The National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ken Duckworth, says university degrees and scientific studies on mental illness are valuable. But they’re not the only ways to gain expertise. People who have lived with mental illness, people who have had front row seats to the struggles of close family members, have the educational benefit of lived experience, should be highly valued in our society. Dr. Duckworth’s book, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health―With Advice from Experts and Wisdom from Real People and Families” features conversation and wisdom from over a hundred regular people who share their stories.

It takes a great deal of hard work on the part of many people to keep a place like Children’s Center running at top capacity. That means our therapists and our administrative staff, sure, but it also means the dedicated effort put in by the selfless volunteers who help power all that we do. In this very personal episode of our podcast, we meet two such friends of the organization, Denise Burgoyne and Brian Thompson. They talk about how they came to join the ranks of the volunteers, the work that they have been doing, and the impact Children’s Center has had in the community.

Any encounter with a medical professional or clinician - whether that’s a family doctor, a psychiatrist, a therapist, or anyone else in the field of helping people - is, at root, a human encounter. And the person you’re talking to is just as vulnerable to mental health struggles as anyone else in society. In this candid and illuminating interview, Dr. Jessi Gold, author of How Do You Feel?: One Doctor's Search for Humanity in Medicine, talks about her own mental health journey and the stigmas and challenges of her industry.

Most therapists do their work behind a closed door, in an intimate world where the practitioner and client are alone. Dr. Courtney Tracy dispenses mental health wisdom and advice on social media to over two million followers across a variety of platforms. In a wide-ranging conversation with Children’s Center Executive Director Matthew Butte, she tells of her efforts to spread the word about positive mental health while also acknowledging her own struggles with depression and borderline personality disorder.

Jenny Lawson is a journalist, blogger, and the author of several New York Times best-selling books, including Broken (in the Best Possible Way), Furiously Happy, and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. In this candid and, at times, very funny interview, Jenny talks about the healing power of being open about her longtime struggles with depression and anxiety. “There is an incredible freedom that comes from being honest about your struggles,” she says. “And that allows other people to be honest about theirs.”

Al Vecchione is the founder and clinical director of The Francis Foundation, a private non-profit in Vermont that serves people with extremely challenging behavior. He’s also founder of the Francis Foundation Learning Center and co-founder of the Vermont Crisis Intervention Network. He’s been a trainer for Children’s Center, teaching how the body is the battleground where struggles around trauma, mental health and developmental disabilities are played out. In this engaging interview, Al shares with Children’s center Executive Director Matthew Butte some of the insights and lessons he’s learned over a lifetime helping people.

Michelle Snyder is the executive director of Soul Shop, an organization that conducts trainings and workshops aimed at suicide prevention for faith community leaders. Michelle has been part of educational residencies all over the country, either conducting them herself or dispatching trained facilitators to address the growing problem of suicide and the ongoing challenge of a society that would often prefer to look the other way. In this honest and moving conversation with Matthew Butte, executive director of Children’s Center, Michelle talks about the hope that she has and the hard work still to be done.

In this episode, instead of talking to some of our favorite people around the country, we stay home and talk with some brilliant bringers of hope and healing right here at Children’s Center. Ashley Hernandez and Sarah Stahl are two of our in-house therapists doing amazing work with young clients. They tell Matthew Butte, executive director of Children’s Center, about the challenges and deep, profound rewards of working with the people who come to Children’s Center for help. Therapy can be hard work for client and clinician alike but Sarah and Ashley bring intelligence, heart, and creativity to the situation and can help make it a positive experience for everyone involved.

Maggie Smith is one of the most popular and acclaimed American poets, with numerous poetry anthologies and a memoir to her name. Maggie is perhaps best known for Good Bones, a poem that has been read on network television, at Lincoln Center by Meryl Streep, and in a thousand memes distributed all over the internet. She sits down for an interview about mental health and the written word with Children’s Center Executive Director Matthew Butte, who has long been inspired by the power and potential of poetry.

John Moe is a podcaster and speaker based in Saint Paul, Minnesota and the author of The Hilarious World of Depression. He believes that open and honest conversation about mental illness is one of the best paths available to removing the stigma around the issue and helping society find some healing. He also believes that humor definitely has a place in discussions of mental health. In this interview with Children’s Center’s Matthew Butte, John tells of his own journey and what he’s learned about helping himself and helping others.