Safe Space Radio

This week we revisit my 2012 conversation with Glenn Close about how and why she became an advocate for those with mental illness. Glenn's sister Jessie has bipolar disorder, which didn't get diagnosed for many years. Now they are working together to erode the stigma that prevents people with mental illness from getting the support, understanding, and treatment they need.

This week we revisit a conversation from 2011 with Elyn Saks, a law professor and MacArthur fellow who lives with schizophrenia. We discuss how she came to the difficult understanding that she had the illness and needed treatment, and how she was able to achieve personal and professional success, contrary to our popular notions of life with psychosis.

This week I speak with LaRhonda Harris of the Maine Department of Veterans' Affairs. She talks about changes that have been made in the last decade so that women feel safer and more comfortable coming to the VA for health care. She also talks about leading a book group for women veterans, and how sharing stories of the experience of being female in a male-oriented institution allows for connections across generations.

This week's show is part two of my interview with Kate Weber. Last week she told the story of being sexually assaulted on her army base overseas, and the lack of support and safety she felt when she reported the crime. This week we talk about the years since her discharge, including her struggle to feel safe in the culture of the VA, her battle with PTSD, and the ways that being in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War has empowered her to change the system.

A conversation with Jungian analyst Don Kalsched about how he helps people work through trauma by exploring the feelings of the characters in their dreams. He explains that because these characters represent the ways our minds have compartmentalized feelings that have been too painful to acknowledge consciously, they can be clues that point us toward healing.

This week we talk with LJ, who has been dealing with depression for most of his life, and describes it as a battle with a powerful enemy. He talks about the way that depression has affected his career, and vice versa, and describes the strategies he uses when he is well so that he is better prepared when his illness returns.

A conversation with Mary Allen Lindemann, co-founder of Portland's Coffee By Design. We talk about the ways that one coffee shop worked to become a safe place for those with mental illness. Mary Allen talks about training staff to de-escalate challenging situations, and tells the story of what happened when a staff member became ill herself.

Clare Miller is the director of the American Psychiatric Association’s Partnership for Workplace Mental Health. She works with employers to help them do everything they can to identify and treat depression among their employees. We discuss how to reduce the stigma of depression, and the value of people coming forward with their own stories. Clare tells the story of how colleagues helped her to get treatment for her own depression, and how this has made her a more effective advocate for others with untreated mental health issues. The PHQ-9 questionnaire mentioned in the show can be found here: http://www.cqaimh.org/pdf/tool_phq9.pdf The post Coping with Depression at Work with Clare Miller appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

On this week's show I talk with Lisa, who shares two dramatically different stories of telling co-workers about her depression. Her experiences highlight the contrast between a work culture that is supportive and one that stigmatizes, and all the consequences that has for the employee.

This week I talk with therapist and former orchestra conductor Susie Melnick about how depression has affected her work in both professions. We talk about the event that set off her first episode of major depression, one that she struggled with on and off for decades, and about the coping strategies that she used, until finally deciding she needed to change careers. We then discuss what it's like to be a therapist while dealing with depression, and how her experience can be an asset when working with people who have the same illness.

This week we begin a new series on Depression in the Workplace. My first guest is Geoff Smith, who heads LL Bean's Employee Assistance Program, or EAP. We talk about what an EAP can do to destigmatize depression within a company, and why it's in every employer's best interest to identify and help workers who are struggling with it. Geoff describes some of the reasons why workplace depression is rising worldwide, and the elements that make a job more or less likely to bring on depression.

This week I speak with Anna, who escaped Syria while 8 months pregnant in 2013 and now lives in Maine. She talks about trading the daily threat of bombings and kidnappings for a life of uncertainty as she and her husband applied and waited for asylum. She offers insight about what it means to really feel safe, and helps us better understand the plight of millions of Syrian refugees who are desperate for a chance to live in peace.

We begin a new series on refugee women in Maine with a conversation with Fatuma Hussein of United Somali Women of Maine. She describes the challenges of resettlement for refugees fleeing war in their native countries, which she experienced herself as a teenager. We talk about what kinds of help these new Mainers need to rebuild their lives, and how her organization collaborates with social service agencies to ease this overwhelming transition. She also addresses the presumption that refugees have a negative impact on the state's economy and culture, and explains her vision for making Maine a more welcoming place of refuge.

This week we conclude our series on the Maine-Wabanaki TRC by visiting a group of non-native allies who are working on how to best respond to the needs that the TRC brought to light. We learn from them why these issues matter to them personally, and the self-reflection and actions they take to make a difference for native people's rights in Maine.

A conversation with Penthea Burns, co-director of Maine-Wabanaki REACH. She talks about her background in child welfare and the difficulty of deciding whether the benefits of removing a child from abuse outweigh the additional trauma of severing family and community ties. She talks about how her work on these issues in Wabanaki communities has led her to a deeper understanding of her privilege as a non-native person, and how this privilege can undermine the efforts of non-native allies.

This episode features Jamie Bissonette Lewey of the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission (MITSC). She explains her views on Tribal-State politics, and why she believes that the fundamental issue is the difference between how the state and the tribes understand the concept of sovereignty stemming back to the history of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. The post Sovereignty with Jamie Bisonette Lewey appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

This week I talk with George, whose biological parents are Passamaquoddy, but who was adopted at birth and raised by white parents in southern Maine. George describes how it felt to visit the reservation for the first time and meet his biological relatives. He talks about how he has grappled throughout his life with the question of whether he really is Native American.

In part two of my conversation with gkisedtanamoogk, one of the five commissioners of the Maine State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he talks more about the relationship between the government and the Wabanaki tribes. He also describes some of the main concepts of his spiritual worldview, and talks about the central importance of the feminine in Native American culture.

Today I speak with gkisedtanamoogk, one of the five commissioners of the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He shares his reflections on the process now that the findings have been published, and we also speak about the gap between native peoples' views and those of mainstream America related to politics, spirituality, and community

An interview with former tribal state representative Donna Loring, who is also a former police chief, an author, and a radio host. We talk about the history of relations between the Maine government and the Wabanaki tribes, and the frustrations which led to the historic walkout of several tribal representatives earlier this year. We revisit the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who have now released the findings of their multi-year statement gathering process, and discuss their conclusions within the context of ongoing state-tribe relations.

We end this season by revisiting the topic of the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I speak with former DHHS worker Shawn Yardley about why children are removed from native families at disproportionate rates, and what it's been like for him, as a white man, to raise three girls with native heritage.

We conclude this series on loneliness, guilt, humiliation and jealousy with a story that combines all four. We also revisit an earlier interview with Dr. Aaron Lazare about shame and humiliation and how these self-conscious emotions intersect with the feelings we hide.

This week's show looks at the ways children are humiliated in school, both intentionally and inadvertently, and how it can significantly impact the way they feel about themselves well into adulthood.

This week we talk about the fourth and final emotion in our hidden feelings series...humiliation. That moment when you feel like dirt in someone else's eyes, which is often so hard to bear that we bury it without ever really putting it to rest. This week we have two stories from people who felt suddenly exposed and humiliated, and we'll talk about where things went from there.

This week our series on hidden feelings continues with jealousy. We'll hear two stories from people who have experienced jealousy in their professional lives, from the kind of jealousy that makes you feel inferior, to the kind that makes you want to disappear. We explore where it comes from and how to change our relationship to it.

This week we take a final look at guilt, this time with two stories about common types of guilt that nobody wants to admit to. One story is from childhood, the other from adulthood, and in both the teller hurt someone close to them, and has struggled to repair the damage to that person and to themselves.

We continue our series on hidden feelings this week with two stories about guilt, the kind we feel when we believe we didn't do enough at the end of a parent's life. We'll hear from people who were troubled by the way they failed to show up for their parents, and discuss the process of finding relief from that guilt.

Today we continue our series on hidden feelings with an in-depth examination of guilt. I speak with Stanford professor of psychiatry and human biology Herant Katchadourian, author of the book Guilt: The Bite of Conscience, about the urge to confess our guilt, how it can be used as a weapon, and how we can know whether we feel too much of it or too little. He explains a time-tested five step process for resolving our guilty feelings, and also passes on some Buddhist camping wisdom. A surprisingly fun conversation!

Today we continue our series on hidden emotions with a show about guilt. We hear stories from two people who carried guilt for decades and then decided it was finally time to confess.

On today's show we open with a story about how hard it is to feel lonely when everyone around you seems to be part of a happy couple. Then we talk to psychiatrist Amy Banks to find out what social isolation does to our brains, and some concrete things we can do to strengthen our ability to connect.

This episode of Safe Space Radio features David talking about how he came to understand the origins of a persistent and puzzling loneliness that he’d felt since childhood. The post Intergenerational Loneliness with David appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

I conclude my conversation with TRC commissioner Sandy White Hawk about how centuries of removing native children from their families has created a pattern of trauma and corresponding struggle that has made ongoing removal of children more likely. She talks about alternative approaches that support families in difficulty and expresses her hopes for the TRC in Maine.

In Safe Space Radio’s second conversation with Maine Wabanaki Truth and Reconcilitation Commissioner Sandy White Hawk, she talks about intergenerational trauma and helping white people better grasp what it means to lose your culture. The post Intergenerational Trauma with Sandy White Hawk appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

Maine Wabanaki Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Sandy White Hawk talks about being taken for adoption by a white missionary family who believed they were saving her from the poverty of the reservation. She describes the power of being reunited with her tribe at 35, and the deep feeling of belonging and safety she felt as she finally reclaimed her identity. The post Being Out Adopted with Sandy White Hawk appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

Today’s show is part three of my conversation with members of Maine Wabanaki REACH. I speak with Esther Attean and Stephanie Bailey about the experience of giving statements to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the hopes they have about what may come of it, and the anxiety of making painful stories public.

In part two of our series on the TRC, I speak with Maria Girouard, Esther Attean and Stephanie Bailey of Maine Wabanaki REACH. We discuss the process of gathering the untold stories of the many people affected by the longstanding practice of removing native children from their families and their tribes.

To begin our series on the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I talk with Maria Girouard and Esther Attean about the history of federal and state policies toward Native Americans here in Maine. We focus on the many attempts throughout the years to erase Wabanaki people and their culture, including the practice of removing native children from their homes.

A collection of stories about black-white personal relationships and some of the common pitfalls that white people fall into, often without realizing it.

In part two of my conversation with racial justice educator Debby Irving, we talk about the interpersonal dynamics of racism - in friendships, in "white spaces" like schools and offices, and even around the dinner table. Debby gives great, concrete suggestions on how to shift these dynamics in useful ways.

My guest this week is Debby Irving, author of the book Waking Up White, who talks about the way her world was shaken when she began understanding the extent to which her whiteness has been crucial to her success in life. She also details the ways in which her new ability to engage in challenging conversations about race has helped her feel closer to all the people in her life.

In the second half of my conversation with anti-racism educator Paul Marcus we talk about how the history of discrimination by government, banking, business, education, and housing institutions has resulted in enormous disparities in wealth between white and black communities, and we address questions of white guilt and police bias.

A conversation with anti-racism educator Paul Marcus about how, by studying history, he came to understand racism as a system, and how this understanding shapes his work.

A conversation with Shelly Tochluk, author of the book Witnessing Whiteness. We talk about how she decided that the most important thing she could do to combat racism was to change the way that she and her white peers talked about and thought about race.

In the second episode of Safe Space Radio featuring Peggy McIntosh, she talks about the five phases of understanding white privilege, and how white people can use their unearned advantage to work against the system which perpetuates it. The post Unpacking White Privilege (Part 2) with Peggy McIntosh appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

A conversation with Peggy McIntosh, author of the groundbreaking essay "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", published in 1988. She talks about how encounters with the sexism of well-meaning men helped her see that she too had blind spots about her own racism. She describes how humbling it was for her to grasp the concept of white privilege and how understanding it has changed her life. You can write to her at [email protected] to request free copies of her essays.

In part two of our conversation, anthropologist and social work student Natasha Wilson talks about how, as a black woman in mostly-white schools and workplaces, she felt shunned and avoided, which made it harder to deal with other adversity in her life. She also talks about how these experiences have inspired her research on Post-Traumatic Growth.

Natasha Wilson moved to Maine in 2012 following the tragic death of two of her brothers. She talks about how her experience of racism has been shaped by the different places she’s lived, and how she was unprepared for the alienation and hostility she has experienced in overwhelmingly white states like Iowa and Maine. We also discuss the history and underpinnings of white privilege and the idea of whiteness as a social construct. The post Race and Place (Part 1) with Natasha Wilson appeared first on Safe Space Radio.

We conclude our series on living with anxiety with three segments on different topics related to the subject. First up is a conversation with philosophy professor Peter Hallward about the connection between anxiety and existentialism. Then author and book reviewer Reeve Lindbergh discusses Susan Cain's take on introversion in the 2013 book Quiet. We close with a comparative review of apps for reducing anxiety by Rob McGinley Myers of the blog anxiousmachine.com.

Ten-year-old Maiya takes us into the world of childhood phobias, describing what it was like to live with overwhelming anxiety about sickness, and how she found help. Now she is creating a website of fear-reducing games to help other kids who suffer with anxiety.

Musician and educator Monica talks about how the intense insomnia that began in her 40′s led her to a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.