inSight Out

By Integral Mental Health Services LLC

inSight Out is a podcast for people affected by vision loss and those who care about them. If vision loss has you feeling alone, scared, angry, uncertain, disconnected, or simply confused, you're i

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FAQs about inSight Out:

How many episodes does inSight Out have?

The podcast currently has 28 episodes available.

inSight Out episodes:

September 02, 2026 028 Stepping Out of the Driver's Seat with Janel Brooks
In this episode of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves talks with Janel Brooks, an engineer at a Fortune 500 company who has lived with Stargardt disease for almost twenty years. Diagnosed in her twenties after a routine LASIK consultation revealed the condition, Janel describes an unusually smooth diagnosis followed by a much harder decade of watching her vision quietly worsen while she kept driving, working, and problem-solving her way around it, until a stoplight she couldn't fully make out became her first real warning sign.
Janel walks Matthew through the guilt she carried before she finally quit driving in early 2018, the total restructuring of daily life that followed (walking to the grocery store, building thirty-minute buffers into every rideshare, treating errands as a shared family calendar rather than a solo task), and the moment her husband pushed back on being cast as her "helper" rather than her partner. The conversation turns toward her career, where Janel spent years hiding her vision loss out of fear it would stall her advancement, until a moment of crisis, walking into her regional manager's office to quit, led to an unplanned disclosure and a response that changed everything: "I do." His daughter has Stargardt's too.
Matthew and Janel talk about the exhausting, ongoing work of asking for help, the power of using humor to put people at ease, and how choosing to disclose, rather than waiting to be found out, can become its own form of control. Janel also shares an unlikely story about becoming an emergency feline chaperone on a cross-country flight, a reminder that vision loss doesn't disqualify you from showing up for the people you love.
Topics Covered: Stargardt disease, driving cessation and vision loss, disability disclosure at work, self-advocacy, reframing burden and independence, marriage and caregiving dynamics, humor as a coping tool, workplace accommodations, asking for help, community and podcast listenership.
Reach Janel at [email protected].
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: [email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod
©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
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55min
August 19, 2026 027 What "Chronic" Really Means with Rebecca Petris
On the surface, this episode of inSight Out is about dry eye. Underneath, it's about something every listener with low vision or blindness will recognize: what happens when a very real experience gets minimized because it doesn't fit the box other people expect it to fit. Host Matthew Reeves talks with Rebecca Petris, president of the newly renamed Dry Eye and Ocular Pain Foundation, about a condition that is chronically misunderstood by its own name. Rebecca explains why "dry eye" has become an unhelpful catch-all term, covering everything from casual irritation to severe, sight-threatening disease, and why her organization recently added "ocular pain" to its title to better capture what many patients actually live with. As Matthew and Rebecca discuss early on, plenty of people in the low vision and blind community carry some degree of ocular discomfort alongside their vision loss without ever naming it or having it taken seriously, which is exactly the kind of overlap this conversation is built to surface.

Rebecca traces her own path into this work back to a 2001 LASIK surgery that left her with corneal damage and undiagnosed neuropathic pain. What started as one patient searching for answers online became a website, then an online community, and eventually a full-time career building support for people whose eye pain and vision problems come from wildly different causes but land in strikingly similar places: the powerlessness of not being believed, and the isolation of a body that no longer behaves the way it used to. She describes the foundation's helpline, where people who have often seen a dozen or more specialists without answers can finally be heard, and walks through how untreated eye pain compounds into financial, relational, and mental health crises, a pattern that will land as familiar to anyone who has navigated the medical system with vision loss.

Matthew and Rebecca also have a candid conversation about suicidal ideation within the chronic pain and vision loss communities, and why Rebecca fought to keep the word "chronic" out of her field's official diagnostic language. It's a wide-ranging conversation that starts with a name nobody likes and ends up being about connection, validation, and what it actually means to accompany someone through a painful and uncertain diagnosis, whatever that diagnosis happens to be.

You can reach the Dry Eye Helpline at 800-484-0244.
Concerned about suicidal thoughts? Dial or text 9-8-8 to reach the national crisis hotline in the US.

Topics Covered: dry eye disease, ocular surface pain, LASIK complications, chronic pain, medical trauma, patient advocacy, suicidal ideation, mental health and chronic illness, self-advocacy, accompaniment in illness.

ABOUT THE PODCAST

inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.

CONNECT WITH US

Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com

Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod

Email: [email protected]

Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod

Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml

Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/

Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
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1h 2min
August 05, 2026 026 Breaking the Disclosure Dam with Ana Nosal
In this episode of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves talks with Ana Nosal, a 30-year-old marathon runner from the Washington, D.C. area who was diagnosed with Stargardt disease at fourteen. Ana describes the early denial that came with starting high school just as her vision loss was confirmed, the accommodations she quietly refused to use, and the moment in college when giving up driving forced a new kind of acceptance. She also traces how her competitive life shifted, from soccer and softball, where her declining hand-eye coordination became too hard to ignore, to cross country and track, sports she could still control on her own terms.
Much of the conversation centers on disclosure: why Ana told professors and friends only on a strict need-to-know basis for over a decade, how therapy, originally sought for grief after her father's death, eventually surfaced how much of her anxiety and self-esteem was tangled up in her vision loss, and how she and her therapist worked through worst-case and best-case scenarios before she told her boyfriend just two dates in. That practice run set the stage for the leap that followed: posting her story to social media all at once, rather than telling people one at a time.
Ana and Matthew talk about what it's like to receive an outpouring of support you spent years bracing against, the guilt of wondering why you didn't trust people sooner, and the unexpected reward of helping other people, including partners, parents, and teachers, recognize vision loss they hadn't known how to see before.
Topics Covered: Stargardt disease, disclosure and self-advocacy, adaptive sports, marathon running, grief counseling, generalized anxiety, self-esteem work, social media visibility, dating and disclosure, worst-case versus best-case thinking.
Contact Ana at [email protected] and follow her on IG or TicTok: @Ana_Nosal
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
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49min
July 22, 2026 025 Pursuing the Paralympics with Graham Rainsby
In this episode of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves talks with Paralympic hopeful Graham Rainsby about losing most of his vision within a single year to Stargardt's disease, and the unlikely athletic career that followed. Diagnosed in sixth grade after his vision dropped from roughly 20/60 to 20/200, Graham describes the strange mix of denial and determination that got him through middle school, the accommodations that let him compete at the varsity level in high school and at Middlebury College, and the ongoing, exhausting calculus of deciding when and how to disclose a disability that isn't always visible at first glance.
A knee injury at the end of his senior year ended Graham's running career, and after several years adrift, he picked up competitive swimming, setting an American record in the 50-meter butterfly in his very first race. He's now training toward the qualifying time for the 2028 Paralympic trials, and he opens up about the strange unsatisfying quiet of finishing a swim race blind, unable to see the clock or know how he placed until someone tells him.
Matthew and Graham also dig into the difference between wanting to stand out because of a disability and refusing to be defined by it, why Graham still struggles to ask for enough support, and the philosophy that's carried him through two sports: that the value is in the pursuit, not the finish line.
Topics Covered: Stargardt's disease, progressive vision loss, disability disclosure, self-advocacy, collegiate athletics, adaptive sport transition, Paralympic swimming, identity and disability, resilience, chasing long-term goals.
Follow Graham on Instagram: @blindconfidences
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
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56min
July 08, 2026 024 Entrepreneurship and Disability with James Warnken
In this episode of Insight Out, host Matthew Reeves sits down with digital accessibility professional and entrepreneur James Warnken to discuss the transformative power of shifting from a mindset of survival to one of professional empowerment. Diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease at nine years old, James opens up about his journey through progressive vision loss, the intense burnout that can come with constant childhood self-advocacy, and how he ultimately learned to embrace his disability as his greatest professional asset.
James walks us through his career trajectory, from launching an apparel line in college to founding his own digital accessibility consulting framework, Clear Vision. He shares insightful reflections on how navigating a world not built for low vision instills crucial professional skills like hyper-organization, proactive planning, and innovative problem-solving. We also dive into a fascinating family dynamic: James’s younger brother shares the exact same visual diagnosis but approaches life with an entirely different personality, highlighting why accessibility and accommodations can never be a one-size-fits-all solution.
Whether you are currently navigating employment with vision loss, battling imposter syndrome, or considering taking the leap into entrepreneurship, this conversation offers a refreshing, solution-oriented perspective. James reminds us that lived experience cannot be replicated by certifications alone, and that embracing our unique adaptations allows us to walk through open doors with confidence.
Topics Covered: Stargardt's disease , progressive vision loss , childhood self-advocacy burnout , digital accessibility , entrepreneurship and disability , assistive technology , imposter syndrome , workplace accommodations , personalized IEPs , adaptive professional skills.
Contact James at [email protected] or 330-936-2556. Learn more about Clear Vision: https://clearvisionllc.org/.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
...more
59min
June 24, 2026 023 Personal Perspectives on Vision Loss with Nik Kirkpatrick
In Episode 023 of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves — a legally blind psychotherapist — sits down with Nik Kirkpatrick, a forty-year-old with Stargardt's disease who found the podcast through the Stargardt's subreddit. Nik offers one of the most candid and grounded personal perspectives the show has featured: no silver linings forced too soon, no tidy arc — just the real, uneven, sometimes funny experience of building a life around a diagnosis that shaped everything without defining him.
Nick was seventeen when he was diagnosed, but the years that followed were marked more by avoidance than acceptance. He didn't disclose at college, dropped out of classes he couldn't follow, and spent years in the restaurant industry — work that felt accessible but came with genuine physical risk. Economic hardship, social misunderstandings, and a misconception about his prognosis compounded an already difficult journey. He was in his thirties before he connected with a therapist who could actually help.
What makes this conversation stand out is the specificity. Nik talks about the cognitive work of navigating a restaurant floor using peripheral vision and basketball footwork. He describes the quiet indignity of a friend assuming he couldn't split a bill. He reflects on advising his newly diagnosed mother-in-law — 20/40 vision — that his vision was worse at seventeen than hers is now, and that he still carries trays of glasses across a restaurant floor without falling. He plays chess at the 65th percentile on chess.com by memorizing the half of the board he can't see.
Matthew and Nik also dig into the deeper psychological terrain: how vision loss intersects with identity, the danger of conflating what you can do with who you are, and why the most durable coping resource Nik found was a sense of self he'd built before the diagnosis — one rooted not in achievement, but in accountability.
Topics covered: Stargardt's disease personal experience, vision loss and identity, adjusting to progressive vision loss, low vision in the workplace, navigating restaurants with low vision, peripheral vision adaptation strategies, vision loss and mental health, therapy for disability adjustment, Stargardt's subreddit community, low vision and employment challenges, economic impact of vision loss, SSDI and blindness, disclosure of visual impairment at work, vision loss grief and acceptance, macular degeneration family support, living well with low vision, quality of life with vision impairment, play to your strengths disability advice
Contact Nik at [email protected].
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
...more
49min
June 10, 2026 022 The World of Descriptive Audio with Darla Biccum
Have you ever wondered what it takes to craft the audio description track that helps you follow a film, laugh at a visual gag, or feel the tension of a dramatic scene? In this episode of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves — a legally blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor — sits down with Darla Biccum, senior writer and creative lead at Descriptive Video Works, for a deep and illuminating conversation about the art, craft, and philosophy behind audio description. Whether you're a long-time user of described content or newly exploring what's available to you, this episode is essential listening.
Darla opens the curtain on a process far more nuanced than most listeners imagine. From her roots as a professional actor doing live description for dance competitions to writing scripts for animated series, gaming, expo experiences, and TV, Darla brings a storyteller's instinct to everything she does. She explains how she approaches a new project by watching it fully before writing a single word — connecting to the story the way an audience would — so that her descriptions carry the same emotional truth as the visuals themselves. Her guiding principle: describe what you see in a way that leaves the audience the same trail of clues you had.
Matthew and Darla also dig into the real-world constraints that shape every audio description script: the race against dialogue, the impossibility of capturing everything in a fast-moving action sequence, the challenge of maintaining narrative mystery without cheating the audience, and how genre expertise matters just as much as writing skill. They discuss how Descriptive Video Works' community advisory council — made up of blind and low vision consumers — actively informs and improves their work. And they tackle the growing conversation around AI-generated description with honesty, nuance, and genuine care for both the craft and the community it serves.
For listeners who want to know more about accessing audio description in their daily lives, Darla and Matthew walk through practical tips — from the SAP button on your remote to streaming platform settings, community Facebook groups, and resources like the Audio Description Project. This episode is a celebration of the people making access possible, and an invitation to engage more deeply and more joyfully with the described content available to you.
Topics Covered: audio description, described video, low vision accessibility, blind community, Descriptive Video Works, audio description writing process, live description, video game accessibility, genre-specific description, AI and audio description, community advisory council, how to access audio description, SAP button, streaming accessibility, storytelling and vision loss, emotional description, facial expression description, cognitive load
Contact Darla at [email protected].
Descriptive Video Works
Audio Description Project
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
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1h 2min
May 27, 2026 021 On the Other Side of the Diagnosis with Kimberly Stepien MD
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58min
May 13, 2026 020 Personal Perspectives on Vision Loss with Jessie Wolinsky
In this episode of inSight Out, host Matthew Reeves sits down with Jessie Wolinsky, a clinical mental health grad student and long-time advocate with the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Jessie shares a raw and deeply relatable account of her life with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), focusing on the pivotal moments of her adolescence when her vision loss felt like a total "rug pull" on her future. She discusses the intersection of disability and mental health, detailing her personal battle with chronic depression and the traumatic moments that eventually led her to seek the transformative power of therapy.
Listeners will gain insight into the practical and emotional hurdles of adopting mobility aids. Jessie speaks candidly about her initial resistance to using a white cane, fearing the stigma and perceived vulnerability it might signal to the world. She explains how she moved past those fears to reclaim her autonomy, eventually finding that the cane didn't just help her get from point A to point B physically, but also helped her move from a place of shattered confidence to one of self-assured independence.
Finally, the conversation turns toward the importance of "occupying space" and the clean burn of empathy over anger when dealing with societal ignorance. Jessie offers a powerful message of hope for anyone early in their vision loss journey, emphasizing that confidence is not an innate gift but a cultivated practice. Whether you are struggling with a new diagnosis or looking for ways to deepen your own adjustment, Jessie’s perspective provides a roadmap for living a life of design rather than one defined by external messages.
Topics Covered: Retinitis pigmentosa, adolescent diagnosis, depression and vision loss, self-harm and trauma, therapy for disability adjustment, the white cane and stigma, reclaiming autonomy, situational awareness and safety, self-advocacy in public spaces, the fuel of empathy, building confidence as a muscle, pursuing a career in mental health.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
...more
51min
April 29, 2026 019 Living as a Therapist wth Low-Vision with Jon Weaver LCSW
How do you continue to hold space for others’ mental health when your own world is fundamentally changing? In this episode, Matthew Reeves sits down with Jon Weaver, an LCSW living with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), to discuss the profound emotional and psychological shifts that accompany progressive vision loss. Jon shares his personal "backstory," from noticing flashes of light in grad school to the "surreal" experience of being the youngest person in a retina specialist's waiting room.
The heart of this discussion centers on the "mental load" of disability—the exhaustion that comes from hyper-focusing on symptoms and the anxiety of losing one's independence. Jon explains how he initially used "rationalization" to explain away his symptoms, such as joking that his fiancee simply had "night vision" superpowers. He provides a candid look at the grieving process, specifically the heartbreak of giving up his motorcycle and the "exposure therapy" required to accept a new way of living.
Listeners will gain practical mental health tools as Jon breaks down Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through a unique lens. Whether you are a fellow clinician, someone newly diagnosed, or a long-term member of the low-vision community, Jon’s insights on "practicing what you preach" offer a grounded, hopeful roadmap for navigating the plateaus and declines of vision loss with grace.
Topics Covered: Retinitis pigmentosa diagnosis, Stargardt's disease, family history of vision loss, the "mental load" of disability, anxiety and hyper-fixation, grieving the loss of driving, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) triangle, grounding techniques, adaptive gaming and hobbies, the future of AR and AI in low vision.
Contact Jon at [email protected] or (585) 310-4170.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
inSight Out is your podcast home for living well with vision loss. Host Matthew Reeves (LPC CRC NCC) is a legally-blind psychotherapist and rehabilitation counselor specializing in helping people thrive while living with disability. Matthew is licensed in Georgia and is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.
Please be sure to subscribe to catch every episode. And remember to share the show with others in the blind and low-vision community!
CONNECT WITH US
Podcast Home: https://insightoutpod.com
Talk to Us: https://speakpipe.com/insightoutpod
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Watch on YouTube (with transcripts): youtube.com/@insightoutpod
Feed: https://www.insightoutpod.com/feed.xml
Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/inSightOut/
Social Media Handle: @insightoutpod

©Integral Mental Health Services, LLC
...more
1h

FAQs about inSight Out:

How many episodes does inSight Out have?

The podcast currently has 28 episodes available.