Richie Stephens is an Irish gangster-turned-actor who lives in Los Angeles. He frequently plays villains in TV and movies, including Days of Our Lives, Criminal Minds, MacGyver, and Blue Bloods.
He’s also the author of The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety where he shares how 12-step groups helped him get into recovery after decades of drug and alcohol abuse.
Some of the things he talks about today are what made him decide to get into recovery, the lies he had to stop believing, how he learned to manage his cravings, and what he did when he didn't agree with everything in the 12-step meetings he attended.

228 - The Gangster's Guide to Sobriety with Former Gangster and Actor Richie Stephens

This season of the Verywell Mind Podcast will be focused on the power of community and hosted by Minaa B, a licensed social worker, mental health educator, and author of "Owning Our Struggles." Minaa is also a community care expert who helps people build healthy relationships. Every Friday, we'll be speaking with experts, wellness advocates, and individuals with lived experiences about community care and its impact on mental health.
Episodes 1 – 263 were hosted by Amy Morin, psychotherapist and former editor-in-chief of Verywell Mind.

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

Health & Fitness

Mental Health

Self-Improvement

You sent Minaa your most pressing questions, and in today's episode she provides her insight and advice to those questions. You asked about how to handle a friendship you may have outgrown, how to develop healthy two-sided friendships, and when to forgive a friend that betrayed your trust (and how to do it).

For more info visit: verywellmind.com/podcast

The Verywell Mind Podcast is produced by:
Minaa B., LMSW - Host
Kristen Altmeyer - GM/VP, Verywell Mind
Jeremiah McVay - Podcast Producer/Editor

276 - Ask Minaa Anything: Creating and Navigating Healthy Friendships

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a Licensed Psychologist. She’s also a speaker and the Founder & CEO of Therapy for Black Girls, and host of its wildly popular mental health podcast, which received a Webby award in 2023. 
In this episode, Dr. Joy sits down with Minaa to discuss her new book, Sisterhood Heals: The Transformative Power of Healing in Community. Her work focuses on making mental health topics more relevant and accessible for Black women and she specializes in creating spaces for them to have fuller and healthier relationships with themselves and others.

For more info visit: verywellmind.com/podcast

The Verywell Mind Podcast is produced by:
Minaa B., LMSW - Host
Kristen Altmeyer - GM/VP, Verywell Mind
Jeremiah McVay - Podcast Producer/Editor

275 – How to Build Your Sisterhood With These Small Steps from Dr. Joy

Dr. Raquel Martin is on a mission to radically reimagine Black possibility by promoting Black mental health as key to legacy-building and longevity for generations to come. In this episode, she sits down with Minaa B to discuss black mental wealth -- what it is and what it looks like in practice.
Dr. Martin is an experienced licensed clinical psychologist, devoted professor, acclaimed researcher, and scientist. She deeply believes in the power of Black mental wealth – an affirming, lifelong journey, that encourages Black people to center mental health practices as integral and intentionally linked to success and wellbeing.

For more info visit: verywellmind.com/podcast

The Verywell Mind Podcast is produced by:
Minaa B., LMSW - Host
Kristen Altmeyer - GM/VP, Verywell Mind
Jeremiah McVay - Podcast Producer/Editor

274 - How Black Mental Wealth is Key to Life-long Success and Wellness, with Dr. Raquel Martin

Julie Scelfo is the Founder/Executive Director of Get Media Savvy, a nonprofit using pop culture to establish a healthy media environment for kids and families. She is an award-winning journalist, a former New York Times staff writer, a media ecologist, an author, and a parent.
Scelfo was moved to start Get Media Savvy after reporting on the youth mental health crisis and seeing suicidality affect children at ever-younger ages, and recognizing how a multitude of factors—including absent regulations and the lack of widespread media literacy—has created an unhealthy, unsafe media environment. In this episode Scelfo talks with Minaa B about how her coalition works to create a widespread cultural shift so everyone recognizes the existence of the media environment and its central role in human affairs.
For more info visit: verywellmind.com/podcast
The Verywell Mind Podcast is produced by:
Minaa B, LMSW -- Host
Kristen Altmeyer -- VP/GM, Verywell Mind
Jeremiah McVay -- Podcast Producer/Editor

273 - Technology and Kids: How to Limit Social Media's Impact on Mental Health in Today's World

Paige Bellenbaum, is a LCSW, and the Founding Director and Chief External Relations Officer at The Motherhood Center of New York.
In this episode, Bellenbaum sits down with Minaa B to discuss her experience with severe postpartum depression and how that drove her to fight for education, screening, and treatment for postpartum depression so that no more women would have to suffer silently.

For more info visit: verywellmind.com/podcast

The Verywell Mind Podcast is produced by:
Minaa B., LMSW - Host
Kristen Altmeyer - GM/VP, Verywell Mind
Jeremiah McVay - Podcast Producer/Editor

228 - The Gangster's Guide to Sobriety with Former Gangster and Actor Richie Stephens

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