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January 31, 2019 - In This Issue:
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Happy New Year and New Opportunities!
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By Trish Larsen, Executive Director
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Happy New Year and Happy 2019! As we enter our 12th year of service, Minding Your Mind continues to grow and thrive. We are so proud to offer programs that enrich our communities by improving knowledge and understanding around mental health.
Thank you for all of your past and continued support!
With the recent blast of incredibly cold weather, I imagine many of you are spending more time indoors, hunkered down, finding ways to stay warm, and looking forward to spring. We're happy to have this opportunity to share our newsletter with you, chock full of information about our speakers, our programs, and
some very exciting events to look forward to. I hope you enjoy our news, and also hope you will share it with your friends, family, and colleagues!
Stay warm and be well!
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Gifts & Grants Received since
November 2018
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Becker Foundation
Curaterra Foundation
Dolfinger McMahon Foundation
Kuebler Family Foundation
Lily Foundation
Rite Aid KidsCents
Sandra & Alton Cleveland Charitable Trust
Vanguard Employee Contributions
Gifts to the Jeremy David Hunn Fund
Gifts in memory of Mark Goldstein
Gifts in memory of Collin Measel
Gifts in memory of Alec Pizzi
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2019 is going to be a great year for Minding Your Mind in New England, starting with the addition of two new staff members. Catelin McCarriston is the New England Outreach Coordinator. She is planning May's A Celebration of Life: Boston event and building relationships with middle schools, high schools, and summer programs throughout New England. Kristina Rowshan expanded her role with Minding Your Mind to include Outreach Coordinator for Spanish-Speaking Communities. Kristina will continue to present, in both English and Spanish, as part of Minding Your Mind's Speaker Program, and is reaching out to local Spanish-speaking communities to increase access to mental health education and suicide prevention programming. We also welcomed Joey as a Young Adult Speaker. Joey resides in Western, MA, and is excited to share his story with students, parents, caregivers, and educators in that region.
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| Joey speaking at the Justice Resource Institute |
We are actively recruiting clinicians to work with us throughout New England. If you are interested in joining the Minding Your Mind team, please contact New England Regional Director, Michelle Drolsbaugh at [email protected]
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SAVE THE DATE! Please join us for a
Young Professionals Board information session on Tuesday, February 26. Learn more about how you can get involved in helping Minding Your Mind engage young professionals in advocacy and awareness. For more information, email
[email protected].
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Suzelle Marques, MA, LPC
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We are pleased to welcome Suzelle Marques to Minding Your Mind as a clinical facilitator in New Jersey.
Suzelle is a licensed professional counselor and a certified Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral therapist. She formerly worked at various outpatient mental health centers, and in a variety of school settings, providing individual counseling and additional support services to various age groups. Suzelle has extensive experience working with children and adolescents, and is currently practicing as a Licensed Professional Counselor in New Jersey at her own private practice, where she provides individual and family counseling in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Suzelle believes that changing one single person's perspective on mental health by providing the right education and resources can create a large scale ripple effect, effecting positive changes in those around us!
We continue to actively recruit New Jersey-based young adult speakers. If you are interested in working with Minding Your Mind in New Jersey, please visit the
Employment section of our website and let's explore how we can bring new stories and experiences to our communities.
To date, we have scheduled 265 presentations in New Jersey for the 2018-2019 school year. Earlier this month, New Jersey Regional Director
Guy Iacono and Young Adult Speaker
Lucas presented "
Just Talk About It" to parents at Summit High School in Summit, NJ.
Contact Guy to discuss our programs and opportunities you have to bring MYM to your school or community.
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Click any icon to follow MYM!
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MYM hosts an active and ever-growing community of individuals who are interested in making mental health education a priority in our society. We have over 5,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and there is always room for one more. On our networks we share information about events, partnerships, and timely news and articles relevant to the mental health community. Come see what everyone is talking about!
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MYM Blog Welcomes Contributors
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Do you have something you'd like to say about mental health? We are actively seeking submissions for blog posts!
Please send the piece you would like considered for publication to Maura Wheeler, director of communications and public relations
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Middle School Students Study
Mental Health
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In December of 2018, Minding Your Mind's young adult speaker and director of student engagement, Jordan Burnham, was interviewed by a small group of students from Radnor Middle School (PA) who were doing research for a report on mental health. The students, Olivia Brubaker, Pablo Strid, Lyla Wallis, and Mathew Wolfington, are enrolled in Soundings, an integrated learning program that challenges eighth graders to explore student-selected themes that merge their adolescent concerns with global issues. Olivia, Pablo, Lyla, and Mathew chose to research mental health in order to discover why there is still stigma surrounding it today.
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With the goal of gaining insight from someone who speaks on his story and works in mental health advocacy as well, the students were prepared with over 30 questions covering a variety of topics. Jordan said it was one of the most professional and organized interviews he's had the opportunity to participate in.
On January 8, 2019, the unit group presented to thirty of their classmates and both teachers. The project covered how society's view of mental illness has changed from the early 1700s to the present, from the way mental health disorders were diagnosed, how cruel the treatment was for people with mental health disorders, and how the misconceptions of those disorders led to the stigma that's often still associated with mental illness today.
Their classmates sat with notebooks and pencils, taking pages of notes, as they watched the unit group present a two-hour PowerPoint with the definitions of different mental health issues, while also using YouTube videos to add context by using real-life stories.
Read full story...
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Looking Forward
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A Celebration of Life Returns!
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Philadelphia 5/9/19 & Boston 5/14/19
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A Celebration of Life
began in 2011 to honor the memory of Kyle Craig, a 21-year-old student at Vanderbilt University who took his life in May of 2010. Kyle was a dynamic friend to many; a bright, handsome, and gifted individual across music and athletics, but whose strength of character enabled his growing struggles to be hidden from view.
In the eight years since it began in Nashville, this annual event has expanded to New York, Philadelphia, and now Boston, engaging more than 3,000 young professionals in the service of suicide prevention and mental health awareness.
A Celebration of Life
is a movement focused on inspiring hope, while also remembering lives that have been lost to suicide. The evening creates special moments and appreciation for life. Funds raised will support Minding Your Mind's mental health education programs. We hope you will join us at one of this year's events.
A Celebration of Life: Philadelphia
Thursday, May 9, 2019
8:00PM - 11:00PM
Ballroom at the Ben
WIN TICKETS TO SEE SETH MEYERS!
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A Celebration of Life: BOSTON
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
7:00PM - 10:00PM
State Room
Minding Your Mind will be honoring Clay Skipper, co-founder of
A Celebration of Life: NYC.
Watch Clay in the "The Moment I Started Taking My Mental Heath Seriously" video, produced by GQ.
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Congratulations to Carl Antisell
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Congratulations to Carl Antisell, managing director of operations and training, on becoming a father!
Carl and his wife Dana welcomed William "Liam" Charles on December 25, 2018. Mom, Dad, and Liam are healthy and happy (and maybe a little sleep-deprived). We are thrilled to welcome Liam, and wish Dana and Carl all the best.
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Our students loved the presentations, they shared how much they learned and how they spoke to them at their level. The anonymous questions worked great to get the students to ask some deep questions and honestly share what's going with them. A number of kids reached out to our counselors or parents after the presentation to talk about, for the first time, the struggles they've been having. We can't wait to have you back for our next classes.
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Emma Barrera encourages students to trust their instincts and advocate for themselves.
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Since she was nine years old, Emma has felt the weight of anxiety - even without having a name to call what she was feeling. She was a high-achiever in an attempt to fulfill expectations of others and hide the growing symptoms of her anxiety. The recognition she received for her achievements made her a prime target for bullying, both in school and on her track team.
Trying to remain "the girl who can do it all" added depression to her anxiety, leading to panic attacks. She saw many doctors for the physical manifestations of her mental health issues, all of who told her, "No, there's nothing wrong." She knew that wasn't the case and kept searching for answers. It wasn't until she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder that Emma felt freed from the weight of not knowing what was going on inside her head.
She shares her story of recovery to inspire other people to advocate for themselves and find their own path through recovery.
Through all of her struggles, Emma has learned that the most important thing to remember is that "crazy," a word so many people throw around when talking about mental health, is just a concept. She believes that no mental health issue can have power over you if you take the right steps to develop coping mechanisms that work for your individual needs.
A counselor at South Western High School (PA) had this to say about Emma's presentation:
"Emma was a pleasure to have. We have received significantly positive feedback from students and administration. Student's quoted Emma as being 'real and able to relate to us'.
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To schedule a program with Emma for your school or community, please click here.
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