Beyond Well With Sheila Hamilton

  Dr. Jenna LeJeune breaks down the psychological components of stress eating and restricting during quarantine. Both impulses come out of a well established human urge to control our surroundings and how we feel in reaction to stress, anxiety, and sadness.

Doyle Smith, Angel Prater, and Michael Sorenson devote their lives to caring for people who are suffering from psychological distress. Smith runs Dual Diagnosis Anonymous, Prater is an intentional peer support national trainer and Sorenson is the business development director for Cedar Hills Hospital. In this interview, you'll hear specific techniques for moving beyond the isolation and fear of Covid19.   

Our conversation with Erin Khar was recorded before the COVID19 pandemic but it speaks to an already existing crisis in our country, the opioid epidemic. Erin's brilliant memoir explores her fifteen-year-battle with opiate addiction and the very nature of why people do drugs, often to medicate other underlying mental health disorders. Her writing is clear-eyed, factual and cognizant of her own privilege as Erin finally wound her way to health. 

Dr. Jim Polo talks about the unique barriers to effective mental health treatment faced by black Americans. Racial trauma is key to understanding the black experience.

Dr. James Polo joins the team at Beyond Well, with a background as a general physician, as a child psychiatrist, and as a general psychiatrist. Dr. Polo brings over 20 years of experience and previously served as Chief Medical Officer and senior psychiatric physician for Western State Hospital in Washington. He led development and oversight of psychiatric services in various military hospitals, served at the Pentagon as the Health Policy Advisor to the Secretary of the Army. He helped orchestrate complex care delivery for a children’s health care network in Washington state. In this interview, Dr. Polo talks about one of the most powerful experiences that helped him understand the complex forces of addiction and the depth of psychological struggle in family structures. 

We are #turningoverthemic to #BlackVoices, including Domonique Debnam, an advocate and marketing executive for Brand Jordan at Nike in Portland, Oregon. Domonique shares her personal experiences growing up in one of the whitest cities in America and how the worldwide protests against police brutality have changed everything for Domonique personally and her hopes for the future. 

Andrew Solomon says of depression, "Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.”  This is a conversation with one of America's renowned writers, thinkers, and advocates about the less reported health impacts of Covid19; the epidemic of depression, and the self-reported increase in anxiety caused by loneliness, job insecurity, and fears of the future.

Doyle Smith, Angel Prater, and Michael Sorenson devote their lives to caring for people who are suffering from psychological distress. Smith runs Dual Diagnosis Anonymous, Prater is an intentional peer support national trainer and Sorenson is the business development director for Cedar Hills Hospital. In this interview, you'll hear specific techniques for moving beyond the isolation and fear of Covid19.     

Zach Carothers talks about his interior work during Covid19, taking time to pay attention to his mental health, and putting down roots in the Portland area for the first time. The PTM Foundation is also advocating for indigenous peoples who have been severely impacted by the spread of Covid19. Carothers is clear-eyed about the challenge of a pandemic. "We will not be the same people coming out of this that we were going in," Carothers says." But, we have the chance to create what's next. And that's, exciting."

Dan Ryan reflects on the similarities between the HIV/Aids crisis and Covid19, including a lack of adequate testing, discrimination against people who contracted the virus, disinformation, and a worldview awareness that viruses can be deadly. Ryan also says the experience deepened him as a human being and set him on a path of deep spiritual exploration. 

Dr. Jenna LeJeune is helping couples navigate tricky territory during the quarantine. How do you help someone who is experiencing extreme distress? Dr. LeJeune offers compassionate, evidence-based solutions.

Dr. Jenna LeJeune and Dr. Brian Goff talk about the increase in people seeking therapy with divorce or separation on their minds. The unusual circumstance of quarantine, financial stress due to layoffs, and close quarters is creating a relationship powder keg unlike any other time in recent American history. This episode is for anyone wondering "Is it over?" 

In a recent Gallup poll, more than eighty percent of Americans now say financial stress is their biggest concern related to Covid19. While there is little we can control with regards to employment, there are practical steps we can take to be prepared for re-employment, and more importantly, emotional well-being practices we can use to stay grounded, even during the crisis. 

The vaccine for polio was announced 65 years ago, in April of 1955. Dr. Jonas Salk who led the team that developed the vaccine understood the urgency of a pandemic, and more broadly, that the key to eradicating disease takes more than science alone. In this interview with, Dr Salk’s youngest son, Dr. Jonathan Salk, Beyond Well’s Sheila Hamilton talks about the human, social, political and economic relationships involved in eradicating disease.  

Katherine Olivetti is a psychoanalyst and a dream expert who has authored two books on the topic. For the first time in her research, she is gathering data that suggests people of all cultures, from different countries, are having the same themes in their dreams. This is an incredibly hopeful and uplifting conversation about the power of dreams to help remake who we become as human beings. 

Dr. Jenna LeJeune and Dr. Brian Goff talk about the unique impact on healthcare workers during Covid19 and the actionable items they and their loved ones can take to protect their mental health. 

Cambia Health Solutions CEO Mark Ganz joins Beyond Well to talk about the enormous impact COVID19 is having on health organizations and describes his own personal battle against Covid19. "We are in the black swan of black swan events," Ganz says, "But the access to behavioral healthcare via telehealth may be one of the silver linings of this pandemic."  Dr. Jim Polo, Cambia's Medical Director also joins the conversation to talk about how to take care of Covid19 related anxiety.   

Dr. C. Lamar Frizzell and Michael Sorenson join Sheila Hamilton to talk about the need for more psychiatric care and access to psychiatric beds. Universal Health Services is proposing to build 100 new beds in Wilsonville, but there is still some political opposition. A group of legislators, senators and business owners is petitioning the Governor to allow the hospital to be built. 

FACE COVID is developed by Russ Harris, an ACT therapist based in Australia. It is a set of practical steps for responding effectively to the Covid crisis, using the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy. F, focus on what's in your control. A. Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. C. Come back into your body. E. Engage in What you are doing. Dr. Jenna LeJeune and Dr. Brian Goff take you through the practice. 

During the #Covid19 pandemic, Dr. Jonathan Horey continues to see patients who are seeking relief from drug-resistant depression. Dr. Horey has been practicing psychiatry since 2006. And treating patients with transcranial magnetic stimulation since 2017. He is passionate about the treatment of depression and helping his patients who are suffering. TMS is FDA cleared, non-invasive and non-medication treatment option that uses electromagnetism.