In this episode, we returned with another very open transparent conversation with Sarah and I. we talk about the usuals which is mental health, or physical health, in any updates in our lives. 

Jenn has lived with Rheumatoid Arthritis since she was six years old. While she was an active and athletic child, as an adult, her arthritis has become more limiting. It’s been a challenging process for her to redefine her sense of self and to accept these limitations, while still trying to move forward and to work around them. Despite her disability, she has been able to remain active. For most of her professional life, Jenn has been an English teacher and school leader, and has loved the time that she spent with the teenagers that she taught, many of whom she still has in her life. For the past seven years, she has worked as a DEI and disability advocate. In her work as a disability advocate and educator, she brings disability awareness into all of the work that she does. Too often, serving people with disabilities is not part of the national conversation. She helps the people with whom she works to consider how we can create a world that is more inclusive of all people, including people with disabilities. Jenn works to educate people about the strengths and gifts that people with disabilities have. Everyone has something that limits them, and success asks that we simply move forward even with the limitations that we have. That said, we need allies, systems, and structures that ensure our inclusion and success. Jenn has also earned certification as a listener poet and is invested in working with organizations to use the listener poet process as part of a support system for those in careers with a high emotional demand. Jenn loves writing, and collaborated with her husband, Kevin, on a poetry collection last year. She has also completed a book that profiles people with disabilities. See Us, Know Us; Profiles of Disability tells the stories of 30 diverse individuals with disabilities. Each profile consists of a portrait, a narrative biography, an original poem and a poem origin story that gives context to the poem. The book will be available in October

https://jenniferchassmanbrowne.com/

I met our next guest Vance on TikTok. He came in with a very positive attitude and he sent me and everybody in my life some Grace and some good advice. In the episode, he talks a lot about addiction, mental health, and how it has affected his life and his family. He also discusses how his sobriety means so much to him as a person and how he wants to make his family proud.

This week we have two guests, MARI, and Tony. MARI and I sat down and talked, and she realized that Tony would add some expertise as a disability advocate, and someone who started their own business to help employ those with disabilities. They both have started their own companies, and I've done so much for the disability community, especially for employment. Though neither has a disability themselves, they have a passion for helping those with disabilities.

This episode is with my good friend Angela. I met her on TikTok, and ever since I met her she's always tried to help me with my mental health or anything else that's going on in my life. She is someone who has struggled with mental health and past trauma, but she has found herself through her connection with God.

For more than two decades, Jeff has worked as a mental health specialist helping people navigate the emotional terrain of chronic pain and illness. Day after day he sat with clients whose bodies had betrayed them, people trying to build meaningful lives in bodies that would not cooperate. He helped them face fear, uncertainty, grief, and the quiet loneliness that often comes with long-term illness. Then life asked him to walk the same road. Jeff lives with Common Variable Immune Deficiency, a rare immune disorder that requires ongoing treatment and brings the same fatigue, uncertainty, and physical limitations that many of his patients face. Suddenly the theories were no longer just ideas discussed in a therapy room. What do you do when your body stops being reliable. How do you build a life when health is uncertain. How do you keep meaning when plans collapse. Instead of stepping away from the work, Jeff stepped deeper into it. He began writing poetry to give shape to experiences that medicine could not fix. He wrote guided meditations for people lying awake with pain. He created conversations about the psychological reality of chronic illness that rarely get talked about openly. His work blends existential psychology, acceptance based therapies, and the raw honesty that comes from living inside the problem rather than observing it from the outside. Today Jeff shares those ideas through books, guided meditations, and his podcast, helping people understand that chronic illness is not only a medical experience. It is an existential one. It raises questions about identity, meaning, isolation, freedom, and how to build a life when the body is no longer predictable.

This episode is with my pastor, Pastor John. We talk about his upbringing, mental health, how he got to becoming a pastor and what his mission is today. 

I was born blind, and with other disabilities as well. Growing up, the school system assumed that I was incapable of learning enough to become a fully functioning adult. This ultimately led to a situation where I actually missed out on grades 7-11 entirely. Thus the idea that I would end up with multiple advanced degrees was inconceivable to most of the adults in my life. I have also experienced other trials such as nearly losing custody of my first child due to disability discrimination. This occurred while we were helping her through treatment for a pediatric cancer, no less. She turned out ok, but those memories catalyzed me to strive for systemic change. As someone who lives with chronic pain and mental health struggles, I have found the beauty in serving as a means for survival. I know what it means to fight for opportunities and defy expectations on the path to becoming who we are meant to be. Moreover, I know what it means to sooth our own pain by helping someone in need reclaim the hope that they deserve. I feel blessed for having the chance to help people step into their brilliance, and facilitate changes within organizations that unleash the best in their people. In my mind, these are two sides of the same coin.

His website https://www.peacesofme.org/

Andrew Drasen is the author of A Vision of Hope and the creator of a 90-day framework that helps people transform pain into growth and live on purpose, not by accident. His work began with his own journey through adversity, loss, and rediscovery—experiences that forced him to rebuild from the ground up and ultimately inspired him to create a structured program others could follow. Andrew believes that everyone has something to recover from. Whether it is addiction, grief, trauma, burnout, or the setbacks that life inevitably places in our path, his work resonates because it is both deeply personal and profoundly universal. What makes his message unique is that he doesn’t stop at inspiration. Instead, he delivers a framework: a practical roadmap built on rediscovering identity, clarifying direction, and creating measurable steps forward. His audiences and readers don’t just walk away inspired, they leave with tools they can put into practice immediately.

John is our next guest and he is somebody that I met for my mother who came highly recommended. As I sat down and talked to him, I knew we had a lot in common, and that our conversation would be a deep one. John talks about childhood drama addiction, being infected with the HIV virus , mental illness and so much more.