Beyond Well With Sheila Hamilton

Mike Schmidt is running for Multnomah county district attorney with one of the most multi-dimensional views toward the criminalization of the mentally ill we’ve ever heard. Mike’s experience as an inner city school teacher informs his sense of justice and rehabilitation.

Dr. Brian Goff and Dr. Jenna LeJeune debate the nature of #self-care and whether the notion of self care has a negative impact on  people’s lives because it singles out your “self” from all the other selves you love (people, pets, work partners, etc.)  Jenna argues to  be sure to include you always in the group of people you are caring well for, using the skills of LovingKindness Meditation, Brian is more  open to the notion of #selfcare as it can help people who might otherwise have restricted or denied themselves love and compassion a gateway to care.

Do “Trigger warnings” and “Safe Spaces” really keep us safe? Dr Jenna LeJeune and Dr. Brian Goff discuss the dangerous trend toward identifying feelings as painful and thoughts as dangerous and harmful.  But what are meant to be “safe-spaces” turn into echo chambers, shutting down any diversity of perspective or thought. New research suggests that trigger warnings may actually result in increased anxiety and Increased stigmatizing beliefs. 

C. Lamar Frizzell, CEO of Cedar Hills Hospital, has worked in the field of behavioral healthcare for over 20 years. Most recently, Frizzell held a similar role at Willow Creek Behavioral Health located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Frizzell brings practical experience as a line-staff member and is educated in the fields of both Mental Health and Divinity In this interview, Sheila talks with Frizzell about the enormous pressure facing psychiatric hospitals because of an explosion of people in crisis. There are never enough beds, care is complicated, and psychiatric doctors and nurses are in short supply. Frizzell’s personal history growing up in a home where mental health problems were abundant informs his compassion and empathy for people in crisis.

What makes a meaningful life? How Can we all live lives of purpose, focusing on who and what matters most to us regardless of whatever difficulties we are facing? These are the questions at the heart of Beyond Well cohost Jenna LeJeune, Ph.D. and her partner Jason Luoma, Ph.D.'s new book Values in Therapy" A Clinician's Guide to Helping Clients Explore Values, Increase Psychological Flexibility, and Live a More Meaningful Life. In this very personal episode of Beyond Well, Jenna and Jason offer some of their ideas on what it means to live a value based life and how doing so can bring a sense of meaning, purpose, and vitality to our everyday lives.

Nastashia Minto is an author, poet, and spoken word artist with the Soul of a Southern Pastor. In this interview, Nastashia talks about finding faith while abandoning her religion and delivers two of her stunning spoken word performances.

This is one of the most relevant conversations you’ll hear if you hunker down from late November until the New Year. The holiday blues are often a barometer of the stories we tell ourselves about what we should have, and compare those narratives to stories about what others seem to have. We invite you to a discussion on what some view as the hardest time of the year.

Cassidy Quinn is one of the most beloved Northwest news and entertainment personalities. As host of a tv news program, Tonight with Cassidy, a radio show and a popular Youtube channel, Cassidy barely has time to sleep. In this episode, Cassidy talks about what it took to finally admit that she was suffering from depression and anxiety, and how she lives well despite her diagnosis.

Israel Nebeker is the founder of Blind Pilot and a singer/songwriter whose music now reaches millions of fans. In this episode, Israel talks about confronting one of the darkest periods of his life by wandering into the Black Forest in Germany—with no path to follow and not sure if he would ever find his way out. It was only by confronting his loneliness, his fear, and his belief that he was powerless to change the dynamic that he experienced a significant awakening.    This interview was voted one of our favorites by the Beyond Well Team because of how open, authentic and vulnerable  Israel and his music is. Don’t miss it.

As an actor on the hit series American Vandal and someone who is constantly in the public eye, Kiah Stern has no plan B. She’s working plan A with an intensity and focus rarely talked about when people dream of becoming a star. We talk with Kiah about how best to deal with a barrage of “feedback,” solicited or not. From her body to her hair to her various film and tv roles, Kiah (who played Jenna Hawthorne in Season Two of American Vandal) has developed specific techniques for how to deal with solicited and unsolicited feedback. In this episode, Kiah explains her love/hate relationship with social media, how she incorporates audition like techniques in her everyday life, and when she says no to external feedback.

People are increasingly unsure about kids, and the US and European fertility rate is at an all time low. According to Pew Research, 1 in 5 people will remain childless. This week, the Beyond Well Team talk about the growing number of people who are intentionally childless. If you are attempting to decide whether to have children, this episode is for you. As a farm girl raised in eastern Oregon, Jackie ShannonHollis expected to become another someday. But, after several failed relationships, Jackie met the love of her life, a man who did not want children. In direct and intimate language, Hollis talks about her consideration of what to keep and what to abandon to make space for love. Her debut memoir, This Particular Happiness is receiving critical acclaim for its honesty, its poetry, and one woman’s ability to tell the truth about our most intimate desires.

Ron Artis II is growing into a newly accessible and emotionally acute period of his life. His new album, Love is Love, is a departure from the funk and soul fans are accustomed to from his wildly popular band, Ron Artis II and the Truth, but its stunning lyrics and melodic sound reveal a growth Ron himself says he nearly missed, “From the age of thirteen to eighteen, while I was concentrating on becoming the best guitar player I could be, I thought emotions were something to be dispensed with, a distraction. I didn’t realize how much potential for creativity I was missing.”

Bestselling-Author Cheryl Strayed met her husband nine days after she’d finished her now famous journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. “The woman I was before that hike would not have been ready to meet and fall in love with Brian.” Brian Lindstrom and Cheryl speak candidly with the Beyond Well Team about the intention and communication necessary to maintain a purposeful, values-oriented relationship, and the sheer luck there is in finding someone who sees and supports your dreams.  Lindstrom and Strayed just combined creative forces to shoot their critically acclaimed documentary “We are Forbidden” about young women in Nepal who are ostracized during menstruation.

Pop Superstar Lauv is on top of the world with the kickoff of his How I’m Feeling Tour, and he’s using his global platform to promote mental health. In every show, Lauv takes a few minutes to describe his descent into depression and severe OCD, and why he credits therapy and medication with allowing him to regain his creativity and confidence.   Lauv has partnered with Microsoft to create a worldwide mental health platform that connects people all over the globe. “No Matter where people are in the world, they can see that someone else is experiencing something really similar.”     Check out MyBlueThoughts.World and our blog of the concert at TheAnthem in D.C. @BeyondWellWithSheilaHamilton.com

Kathleen Lane is the author of The Best Worst Thing, a young reader’s book for anxious kids and the founder of  www.createmorefearless.org a program that uses creativity to explore, express, and connect. This episode includes tips for anxious children and pre-teens as well as brilliant takeaways for parents who cope with adult-sized worries.

Lyme Disease is the fastest growing infectious disease in the world, eclipsing the HIV/Aids crisis by over 10X. It is now reported in all 50 states and 79 countries. The CDC estimates 400,000 new cases per year, but even that number is thought to be on the low end of the problem. Lyme has been reported to be associated with various psychiatric presentations because Borreliaburgdorferi can present with symptoms similar to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Because Lyme patients are so often misdiagnosed and mistreated, a higher level of risk to self and others is associated with multiple symptoms developing after acquiring LAD. 

Liz Prato is the author of several award-winning books and story collections. She talks with Beyond Well about the challenge of a creative life while living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  Liz says, “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has forced me to get very quiet with myself, and ask who am I, apart from this body?” Liz’s insight into the psychological and physical toll of Chronic Fatigue is both illuminating and sobering. People who suffer from Chronic Fatigue syndrome are often dismissed by both the medical community and too often, their friends and family.  Chronic Fatigue is a medication condition of unknown cause, with fever, aching, and prolonged tiredness and depression. 

If you’ve ever passed a homeless teen on the street and wondered, “How did they get there?” or “How can I help?” this interview with Rei Scozylakas is worthy of your time. Rei Scozylakas wasn’t dealt an easy hand in this life. But, as you can hear in our conversation, Rei’s story isn’t just one of struggle. In fact, that’s not even the most compelling part of their story “Nobody is born wanting to be an outcast. It wasn’t until I was really seen by the volunteers at Outside Inn, that I realized there was a different path than the one I was on.”

In honor of Suicide Prevention Week, we are bringing you multiple stories of hope, resilience, and healing. Lois Chauncey lost her husband to suicide in May, and like many other suicide loss survivors, she feared she would also lose her job due to her complicated grief. Paul Sale, her Supervisor, provided a textbook-like example of how a company should appropriately respond to a suicide loss survivor in the workplace.   From the humbling way in which Paul responded to the initial news of suicide, to the steps Lois and Paul took to inform others in the workplace, the empathy, compassion, and kindness one team took to welcome back in a suicide loss survivor is a hopeful study in how a workplace can help heal a co-worker's grief, and win a valued employee's respect and loyalty. 

Twenty-two veterans die by suicide every day in America, outpacing deaths in combat or war supporting activities. Despite the military’s best efforts to contain a public health crisis, the numbers of deaths continue to rise. The Beyond Well team had extraordinary insight into the causes and potential remedies of military suicides in our conversation with New York Times bestselling author and former Special Tactics Officer, Dan Schilling.   Schilling spent more than 30 years in the military, primarily as a Combat Controller and Special Tactics Officer, though he proudly started his career as an infantry grunt. His numerous combat and clandestine deployments have taken him around the world and include Operation Gothic Serpent, popularly known as Black Hawk Down from the movie and book bearing the same name, where he is credited with saving the lives of a Ranger and SEAL Team Six SEAL while under fire. He later founded and then served as the first commander of two special operations squadrons, one of which’s n