In honor of George Floyd

Empower Mental Health as an inclusive mental health organization mourns the loss of George Floyd by murder in our city of Minneapolis, supports protestors and the Black Lives Matter movement, and is committed to doing antiracist work, both personally and professionally.

I have found Resmaa Menakem’s Cultural Somatics e-course to be a critical starting place for anyone interested in recent events through the lens of racialized trauma.

Jessie Everts, PhD LMFT

To put this commitment into action, we are donating 25% of our revenue to local organizations impacted by unrest and working to change systems. This month’s donations are going to Reclaim the Block, Roots Community Birth Center, and Women for Political Change. You can donate directly to these organizations or use this link to donate to Empower Mental Health - the rest of your donation will go toward coaching and training through an antiracism lens:

Donate

Art by Andres Guzman (https://www.instagram.com/andresitoguzman)

Ask Anyway

We’ve been away, but for good reason – we’ve been busy! Empower Mental Health has been all around the state of Minnesota, engaging with providers on how to best address mental health! We have been talking with leaders about what struggles they are seeing and what some of the barriers to addressing them are…and there are a lot of each!

Here are some things we’ve learned. “Mental health” is a buzzterm right now, but a lot of people don’t really know what it means. When we talk about mental health, we’re talking about everything from anxiety, depression, and everyday stress, all the way to more severe things like suicidal ideation and aggressive behaviors that might come from an issue like schizophrenia or a neurocognitive disorder. Anxiety, depression, and stress are by far the most common things that people see around them, and these might be just normal feelings but also might be symptoms of a bigger issue that may require some kind of treatment.

Second, people don’t like to ask about others’ mental health because A) they think it will make the other person (or themselves) uncomfortable, or B) they don’t know what to do next. Okay! That is totally fine. Ask anyway. It absolutely might be uncomfortable to ask someone if there is something bigger going on for them than just an angry outburst or seeming isolated or withdrawn. Ask anyway. I love the “Seize the Awkward” campaign I’ve seen on commercials – it’s geared toward adolescents but does a great job of saying “it’s okay to talk about it, even if it’s awkward.” In fact, it is absolutely better to say something than nothing at all! Saying nothing makes it seem like it’s not okay to be struggling, which keeps stigma high and people quiet. And even if you don’t know what to say next, just the fact that you have asked opens the conversation. You can say “Is there anything I can do to help?” or even “I’m not sure what to say, but I’m glad you told me.” And you can always suggest that they find a professional (a therapist) to talk to – we therapists love to hear that clients come to us because someone who cares about them said they should talk to someone!

Here’s another thing you can do: write to our “Ask a Therapist” page and ask how you can support someone you care about who might be struggling with mental health. We love questions and can give you a few helpful hints about bringing it up or let you know how great a job you did trying it out!

Ask anyway! Breaking down the stigma around mental health helps us all – because we’ll all feel less scared about talking about things, and the struggles we all have will become more manageable.

Jessie Everts, PhD LMFT

Ask Anyway.

Mental Health Pyramid

My husband, an engineer, asked me, “Isn’t there something like the Food Pyramid for how to take care of your mental health?” WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA! So, I created this.

I give you the Mental Health Pyramid!

Start at the bottom and work your way up:

Social Connection doesn’t mean that you have a ton of close friends or supportive family members. It means that you have some meaningful connections – people in your life that you can go to when you need help or support, want to talk things through, or just need to reach out. This can even be a person you know only virtually, if it is truly someone real that you can talk to about things. If you don’t have this, Step One to better mental health is to find it. If there truly isn’t someone in your immediate life that you can reach out to, this is what a therapist is for. Find someone today! And talk to the people you do have in your life – we all need a place to connect and relate.

Goals/Purpose are what give our lives meaning. It might be just deciding what the next thing you want to work on is, personally or professionally. It might be thinking about what is important to you, or where you want to be in 5-10 years (start with 1 day in the future – something you want to do tomorrow – if five years is too far in the future!). This can be a concrete plan or something really written down on paper, or it can be ideas and interests, or new things you want to try. You have to hold a sense that you are heading somewhere to stay motivated to keep going, even when things get difficult.

Mindfulness/Self-soothing Skills are the things we do to stay or get back on track in the moment. Hard things are going to happen. There are going to be times we don’t feel awesome. Practicing mindfulness skills and self-soothing can both prevent the negative emotions from taking up so much space, and also shorten the length of time we have to spend in them. Self-soothing skills are things that you do to soothe yourself, or make yourself feel better – things like taking a bath, listening to music, giving yourself a break or a treat. The best things you can do to self-soothe are those that are free and those that don’t have negative consequences down the road (i.e. smoking or drinking or overeating) – try to identify something free and healthy that you can build in to your self-soothing regimen. Mindfulness skills are things we do to stay in the present moment, to pull our minds out of ruminating about things that have already happened or things that might happen in the future. Staying in the present moment is grounding and soothing as well, and reduces many mental health symptoms all by itself (and it’s free and healthy). Check out the gallery of Mindfulness activities for a quick start.

Lifestyle is really about these things: Sleep, nutrition, exercise, living environment – the things that keep us physically healthy and also impact our mental health in really serious ways. Pay attention to where you have trouble with your sleep, your eating habits, and your exercise (or lack thereof). Think about how you’re doing with all three things every day. Even small improvements in these areas can really make you feel better quickly!

Therapy is really helpful for a lot of people and a lot of different issues. You can go see a therapist even if you’re not quite sure what is wrong or you don’t have a “problem” right now. It can be helpful just to talk to someone who is outside of your current situation and life and can give a different perspective. You can try different therapists to find the best fit, and you only have to go for as long as you want! Many therapists will give you a free first session, which is a great time to just let them know what is going on with your life and see if you feel good about the response. You can connect here to ask any questions you might have about what therapy is like or how to go about finding a therapist.

Medication (as needed) – Mental health medications are really important and necessary for a lot of people. If you have tried other things in the pyramid and they haven’t worked, or even if you’re just curious about whether a medication might help you, talk to a qualified prescriber right away. Your regular doctor can be a starting point – most physicians and nurse practitioners can prescribe basic antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications. For more complex issues, you’ll want to find a psychiatrist who has some more mental health training and be sure to find someone that you feel comfortable with, who really listens to you and has your goals and best interests in mind.

For more information or training on this graphic or any of the points above, please contact us!

Jessie Everts, PhD LMFT

Trauma-responsive spaces

In a previous post, we talked about how trauma and access to traumatic events is becoming more widespread as we become a more virtually connected and global society. Over 50% of US adults have directly experienced one or more traumatic events in their lives. They and all of the rest now have access to see traumatic events that happen around the world every day. The effects of trauma are not something that we can ignore anywhere – especially in our workplaces, where we expect employees to be able to perform to their very best potential every single day, regardless of what may have happened or be happening in their lives outside of the workplace.

It’s becoming so important to build trauma-informed and trauma-responsive spaces and workplaces, mostly because we don’t know what has gone on in another person’s life up to the point we hire or work with them. A workplace that is trauma-responsive is one that is as least triggering to anyone who has experienced trauma in their lives (again, that’s over half of us!), and is at best supportive of the mental health of all who enter/work there, even and especially those who have been through hard things.

Ways we can start to build trauma-responsive spaces and workplaces include:

·         Demonstrating a clear commitment to mental health and trauma responsiveness by stating it overtly in workplace policies and handbooks.

·         Communicating that employers/managers know about trauma and mental health, and have real, practical ways that they show employees that they understand and lead by example.

·         Having someone from outside the agency do a walk-through to let you know how your physical space does/doesn’t support the needs of someone who may have been through trauma or have mental health issues.

Connect for more training/consultation on trauma-responsive spaces!

Jessie Everts, PhD LMFT

Next week, I’ll be off on a family vacation through some beautiful national parks in Canada and the US! I plan to post about Nature and Mental Health while I’m there, so stay tuned!