#45: Erin Herle - Submit The Stigma

Erin Herle is a BJJ black belt who started the #submitthestigma campaign after she lost her father Robin Herle to suicide. Erin started training jiu-jitsu in the summer of 2009 after being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, ADHD, and suffering bouts of depression. Today, Erin tours the world (not literally atm because, you know, the pandemic) teaching seminars loaded with humor and sprinkled with mental health advocacy. On this episode of the Fight Back Podcast, Georgia and Erin jam about the importance of mental health and how martial arts is an epic medium to improve mental health and help you overcome your trauma. Erin and Georgia discuss: How the stigma around mental health historically manifested for Erin What attributes of BJJ make it helpful for mental health and potentially life saving The not so obvious ways learning to fight is a form of self defense Learning to take up space Learning to regulate emotions What 'self care' really means and why most of the stuff on instagram is BS Hypothetically, what would a stigma-free BJJ class look like And loads more. This is a long episode, fair warning. It's a podcast so pause and take a break whenever you like but I highly recommend sticking with it because there's a lot of great nuggets of wisdom in here! Connect With Erin on IG: @erinherle @submitthestigma How To Get Involved : The Fight Back Podcast Facebook Apple Podcast Georgia on Instagram Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified female survivors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga