The Eriwellbeing Podcast

For our 12th episode of the Eriwellbeing podcast, we have Mikal with us! Mikal is the Co-founder of EWB and is making her first appearance on the podcast in this episode. Mikal has been busy completing her PhD (#bossbabe), now that she's finished we're thrilled to be welcoming her to the podcast where she will be putting her anthropology hat on to drop gems on the regular on all things mental health and wellness related. This is an episode with a very hot topic. We discuss the common fear-driven behaviour in our cultures that can best be described as  'What will people say'. We talk about how the fear of what other people think of us, or what other people might say about us governs our behaviour and often gets in the way of us doing what's best for us, especially when it comes to seeking help for our mental health. This is a problematic and layered fear-based behaviour that still has a stronghold on our communities, we talk about the complexities and layers of these behaviours and discuss where it comes from.  

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In this podcast we explore: 

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

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Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

We're so excited to be back with Season 2 of the EWB podcast, thank you so much for rocking with us! For our 11th episode of the Eriwellbeing podcast, we have the lovely Nadya Van Der Sluis from the Netherlands joining us to share her experience of living with a Bipolar condition. Nadya was diagnosed with Bipolar condition in 2009 and has since learnt how to live with this diagnosis while also not letting it limit her identity and opportunities. Nadya invites us into her reality in this conversation in a very generous and enlightening way, which we think will help many people challenge the stigma that they may have of what it's really like to live with a Bipolar condition. Nadya's personal experience with Bipolar condition has influenced a lot of the Mental health advocacy work that she does today which includes interviews, writing a book, non-profit work and a dance initiative (all details below). Nadya is a dynamic, and brave community-oriented woman with a big heart, we are so happy and honoured that we got to speak with her so intimately about her experiences with mental health. 

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In this podcast we explore: 

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Get in touch with Nadya 

Instagram: @bipoetry__ 

@down2dance 

Link to all of Nadya's work: https://instabio.cc/Bipoetry

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

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Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

For our 10th episode of the Eriwellbeing podcast (YAY), we have a special guest that we did our very first in-person podcast recording with, Semere Araya.

Semere reached out to us and asked how he could contribute to the EWB community so we recorded this episode with him to share his personal experiences with mental health as well as share insight about his work as a Mental health nurse.

Semere's personal experiences with mental health since a young age has not only informed his profession but also his advocacy for mental health within our communities and beyond. We loved meeting Semere in person and are so grateful to him for making time to record this while on his holiday, we love how you all keep showing up for this community!

* Please excuse the noise background noise, we recorded the episode in a public space as this was a quick turnaround episode. We've done our very best to adjust the sound with the help of @ryan.nile.show who edited the sound on this podcast.

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In this podcast we explore:

Black male mental health.

Semere's personal story with mental health and how it informs his mental health advocacy.

Mental health as a professional/career track.

Semere's experience with therapy and much more.

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Get in touch with Semere

Instagram: @sem_bodysson 

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

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Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

This is a quick turn-around episode as a response to what’s going on worldwide with the riots and protest that we’re set off by the murder of #GeorgeFloyd and so many other innocent black people whose names we don’t know.

As black people, we feel that its important to recognise this moment and share some perspective on how to use this global momentum that we now have regarding race relations. We also want to highlight the connection between Racism & mental health and explain how it affects us.

And we hope to empower our listeners to take action in a way that makes sense for you with your wellbeing as the first priority.

Our special guest in this episode is Karim Perrineau, the Founder & Director of New Beings.

New Beings is a civic & social organisation with a mission to empower, educate and inspire. New Beings create and deliver bespoke development workshops on diversity, equality and inclusion.

Please do share this episode with your loved ones or anybody that you know that might need to hear this conversation.

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Get in touch with Karim & New Beings

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/new_beings/?hl=en

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/NewBeingsUK/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/new_beings?lang=en 

Organisations that Karim mentioned:

Operation Black Vote - https://www.obv.org.uk/

Black Lives Matter - https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Stand Up To Racism - https://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/ 

Black, African, Asian Therapy Network- https://www.baatn.org.uk/

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

We are back again with another Corona special, this time with Dr Kemal Ibrahim, a Psychiatrist from London. 

In this conversation, we talk about how to take care of your mental health during the corona pandemic if you have a pre-existing mental health condition/diagnosis. This episode will also speak directly to anyone that might be a caretaker of a loved one or a family member that is struggling with a mental health condition.

We say this often but it’s worth repeating, we are always so grateful when we get to speak to and learn from Mental Health professionals like Dr Kemal from our community that really understand the complexity of our experience, as Eritreans, as black people and as children of immigrants.

Please do share this episode with your loved ones or anybody that you know that might be struggling with the lockdown.

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Get in touch with Dr Kemal

Email:  [email protected]

Youtube Channel Eritrea Health - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUjoQfgFAyPsoslopwLHI2w

Fitness App that Dr Kemal mentioned, Seven - https://seven.app/

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

We had the opportunity to speak with Dr Haben Ghezai, a Clinical Psychologist from London.

This is an important conversation about how to take care of our mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Haben shares invaluable advice about how to take care of ourselves during these times, we are always so grateful when we come across Eritrean/Ethiopian/Black mental health professionals that we can learn from.

Please do share this episode with your loved ones that might be struggling with the lockdown.

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Get in touch with Dr Haben

Instagram:  @drhaben_ghezai

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

In this episode, we explore Male Mental Health from an Eritrean male's perspective with our very special guest Adonay Berhe

We got to know Adonay through the @eriwellbeing IG community. After having several conversations with Adonay we realized that it would be so beneficial for Adonay to share his story on the podcast since it's so rare that we get to hear in detail about Eritrean men's experience with mental health.

This is an open conversation where Adonay shares his story with mental health since his teenage years all the way to present day, where he is currently finishing up his university studies in Journalism and Technology.  In this episode, we get an insight into Adonay's experience with navigating two cultures and the stigma around mental health that is common in many immigrant communities.

We also touch upon the topics of medication, counselling and therapy which we're very grateful for as we are yet to share these perspectives from a male speaking on these topics. He shares his thoughts on how women can be better allies towards men and create more space and safety for men to be able to open up about their general wellbeing.

Adonay is involved in Mental health advocacy work at his university where he organized an event called 'Chill and Chat", to create safe spaces for students to talk about their issues. We talk about mental health advocacy work as part of the healing process. 

We are so grateful to Adonay for coming onto the podcast to share his experiences and giving us insight and understanding about what it's like for a eritrean/black male to navigate their mental health.

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In this podcast we explore:

Black male mental health

Black masculinity/toxic masculinity

Navigating two cultures as a child of immigrants

The impact of religion on how parents may view mental health

How going to counselling and therapy can be really helpful

Taking your health in your own hands (not waiting for permission from parents/family/culture)

Breaking down stigma around medication

Building community, raising mental health awarenes and advocacy work as part of the healing process

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Get in touch with Adonay

Instagram: @adonayounas

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

In this episode, we explore how to feel empowered while helping loved ones on their mental health journeys with a very special guest, Viva. 

Viva is a friend of ours, part of the Eriwellbeing community and amongst many things, she is a mental health advocate. It was important for us to have this conversation with Viva as she has a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to caring for loved ones with mental health illnesses. This is a topic that we know that some people in our audience are dealing with, so we really wanted to expand on it. Viva not only shares her experience but also valuable insights, resources and frameworks that might be helpful for situations where you might be involved in a loved one's mental health journey/recovery. Viva also does high-level mental advocacy work, she recently joined the mental health board in her county. This has allowed her to not only understand how decisions are made when it comes to mental health care in her area, but it has also allowed her to better understand how resources are allocated and created an opportunity to speak up for the needs of her community. Please tune in to this very special episode, we really enjoyed having Viva on and learned a lot, hope you will too.

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Links:

NAMI - National Alliance on Mental Illness - https://www.nami.org/  (US) 

LEAP method/approach - https://lfrp.org/about-leap 

LEAP method videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjSSmkSYYvM 

LEAP Method Dr Xavier Amador Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxytf6kfPM  

LEAP method book -https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Mental-Illness-Treatment-Anniversary/dp/0967718937/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=leap+amador&qid=1576948138&sr=8-1 

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Terminology Gravely disabled - Gravely disabled means a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental disorder: (1) is in danger of serious physical harm resulting from a failure to provide for his or her essential human needs of health or safety, or. 

A Lanterman Petris (LPS) conservatorship is the legal term used in California which gives one adult (conservator) the responsibility for overseeing the comprehensive medical treatment for an adult (conservatee) who has a serious mental illness. 

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PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

---

The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

In this episode, we explore parental expectations with our special guest Eritrea Ghebrehiwet.

Eritrea is a @eriwellbeing community member, we really wanted to have her on the show as she does a lot of mental health awareness work. It's very important for us to be able to make this conversation and platform inclusive so we're very grateful to Eritrea for coming on our podcast to share her story and explore the topic of parental expectations against the backdrop of Eritrean culture with us.

Often as children of conservative/traditional/collectivist cultures, we are taught that there's an order of life, based on our parents and cultures perspective. There are certain things that we are supposed to do and don't do, anything from what we chose to study, whether we chose to go to university or not, the right type of career, the right type of person to fall in love with, marriage, children, number of children and so on. There's an expectation for things to happen in a linear fashion, but as most of us know life often throws its own curveballs, so living between two sets of expectation and cultures can be challenging. Life takes us where it takes us, we make the choices that we make and often we're not shown the love and acceptance to navigate the hard stuff, which can be painful for a lot of us.

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In this podcast we explore:

Eritrea's personal story and experience with mental health.

Eritrea's mission to raise awareness about mental health.

The impact of living between two sets of cultures.

Key expectations from parents.

The culture clash between parents and 2nd generations kids.

We explore whether there is value to some of those expectations.

Self-compassion.

Forging your own way and creating new expectations for yourself.

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Get in touch with Eritrea

Instagram: eritreag19

Twitter: eritreag19

Facebook: Eritrea Kiflai

YouTube: Eritrea Ghebrehiwet

Blog: www.eritreag19.com

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PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.

/Eriwellbeing

By popular demand, we recorded an episode in Tigrinya! 

Our goal is to reach as many people as possible within the Eritrean community with the message of mental health so an episode in Tigrinya felt very appropriate. This episode is really for all but with a special message for parents on how to relate to their kids, speak with their kids and create space for understanding mental health. Misunderstandings and stigma are connected to a lot of trauma and tragedy in our community when it comes to mental health. Our hope is that if we can start talking about it, agree on the terminology and share what we learn with each other, then maybe we can start creating space for mutual understanding and a path to wellness for all.

Get in touch with Dr Yacob and follow his work

Instagram @dr.yacobtekie

Website Tesfa House Psychotherapy

Racial Literary Project - Lions Story

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Help us grow this podcast by word of mouth so please send this episode to your sister, friend, aunt, brother, your partner…..Let’s grown in wellness as a community.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW AND RATE THE PODCAST.

Follow us on IG and send questions via DM.

INSTAGRAM  @eriwellbeing

NEWSLETTER  Sign up here

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The Eriwellbeing podcast is a mental health and wellbeing podcast, healing black and brown communities through open and honest conversations about our mental health.

Hosted by Ruthie Zerai and Mikal Woldu.

Produced by  Ruthie Zerai, Mikal Woldu and @purecreationmedia

---

Disclaimer:

While we hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, please note this is not a substitute for seeking professional help from licensed mental health professionals. Ruthie and Miki are not Mental health professionals, we are holding this space as community builders. We encourage you to seek professional help in your local area for any mental health concerns that you may be experiencing.