The Self Care Unit

TW // Sexual Violence/Assault

For this week's Mental Health Matters, The Self Care Unit is joined by Mike Johnson for a very special episode. Mike is an author, speaker, Air Force veteran, sex coach and incredible advocate for self love and talking openly about mental health. The conversation is real and intimate this week, covering mental health, sex, and trauma, the intersection of all three, and how we can better love others and trust ourselves. Mike is an incredibly thoughtful communicator with the ability to speak about some of those topics many of us struggle to talk about, so we are so grateful he joined us for this important conversation. 

For all that Mike has to offer, please check out @mike_johnson, his book Making the Love You Want, or Feeling Seen.

This week on The Self Care Unit, we have a new Mental Health Matters episode! Sarah and Carley are joined by Jesse Katches. Jesse is a mental health advocate who works to bring to light mental health struggles and support his followers by giving them resources for better management and improved way of living. His TikTok's pack so much information and assistance in a condensed and fun format! We were thrilled to have him on to talk about his work, his mental health journey, and anxiety in particular. The focused and honest discussion brings both practical advice for managing anxious feelings and relatable experiences of anxiety. A big thank you to Jesse for taking part in this conversation! 

Jesse can be found @jessekatches on TikTok and Instagram, and his website https://www.jessekatches.com has so many resources for those looking to change how they respond to anxiety!

The Self Care Unit was thrilled to have Balanda Atis as our guest this week! Balanda's credentials are extensive! She is the head of scientific communications for L’Oréal Paris in the U.S, and is a pioneering scientist and champion for diversity in beauty, driving innovation at L’Oréal for more than a decade. Previously, she managed L’Oréal USA’s Women of Color Lab and Face Lab, where she worked to ensure all women had access to products suited to their unique needs in the 140+ countries where L’Oréal brands are available. We talk with her about beauty’s intersection with our sense of self and mental health, the self care aspects that we experience through makeup and cosmetics, her expert recommendations, all of our personal stories with makeup, and more! Balanda is an amazing scientist who also speaks about the emotional side of her work; we are so excited that she shared her expertise with us this week!

For more of Balanda, her work, and her story, you can find her @balandaatis or @lorealusa on Instagram!

This week, The Self Care Unit welcomes comedienne and RN Grace Amaku, aka Grace_Africa on TikTok, to the podcast. Grace joins us to talk about comedy and mental health, and to help us decide if laughter truly is the best medicine!  Shannon and Sarah talk with Grace about her journey from the bedside to the microphone, the ways comedy helps people cope and heal, how she brings her background and knowledge to the stage, and they obviously share a bunch of laughs along the way. It was such a treat having Grace on the show, we can promise that you will laugh out loud more than a few times during this hilarious episode! There's also so much information about the science and practice of joy, community, and healing, you may not even realize how much you're learning through the laughs!

We know you'll want more of Grace, so you can find her @Grace_Africa on TikTok or Instagram

The Self Care Unit team is continuing our blazing start to 2023 with another fantastic Ask A Nurse! This week, Joe asks Carley and Sarah about why they made the decisions they made on their journey into and within nursing. That’s right, it’s a nurse journey episode! How did they get to their individual nursing units? What are their favorite aspects of said units? What kinds of patients are their favorite to take care of? We also talk about why they love wound care, how they work hard to maintain patient dignity, and more! So for any nursing students, young nurses, or anybody interested in the profession out there, this episode gives great insight into how nurses make a career!

As always, please let us know if you have any questions you’d like to ask our nurses! You can email [email protected] and it may be asked on future editions of Ask A Nurse. And stay tuned for next week’s episode of The Self Care Unit!

On this episode of Ask A Nurse for The Self Care Unit, we are ringing in the New Year by talking about nursing favs! Joe asks our lovely co-hosts, Sarah and Carley, to talk up their go-to brands, chat about their favorite scrubs and swag, and maybe settle the debate on the comfiest shoes for nurses. Carley and Sarah also tackle the most important question: favorite snacks for those long shifts. Finally, we wrap up with some lovely and heartwarming stories of favorite past patients. This is a very fun and lighthearted episode of Ask a Nurse, but rest assured, it also gives new nurses and students a great idea of what to expect on the job and off. So check it out!

As always, please let us know if you have any questions you’d like to ask our nurses! You can email [email protected] and it may be asked on future editions of Ask A Nurse. And stay tuned for next week’s follow up episode of Ask a Nurse with The Self Care Unit!

CW://: Suicide

This week, Self Care Unit is joined by incredibly impressive Corey Feist, a cofounder of the Dr. Lorna Breen foundation. Corey has also authored numerous publications on the need to support the well-being of the healthcare workforce, and he has served as an expert in multiple forums including as a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator, as well as provided formal testimony in the United States Congress. Sarah and Josh talk with Corey about Dr. Lorna Breen's story, how their foundation's mission has found success through programs, laws, and actions, and how we can all help end the stigma of asking for help, mental illness, and suicide. This is a deep dive into the some of the biggest crises facing nursing and the healthcare professions at large, so we are so thankful to Corey for sharing his family's story and his wealth of knowledge with us on this very special episode of Mental Health Matters.

Please visit https://drlornabreen.org/ to learn more about Corey's work.

CW :://:: Suicidal Ideation

This week, for a really special Mental Health Matters episode, Carley and Sarah are joined by the incredible Dr. Courtney Tracy! Dr. Tracy is a world-renowned therapist and creator of the “HUMAN First'' movement. She is also the host of The Truth Doctor Show where she dives into vulnerable conversations of what it means to be human. We quickly get into the real stuff with Dr. Tracy, discussing authenticity, mental health stigma, taboos, seeking help, and more. You'll see why she's known as the NO-BS Therapist! We also learn more about her life and her work, particularly with EXIST centers, geared towards Gen-Z adults. Finally, we chat about how the mental health and healthcare fields can collaborate to create a better future for everyone. We are so grateful Dr. Tracy joined us for this Mental Health Matters conversation!

Please follow Dr. Tracy @the.truth.doctor on Instagram and her website which is exactly like it sounds & listen to The Truth Doctor Show anywhere you get your podcasts!

This week on Self Care Unit, Carley and Sarah were thrilled to welcome Sandra Payne to the podcast! Sandra is a former registered nurse turned Holistic Wellness Coach. She specializes in trauma-informed care and brings her experience as a nurse into her work today. We continue diving into the mental health realities of healthcare workers and how the stresses of the job can affect us. We also talk about the innate desire to help people, how nurses can talk to and support each other, and how we can be the change we want to see in the nursing world. It is a deep and sincere dive into problems and solutions, so we are so grateful Sandra joined us for this conversation!

If you want more of Sandra, you are in luck! Along with her website, she has a number of events and workshops very soon! This Thursday, you can attend Nervous System 911, a workshop reviewing our stress responses and our innate resources/tools to ease that stress. She also has a full guided transformational breathwork session on the 16th available, sign up here!

This week on Self Care Unit, Carley and Sarah are joined by Sam Calvin. Sam is a psychotherapist who moved into the profession after working for years as a first responder. As a mental health professional, he has done research and work with psychological first-aid, trauma-informed care, and trauma screening, so we were so grateful he took the time to share his expertise with us! We ask him about how his work as an EMT informs his current work, we discuss secondary trauma and its effects on healthcare professionals, and how we can improve our communication of our inner lives. A big thank you to Sam for joining us!