Even Tacos Fall Apart

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest Lauren Keller. We talked about death positivity & reducing the stigma surrounding discussing death and planning around/for your own death! Video version --> https://youtu.be/C6MgeKZ9MEY

Lauren Keller (or Link; they/them/she/her) is a media psychology phd student. Her focus is on video games, especially the positive social and emotional outcomes from playing games. They're also an advocate of the death positive movement and seeks to reduce stigma around talking about death and dying. Aside from gathering copious student debt, Link spends their free time co-hosting podcasts on the geek therapy network, and has recently dipped their toes into making video essays.  SOCIALS: Twitter: @CHICKENDINOSAUR | Geektherapy.com - GT Radio and Headshots podcasts | Twitch.tv/geektherapy - and their discord!

Originally aired LIVE on twitch November 18, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest SongsofHealing - from October 28, 2019. She led us through a relaxation exercise, then we talked about meditation & guided relaxation! Video version --> https://youtu.be/xwubwXero7Q

SongsOfHealing is a board-certified music therapist with a particular interest in how we select music for relaxation experiences. She is a Twitch streamer (attempting to come out of hiatus) and focuses on providing guided meditation and music experiences followed by chill game play with games like Finding Paradise and Stardew Valley. You can find her at http://twitch.tv/songsofhealing and https://twitter.com/songshealing if you'd like to see what she's up to and keep up with her streaming schedule!

Originally aired LIVE on twitch October 28, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest Mike Fields, LPC - from October 14, 2019. We talked about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Anxiety & ADHD. Video version --> https://youtu.be/a2BjwjIIJOc

Mike Fields started his professional career back in the 90s during the dot com boom. He spent 13 years as a software engineer, but when his son was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, everything changed. Mike used a strengths based approach called DIR Floortime to support his son. Inspired by what he learned from his son, Mike went back to school to get an MS in Rehab Counseling from Ga State University In 2009.

As a counselor in private practice, Mike specializes in working with families and individuals with disabilities, primarily Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) where praxis and anxiety are frequent challenges. Mike uses play and joyful shared experiences to promote growth and healing. Most recently, Mike is using the intentional application of cooperative board games and RPGs to create opportunities for development.

Originally aired LIVE on twitch October 14, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest DrDyaus - from September 30 2019. We talked about traumatic events and identifying plus treating PTSD and C-PTSD in kids and adults. Video version --> https://youtu.be/D8gGU6hNBoc

DrDyaus, aka Branden, is host of ‘game therapy’ over at http://twitch.tv/drdyaus. Gaming with a therapist per say where mental health is always on the table, open, accepted and dissected as needed to support his viewers. He’s a mental health professional (clinical social worker) with over a decade of experience spanning throughout the human lifespan and experience. He’s worked with hospice care for the elderly, pain and palliative for the young, dual diagnosis / serious and persistant mental illness, trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy and traditional cognitive behavioral therapy in pediatrics/family and direct hospital work involving suicide crisis assessments and acute traumas.

He launched his streaming career only recently as he wanted to bring his experience in the field of crisis mental health/assessment and therapy to the masses, specifically his gamer kin. He is particularly interested in the intersection between technology communities and healing of traumas/phobias with its use. Additionally, the gamification of things - therapy included, to expedite the healing process regardless of an individual's diagnosis.

When he is not gaming/streaming, he’s working his 40hrs+ and is the father of two healthy children and husband to his smarter, better half, Dr. Eronoel, who holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and is a frequent guest/behind the scenes commenter, on the stream.

Originally aired LIVE on twitch September 30, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest Dr. Susan Heitler - from September 23, 2019. We talked about treating depression without the use of prescriptions, pills or medications, plus covered things like relationships and parenting. Video version --> https://youtu.be/E0AWH9hqotA

Susan Heitler, PhD is a Denver clinical psychologist and widely-read author. Educated at Harvard and NYU, she offers self-help information for individuals and for couples. She also writes for therapists, offering new understandings and treatments for anxiety, anger, depression, narcissism and relationship challenges. Dr. Heitler’s clinical practice, her 40+ years of books, blogposts, articles, podcasts, videos, webinars, online marriage education program and more go to show why she has earned a national and international reputation as one of America’s leading psychologists.

Originally aired LIVE on twitch September 23, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with mental health professional guest Josh Feldblyum - from September 16 2019. We talked about D&D, Weird Al, developing RPG social skills groups, the foster system and trauma in kids, plus SO MUCH MORE. Video version --> https://youtu.be/zOaFgzpJD-E

Josh Feldblyum (ignore the vestigial "y" for pronunciation purposes) grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC. The three childhood events that most strongly affected the trajectory of his life were discovering Dungeons & Dragons at age 8, psychology at age 10, and Weird Al at age 12. Josh earned a Bachelor's in psychology at the University of Rochester, and a PsyD in clinical psychology at La Salle University. He currently lives in Philadelphia with his wife, daughter, and various animals. In addition to his work as a psychologist, Josh has also dabbled (mostly unsuccessfully) in music, children's literature, and game design.

Professional details:

His interests have moved around over the years, though pretty much always connected with children and adolescents. A couple of his practicum placements during grad school were in treatment programs for adolescents with inappropriate sexual behaviors. In his doctoral internship, he worked with a lot of kids who had a history of maltreatment, which solidified this as the area he wanted to focus on in his clinical work. For his postdoc he spent the next couple of years working in a short-term, intensive community-based program that was specifically geared toward kids who were at risk of being placed out of the home, or who already had a history of being bounced around different foster homes (which most of them did). He really liked the agency, so once he got his license he stayed on as a psychologist in their outpatient department, mostly doing evaluations but also carrying a few therapy cases and doing some supervision and administrative work as well. He's also trying to get back into doing research, starting by developing an RPG social skills group (there isn't as much published research about this as there should be), and if the initial results are good then his plan is to adapt the same RPG setup to more directly address trauma. In the distant future, he also would like to do more research on helping kids to thrive in the foster system.

Find him talking RPGs, psychology and politics (sorry) on Twitter as @DrMindermast

Also on RPGnet, RPOL and occasionally RPG Pub as Dr. Mindermast

Originally aired LIVE on twitch September 16, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with professional guest Dr. Nicki Johnson, Director of The Resistance Lab - from September 9 2019. We talked about the Resistance Lab, sexism, gender inequality, gender-based violence prevention programming for college campuses, police & military, rape prevention programming, prevention programming specifically for LGBTQIA+ individuals, partner abuse, abusive relationships and SO MUCH MORE. Video version --> https://youtu.be/eu9tAPUV9jQ

Dr. Nicole “Nicki” Johnson’s research interests include violence against women and sexual/gender minorities with an emphasis on sexual violence and intimate partner violence (i.e., gender-based violence), cultural reactions to gender-based violence (e.g., the #MeToo movement), the evaluation of prevention programming for gender-based violence (e.g., bystander prevention programming), and the analysis of sexism and gender inequalities within and outside of the United States. She has assisted in the implementation of two shelter-based treatment programs for women with a history of intimate partner violence, as well as created a “bystander-plus” rape prevention program for college students, incorporating traditional bystander intervention techniques with feminist consciousness raising. She recently received NIH funding to develop and evaluate a multi-pronged intervention targeting risky alcohol use, risky sex, and bystander behavior associated with alcohol and sexual assault contexts. She employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods with a focus on mixed-methodology.

Dr. Johnson has received several awards for her work including: The 2018 American Psychological Association Laura Brown Award for Outstanding Contributions in LGBTQ psychology, the 2018 Zirkel Award for Distinguished Teaching in Education, and the 2019 OUTstanding Initiative Award for her LGBTQ+ focused rape prevention programming. She also directs The Resistance Lab at Lehigh University, which is dedicated to the eradication of gender-based violence through empirical research and programming.

https://ed.lehigh.edu/faculty/directory/njohnson

https://wordpress.lehigh.edu/theresistance/

Originally aired LIVE on twitch September 9, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show interview with professional guest Josue Cardona, founder of Geek Therapy. We talked about resilience, geek culture, positive psychology, death positivity and SO MUCH MORE. Video version --> https://youtu.be/tPFe9jg_M3M

Josué is the founder of Geek Therapy, an affinity-based model of mental health and behavioral intervention. In other words, geek out to do good! He runs the Geek Therapy community as a place where Geek culture and mental health are celebrated.

https://geektherapy.com/

Originally aired LIVE on twitch August 19, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks and interviews on Mondays, well-being & wine Wednesdays featuring peer support, plus community Fridays with gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show with professional guest Jamie Flecknoe, founder of Roll Play Lead from August 12 2019. Video version --> https://youtu.be/P4d2-uiSIik

Jamie is a graduate of Towson University with her bachelor’s in English. She then continued on to the University of San Diego to earn her master’s degree in Leadership Development. She spent several years working with teenagers and adults in their early 20’s developing leadership skills through a series of workshops she created for her company. As a giant nerd, even in her early days, it was no surprise that Dungeons & Dragons made its way into her life with such fervor. Not long after learning to play, she made the connection that skill development was embedded into the framework of the game, and she began contemplating what it would look like to merge her educational and professional backgrounds with her passion for the nerd world. Getting support from organizations like Game to Grow, she found herself connected to the STAR Institute, volunteering as the Dungeon Master for games to support children with Sensory Processing Disorder. Not long after, she launched Roll Play Lead, focusing on helping teens develop social skills. When she’s not playing Dungeons & Dragons, she can be found camping in the mountains, playing video games, or working at her other job! She is passionate about helping people go from where they are to where they want to be and is beyond grateful at the chance to do two things she loves: support her community and play Dungeons & Dragons!

Originally aired LIVE on twitch August 12, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks, well-being & wine wednesdays, questing, gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! ~ well-being, life advice, real talk, community

Words To Your Mother: ACTUAL PRO talk show with professional guest Dr. K. We had some technical difficulties, but GREAT conversation! Video version --> https://youtu.be/UqTC8PxWx9s

Self-described as an 'ardent humanist,' Dr. K is a professor of psychology at the University of North Texas at Dallas where she teaches original curriculum in LGBT and gender studies. She has a PhD in cognitive psychology and published her dissertation on relationship maintenance during the transgender self-disclosure process. While the LGBT community is her primary passion, Dr. K has explored many areas in psychology including crisis intervention, criminal psychology, and suicide awareness and prevention. In her free time, she powerlifts, runs a Self-Care Sunday group, and plays a lot of Dungeons and Dragons!

Originally aired LIVE on twitch July 15, 2019 - come join the community and tune in every M/W/F for new mental health talks, well-being & wine wednesdays, questing, gaming and lots of laughs: https://www.twitch.tv/mommafoxfire

mommafoxfire is a mental health advocate and variety gaming streamer on twitch! ~ well-being, life advice, real talk, community