Transforming Our Current Mental Health Infrastructure with Sascha Altman DuBrul
Release Date: 05/31/2021
Rise With Reb
Jo & JJ Go Mental
Jo and J.J. welcome the inspirational Reb, Transformational Life Coach who is the driving force behind the Rise With Reb programs and community. Reb shares how she went from a wheelchair to walking, despite what the doctors said. She, Jo, and J.J. discuss why it’s so hard to let go of old habits, the responsibility we have of sharing our story on social media, the importance of advocating for yourself and doing your own research, and how not to live in a pity fest.
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Carrying Ourselves and Others Through Grief
Jo & JJ Go Mental
Today Jo and J.J. focus on grief, both from the perspective of the griever and from the person trying to comfort others through their grief. They explore the right approach to carrying ourselves and others through grief. Jo also shares an experience about willfulness and effectiveness in DBT and why people really need to learn to let go of the need to be right and just accept what is. They talk about defining values, setting boundaries, and, on a lighter note, why #begrannymolly is Jo’s new life goal.
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Emotional Intelligence: When Is It Real, and When is It Self Serving?
Jo & JJ Go Mental
They’re baaack! Jo and J.J. kick off Season 2 the only way they know how - by spelling out that sometimes we can get this emotional intelligence piece wrong. Many well intentioned leaders approach emotional intelligence as a tick box exercise, merely going through the motions, rather than really understanding the objective. That faux emotional intelligence in corporate societies will likely try to cover up a more self serving agenda.
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Season 1 Recap and Looking Ahead To Season 2
Jo & JJ Go Mental
What a season! As Jo and J.J. wrap up Season 1, they identify a few of the themes that came up with the fantastic array of guests. Between fear, shame, embracing your weirdness and much more, Season 1 was chock full of learning from each other and calling in new perspectives. This week, they highlight a few stand-out moments and give us a sneak peek of what we can look forward to in Season 2.
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We Can Be Different Together: Faith Clarke
Jo & JJ Go Mental
This week, Jo and J.J. welcome Faith Clarke, Organizational Health and Inclusion Specialist who works with value-driven and diverse teams so they can deliver on business and social impact promises at the highest level. Faith is extremely passionate about inclusion for BIPOC and neuro-distinct individuals and advocating for those who “don’t belong”. She discusses the importance of mental health and how her children taught her to focus more on wisdom than having control.
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One foot on the gas, one foot on the brake with Reverend Erika Allison
Jo & JJ Go Mental
Jo and J.J. welcome Reverend Erika Allison, Queer interfaith minister, speaker, author, and spiritual counselor. Rev. Erika talks about her own experience with conversion therapy, and how harmful it can be, causing long-term effects and even high cases of suicide.
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Tax consultants don’t wear pink with Marie Louise Ashworth
Jo & JJ Go Mental
This week, Jo and J.J. are joined by Marie Louise Ashworth, President of The Network, a network of female entrepreneurs and professionals in Luxembourg. The Network is devoted to developing a supportive community of women and helping them build resilience, avoid burnout, and thrive as they meet their personal and professional goals.
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Changing Perceptions of Burnout Through The Generations
Jo & JJ Go Mental
Jo is on her own this week and shares her reflections on how the attitude around burnout has shifted throughout the generations, especially since the pandemic. Jo discusses three perceptions of burnout that she has seen a shift: that if you burnout that means you are broken or weak; that burnout and exhaustion is just a side effect of being busy which is a good thing, and that life is just tough and you should just get on with it and not complain.
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Honoring The Anger
Jo & JJ Go Mental
They discuss why doing the deep work of anger is like wading through that infamous tunnel scene in The Shawshank Redemption, how anger signals that our boundaries are being crossed, and how letting go of anger needs to be a conscious choice. They also talk about how to process anger if you can’t really act on it right then and there, and why women have such a tougher time showing anger in public.
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Letting Go and Learning To Smile With All Four Cheeks - Interview With June Burgess
Jo & JJ Go Mental
This week, Jo and J.J. are joined by June Burgess, Equine Coach, Business Director, and Entrepreneur. She talks about how she began her Equine Assistance Workshops and why working with horses can be so powerful for our mental health. Jo shares her own experience in learning to relax around the horses and how that mirrored so much about business and the need for perfectionism.
info_outlineThis week, Jo and J.J. welcome Sascha Altman DuBrul, Writer, Educator, Coach, Counselor, and Co-Founder of the Icarus Project. Sascha shares how his own experience with mental health and time in a psychiatric hospital led him to realize that the traditional mental health space had a lot of frailties and faults, and brought him to his life’s mission to bring like minded people together to start to get the education and training they would need to create lasting change. He talks about his decision to also add in traditional clinical education and why that was beneficial and explains the need for communities to come together to empower each other. He and Jo and J.J. also discuss how social and political context must be talked about to understand mental health.
Takeaway:
[2:38] Sascha is a writer and educator and has facilitated workshops for more than two decades. He is part of a growing movement to provide an alternative mental health infrastructure.
[3:34] To him, mental health is the basis of how we relate to ourselves and others out in the world. Sascha’s mission is to help us see our emotional sensitivities as a superpower and less as a burden. He knows firsthand that we can thrive rather than just survive.
[6:02] When Sascha was 18 years old, he had a psychotic break, was locked up in a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was just in his late 20’s and harbored all these questions about his treatment and the system itself.
[8:19] Sascha knew there was more than just what his doctors were telling him and the information he was getting from the mainstream medical world. This led him to explore why culture and society are so influenced by politics and funding, and how the society we live in is crazy, making people feel insane for questioning the status quo.
[11:40] One of the foundational tenets of Sascha’s work is the power of validation and knowing you aren’t alone. Many of the anti-stigma campaigns are funded by the pharmaceutical industry, but we need real people stepping up as peers to get real about their challenges to help others feel safe in being vulnerable.
[15:33] Having a sense of identity is so important. When we don’t know who we are, we can fall prey more easily to the dominant ideology of society without really thinking for ourselves.
[21:08] Sascha discusses the multiple training modalities he has done including Internal Family Systems, and how it complements his education both from Hunter College School of Social Work and Silverman School of Social Work. Working in the public mental health system in New York City he saw that there was so little talk about actual mental health, and people shied away from talking about their own lived experience. He also saw that helpers get paid very little and working in the system is extremely stressful, thankless, and challenging.
[26:13] The Peer Movement is a radical way to transform the system and train people that part of their job is self-disclosure.
[28:42] Sascha talks with J.J. and Jo about having connections inside the system but maintaining ourselves outside the system through training and education. You can get a clinical degree, but it’s important that the people that have had the lived experience are getting heard. Otherwise, there are blind spots in professional treatment that go unaddressed.
[35:18] The current mental health system is too old and needs to be rebuilt. Sascha discusses the global mental health movement and how both from top-down and from the bottom up, there are glaring issues that include Western ways of thinking petrochemical companies and Big Pharma are our only saviors.
[42:55] What really increases mental health? Money and resources, not just doing one type of therapy. We need to redistribute resources to people in the world, so people are able to take care of themselves first on a basic human needs level.
[48:42] It takes a lot of energy to want to hurt or harm oneself, and these are very energetic symptoms. Once redirected in a healthy way, it can possibly be a transition to putting more energy into positive habits and creativity.
Connect With Us:
Joanna Denton | Dr. J.J. Kelly
Sascha
IDHA | Sascha DuBrul | TEDx