Welcome and thank you for listening to this 6 1/2 minute podcast. Opening remarks...
While great strides have been made over the past 70 years, I believe a stigma remains surrounding mental health. I have spent the last 2 years and 10 months in the Master of Social Work program at the University of Texas at Arlington, with a concentration in mental health and substance misuse. I entered this program for two reasons: 1) to help my brain heal from the TBI I experienced and 2) to ultimately provide pro-bono mental health services to veterans on a part-time basis…my give-back for this last chapter of my life.
During my tenure at UTA, my experiences, biases, knowledge, and beliefs surrounding mental health have been challenged. My shame over my personal mental health challenges has been obliterated and this is perhaps the greatest gift I have received from the program. For if I cannot view myself without condemnation, how can I possibly view another as whole, perfect, or worthy? For everything I perceive outside of me is merely a reflection of what is going on within me…and this holds true for all of us.
Every moment of every day we are creating our reality through the stories we are telling ourselves. We give meaning to our experiences and label them as either good or bad and we deem ourselves worthy, or not, and we look upon another with the same sense of judgement. How often do I look upon myself with compassion or grace? For it is certain that if I cannot extend compassion to myself, I cannot extend it to you...
