism.com/  

“Research actually demonstrates that the two most targeted groups or communities in Canada that face discrimination are Muslims and Indigenous people.  Polls in the United States have found that…even communities of colour, including Black people and Latino people…have negative views of Muslims or have Islamophobia.”

Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman, a psychologist specializing in diversity and inclusion, shares more about his personal experiences with religious discrimination, and his ideas for real allyship and change. We also chat about a surprising difference between Americans and Canadians; Colourism (even among People of Colour); and how we can be more relatable and likeable.

You’ll hear about:

• [00:04:14]  Religious discrimination and stat holidays
• [00:11:25]  The “I don’t celebrate Christmas” experiment
• [00:18:17]  U.S. versus Canada
• [00:23:45]  Colourism and wanting to be White
• [00:27:22]  How to be a good ally (and a more likeable human being)
• [00:34:39]  How White people exotify People of Colour (and their lunches!)

 And...I (awkwardly) try to pronounce Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman’s name correctly. Thanks for your graciousness, Rehman!

Full transcript available here.

Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman is a consulting and clinical psychologist and public speaker, with a special focus on diversity and inclusion. He combines his significant clinical skills with his lived experience as both a person of color and an immigrant, to help people better understand microaggressions, privilege, representation, and culture.

Dr. Abdulrehman has consulted with such organizations as the CBC, the Mastercard Foundation, and the RCMP, and was a speaker at the Winnipeg TedX Talks. He currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he runs a psychology clinic, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, and is a visiting professor at two universities in Tanzania.

Dr. Abdulrehman is also a subject matter expert on unconscious bias for Google and YouTube. And if all that wasn’t enough, in his “spare time” he co-hosts a podcast about diversity and inclusion called Different People.

References:

Find Dr. Abdulrehman on:

Winnipeg TedxTalk on YouTube

Different People Podcast

LinkedIn

clinicpsychology.com

leadwithdiversity.com

winnlove.ca

Intro and Interlude Music:
What Words Can't Describe, by Vlad Gluschenko
License: CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Outro Music:
Beautiful Modern Rock Pop Guitar All Goodness Background Music, by Royalty Free Music
License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman, a psychologist specializing in diversity and inclusion, shares his personal experiences of racism and discrimination – as a child, and as professional.  We also chat about explaining privilege to White people; being accepted as Canadians; and the “false truth” of multiculturalism in Canada.

Find out about:

• [00:06:34]  Explaining to a White person why you want your child to have a better life
• [00:10:21]  The greatest privilege Dr. Abdulrehman wants for his child
• [00:11:39]  Discrimination from a teacher
• [00:14:58]  Racism in Canada today (2020)
• [00:19:59]  The untenable choice: freedom to be yourself, or freedom from conflict
• [00:21:48]  The mythology of a multicultural Canada

Bonus – a piece of Canadian trivia:    What’s the provincial flower of Manitoba? If you didn’t know, now you’ll know!

Full transcript is available here.

Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman is a consulting and clinical psychologist and public speaker, with a special focus on diversity and inclusion. He combines his significant clinical skills with his lived experience as both a person of color and an immigrant, to help people better understand microaggressions, privilege, representation, and culture.

Dr. Abdulrehman has consulted with such organizations as the CBC, the Mastercard Foundation, and the RCMP, and was a speaker at the Winnipeg TedX Talks. He currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he runs a psychology clinic, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, and is a visiting professor at two universities in Tanzania.

Dr. Abdulrehman is also a subject matter expert on unconscious bias for Google and YouTube. And if all that wasn’t enough, in his “spare time” he co-hosts a podcast about diversity and inclusion called Different People.

References:

Find Dr. Abdulrehman on:

Winnipeg TedxTalk on YouTube

Different People Podcast

LinkedIn

clinicpsychology.com

leadwithdiversity.com

winnlove.ca

Music Credits:
What Words Can't Describe, by Vlad Gluschenko
License: CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Beautiful Modern Rock Pop Guitar All Goodness Background Music, by Royalty Free Music
License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

"One of the things that is interesting with speech and voice is, it's not - it's not like race, right? You can change the way you talk, and you can change it to varying degrees. But just because you can, should you?"

In our first-ever episode, Katie Gore, a speech-language pathologist, talks about diversity and inclusion when communicating at work. We discuss “sounding less Black”; changing our accents (or not); changing voice gender; power perceptions and “executive presence”; and how employers can be more supportive and inclusive.

Full transcript available here.

Katie Gore is a certified speech-language pathologist and the founder and principal of speech IRL, a consulting firm which helps organizations create culture change through communication.

Katie grew up in Canada, and currently lives in the US, where she is the founder of the Chicago chapter of the National Stuttering Association, and Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force for the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, among other volunteer roles.

Katie is also a fan of Marvel Comics – actually reading them, not just watching the movies!

References:

Katie’s company: speechIRL 

Small Talk Menu:  https://www.speechirl.com/the-small-talk-solution-an-easy-formula-for-less-awkward-engagement

Movies referenced:  The King’s Speech, Sorry to Bother You

Find speechIRL on:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Welcome! My name is Rosie Yeung, and I’m here to help people with privilege dismantle systemic inequity, while helping people without privilege survive it.

This isn’t just a podcast about JEDI, which stands for Justice, Equity, Decolonization and Inclusion. Changing Lenses was inspired by Rene August, a decolonization educator from South Africa. She describes bias and worldview using this analogy:

“If I looked at a drop of water through a microscope and magnified it by 100, I would see something completely different to what I see in my hand. But I would still be looking at a drop of water! Our lens determines what we see, not just what we’re looking at.”

Our mission in Changing Lenses is to envision a more JEDI way to work and do business by seeing from diverse worldviews. Because in our capitalistic Western societies, companies look at people through a business lens. But if employers sincerely want to be equitable, diverse and inclusive, I believe they need to see people as human beings, not human resources.

In this podcast trailer, you’ll learn how Changing Lenses started, and why I went from being a corporate executive upholding systemic inequity to JEDI coach, keynote speaker, and warrior.

You can find free JEDI resources and ways to get in touch on my website, changinglenses.ca; and on Instagram @rosieyeung_jedi.

Land Acknowledgement

Each episode is hosted on colonized land that was taken from many Indigenous nations, including the Anishinaabe, the Huron-Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Today it is still the home of many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, with whom I seek to reconcile by learning the true history of colonization, including things that seemed legal and honourable – like treaties – but were often marked by fraud and coercion.

I’m Changing my Lens by learning to see land, creation, even business and economy through Indigenous worldviews. And I’m making new friends and building relationships with Indigenous neighbours, cousins, aunties and uncles, in a genuine desire to know, love, and honour them, and live together in peace.

This podcast is one way I’m sharing what I learn to help settler-immigrant folks decolonize our thinking, and respond to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Miigwetch, 多謝, 謝謝, Merci, and Thank You.

Full transcript is available here.

"Dare to Lead" official glossary: https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Glossary-of-Key-Language-Skills-and-Tools-from-DTL.pdf

Quote from "Dare to Lead" on Perspective Taking: https://connectonline.blog/2020/06/20/perspective-taking/

An excerpt from the pilot episode, Speak and Be Heard. Guest Katie Gore, a speech language pathologist, talks about diversity and inclusion around speaking and communication in the workplace.

Theme music credit - Morning Sun, by ANtarctic Breeze.