Feeling Seen: A UNC CAPS Podcast

Erinn and Anthony are joined on the podcast by our multifaceted CAPS colleague Kadeisha Bonsu, LCSW.  Kadeisha is not only a licensed clinical social worker and therapist, but she is also an ordained minister!  She discusses her journey in faith and shares with us the major life lesson she has learned - that fear is a liar!  Kadeisha discusses what she has learned about leaning into fear, and the possibilities of life that open up when she has.  Kadeisha also discusses the important role dance has played in her life and how dancing can be a representation of the divine; a way to feel close to God and to experience the presence of a divine spirit in her life.  We encourage everyone listening to know that religion and spirituality are an important topic of discussion and identity that can be brought to therapy, just like race, gender, or other diverse aspects of identity.  That it makes sense this would come up in therapy given the prominent role religion and spirituality play in many people's lives, and in their mental health. With a personal story this jam packed it was inevitable that we would only scratch the surface of who Kadeisha is.  We are already planning the sequel podcast episode! Please join us for this wonderful discussion.  

Today we're talking about joy.  We talk about what is bringing us joy right now, including reveling in the soapy period drama of "Bridgerton."  We discuss how we help clients define and examine the meaning of happiness.  Appreciating the moment is a big part of our discussion.  We discuss what children can teach us about joy and connecting to the child inside ourselves.  Given that so many people come to therapy saying their goal is to "be happy" we thought this was an important topic to tackle on the Pod.  This is a fun episode but also one to learn from.  

We are so pleased to welcome our friend and colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Christensen, to the podcast.  Given that Elizabeth and Anthony are co-coordinators of CAPS thriving group therapy program (offering 26 groups in Spring 2021), we can't help but talk about our passion for group and our experience with the power of group therapy to change lives for the better.  Elizabeth shares about her personal and professional journey with an astonishing vulnerability that demonstrates why she is such a wonderful psychologist, therapist, and human being.  She models exactly what we hope our clients, students, and listeners come to understand about living an authentic life.  Elizabeth shares about her professional passion for working with body image and eating disorders, and we speak about the struggle many people have faced around eating and body image during the COVID pandemic.  This includes parenting and feeding children.  Lastly, as we usually do, we end the episode with our segment "Just Stop It!"  Please join us for this intimate conversation.  

We managed to find time for CAPS very busy Assistant Director, Avery Cook, to join us on the Pod.  Avery was joined by Maya, the CAPS therapy dog and real star of CAPS.  For those who are interested you can check Maya out on the CAPS website and on Instagram.  She has some wonderful glamour shots.  This episode was amazing!  We learned so much about Avery.  Her journey through sports, divinity school, teaching, social work, and finally, arrival in college counseling and mental health.  What an incredible journey and life lived.  Avery discusses staying calm in a crisis, and ways the smallest help can turn things around when life feels at its most out of control. We discuss how faith and queer identities can coexist, challenging a commonly held belief that a person must relinquish one of those identities in order to fully embrace the other.  Keep listening until the end of the podcast for the return of our "Just Stop It!' segment where Avery "cancels" self-care.  This is a podcast filled with humor, revelation, and insight.  We were all energized by the discussion, reminding us why we started the podcast in the first place.  We are happy to share this special episode with you.  Enjoy!  

Welcome to 2021!  We are back after a lengthy period of not recording a new episode.  Life happens but we were so thrilled to be back together recording the Pod.  2020 was a challenging year in so many ways, especially because of a historic pandemic the likes of which no one living has ever seen.  A new year means a chance for renewal, and hopefully better days ahead.  Of course this also means the start of a new semester at UNC.  To kick off our first episode of the new year we reminisce about our Christmas holiday, time with family, and the significance of holiday traditions.  We kick things off with celebration and positivity, before shifting to acknowledgment that we are still in a pandemic and that our nation is under siege by hate, our very democracy threatened.  And yet even in acknowledging the serious realities of the world we still find time to be joyous about an adorable 3 year old and her superhero costume, reminding us of the hope and beauty that still exist around us.  Let's kick this new semester off right.  

This is the BIG one!  The Andre the Giant of podcasts.  A jumbo podcast episode filled with so many topics it is bursting at the seams.  We welcome our newest CAPS colleague, LaVoya Woods-Dionne, LCSWA to the podcast to discuss being a member of the newest CAPS initiative, the Multicultural Health Program (MCHP).  LaVoya and Erinn discuss the program's ambitions, including the underlying mission of reaching out to more BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students at UNC regarding mental health.  LaVoya introduces the concept of radical self-compassion and we discuss how this can help people step into their power as human beings instead of dimming their light.  Also, we discuss the myth that identity, especially career identity, is always clear to us when we are 20.  Instead, the true journey to identity is filled with ups and downs, detours, and changes in course.  LaVoya discusses her personal journey, leading to a discussion about the unique experience of being the first person in the family to go to college.  Racial trauma and love of nature are discussed.  Anthony brings up the topic of group because...that's what he does.  We have some laughs, discuss love of reading and our favorite and most influential books.   And of course we end with our "Just Stop It" segment, which ties back to radical self-compassion and encourages people to step into their power.  This is a fun one.  Enjoy.  

This episode we welcome our CAPS colleague, Jo Fullmer, LCSW, to the podcast.  We learn about Jo's professional and life journey, including what led her to start the Dissertation Support Group at CAPS.  We discuss the experience of that group and how important it has been to supporting doctoral students in the final step of their degree.  Erinn and Jo are both parents, so we take the opportunity to discuss the challenges and unexpected joys of parenting during a pandemic.   And shout out the Parent Support Group at CAPS, which will be offered in the Spring 2021 semester.  Finally, we conclude the episode as we always do with "Just Stop It!"  This episode we encourage parents, and everyone, to let go of perfectionism.  Join us for a interesting podcast with an interesting guest.  

Erinn was burning today to talk about systems in society and dealing with the bizarre times we are living in.  So that's what we did.  We discuss how we're reacting to the pandemic and wonder if as a culture we've taken enough time to just stop and truly acknowledge the times we're living through instead of rushing to get back to business as usual.  We discuss the power of acknowledgment and normalizing, and how this can make people feel less alone or guilt ridden in their experiences.  Also, now that many of us are working from home, the usual boundaries that separated work or school from our personal home lives don't exist.  This can lead to more stress and finding it hard to unplug.  It takes more intentional effort and thought to draw those boundaries for ourselves, and the cost of not doing this can be dire.  Plus, Anthony talks about his love for "The Wire," the greatest television show ever made, and Erinn almost starts a fight trying to argue against this fact.  A show from the early 2000's, "The Wire" was an in depth study of the characters and systems that made up the city of Baltimore.  The show ties perfectly into a discussion of systems, and how systems fail, struggle to change, and can devastate the hopes of individual people.  But there are also moments of triumph and evolution.  As President Obama recently implored, we have to fight against the tide toward hopelessness, powerlessness and despair.  That change is possible, and we can be part of it.  We discuss a small example of how this process played out at CAPS.  This message leads directly into our end segment "Just Stop It!," where we implore listeners to resist the urge to give up on change.  Change is often slow and gradual, but as therapists we've seen it happen in individual lives and we know it is possible at the system level.  But like with individuals, it takes a desire to change and a willingness to put in the hard work required.  

This episode we welcome our UNC CAPS colleague, Dr. Anna Lock, to the podcast to talk about Anxiety - THE BIG A!  Anxiety is the #1 presenting concern at university & college counseling centers across the U.S.A.  We have all felt anxious at one time or another because it is an emotion common to the human experience.  But, for a lot of people, anxiety can get to the point where it is continually interfering with life and causing significant distress in their lives.  Dr. Lock shares her considerable experience and expertise with anxiety and anxiety disorders.  Also, we discuss anxiety and COVID, something most of us can probably relate to.  And once again, we end the show with our segment "Just Stop It!  This time it is Dr. Lock taking the floor to encourage our listeners, in the most direct language possible, to just stop it with some belief or behavior.  Tune in and get educated about anxiety from a true expert.  

Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

In this episode of the Pod, we discuss what travel, and specifically solo travel, has taught us about unlocking our power, confidence, and sense of self.  We emphasize how we've learned that new or unfamiliar experiences can be uncomfortable, but that by stepping into discomfort we've learned surprising things about ourselves and life that we wouldn't have discovered otherwise.  

“The hardest thing to do is leaving your comfort zone. But you have to let go of the life you’re familiar with and take the risk to live the life you dream about.” T. Arigo

College is the time to explore and discover who you are and want to be, and we want students to make the most of their experience.  Challenging yourself to step into discomfort can be part of doing that.  Also, we discuss how we're coping with COVID and wonder "is there light in the darkness [of COVID]?"  In other words, what have been some unexpected positives we've noticed during this worldwide pandemic.  And, Dr. Scott prompts us to speculate "who is struggling more during COVID - introverts or extroverts?"

We discuss CAPS services and seeking help, detailing how students can connect to CAPS during this time of COVID, when all CAPS usual services are being offered virtually online via Zoom and first contact with CAPS is being done by calling CAPS and completing a phone screen.  Finally, we end the Pod with our segment entitled "Just Stop It!"  Join us for a conversation that we really enjoyed getting to have.  

Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

This is the inaugural episode of "Feeling Seen: A UNC CAPS Podcast."  Your hosts are Dr. Erinn Scott, Psy.D. and Dr. Anthony Teasdale, Ph.D., staff psychologists at Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) at The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  In this episode, we discuss the inspiration behind launching this podcast.  After that, we chat with each other like we frequently do when no one else is around.  We introduce ourselves to the audience; discussing who we are and where we are from, our salient identities, our journey to becoming psychologists and working in college mental health, and what we love about we do.  We discuss fear and the importance of stepping into discomfort, what travel teaches us about the possibilities of life, and so much more.  And in what we hope to be a pod tradition, we end with a segment we call "Just Stop It!" where we speak directly to challenging or debunking some common notion that we've encountered in our work as mental health professionals.  Join us for a conversation between friends and colleagues in what we hope will speak to UNC students, the UNC community, and larger world as we impart information and knowledge about mental health, therapy, CAPS and much more.  Ultimately, contributing to people "feeling seen."  

Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music