As the Holiday of Thanksgiving 2021 is upon us, we can harness its energy and message. Gratitude is an essential gift for harnessing and focusing our innate power and allows us to grow and gift to others. Thanksgiving is a holiday that encompasses the idea into a concrete moment, allowing us to reflect on our blessings, recognize them and appreciate them.
What Do All Religions Have In Common?
In this episode, Matana shares the common thread all religions are woven with. Gratitude is an essential gift for harnessing and focusing our innate power and allows us to grow and gift to others.
Chazkeinu: Past, Present & Future
You might know someone with mental illness. Maybe it’s you; maybe a family member or friend. But it is someone you wish to see get better. You’ve seen them suffer, even while in treatment. Perhaps you have suffered as well. You wish there was another way for them to find help and hope in the darkness. Chazkeinu was created to offer that additional support to Orthodox Jewish women living with mental illness.
Will You Be 1 of 25? (Solo)
As we work on ourselves, we sometimes find that doing it alone is not enough. In this episode, Matana shares some of the details on the upcoming 2021 Heal with Gold & Gratefulness retreat and what we can expect. For the lucky 25 women selected to join, this retreat will be chock-full of tools, tips and techniques towards the path of healing, self motivation, sharing and inspiration.
Fixing Broken After Trauma (Joe Brikman)
Joe Brikman joins us to share with us how he has come to thrive, despite adversity. As a boy, he was sexually abused by a female babysitter and at the age of 12, shortly after he told his parents, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Joe was sent off to a boarding school where, no matter his accomplishments, it seemed he could never live up to their strict expectations. This, combined with the flashbacks and issues he was dealing with, made him feel hopeless, and he attempted suicide on his 14th birthday.
Year One: Documenting Postpartum Depression (Erin Bagwell)
When I heard Erin Bagwell share her perspective on her experience with Postpartum Depression (PPD), I knew I had to have her on the show. In this powerful and raw episode, we discuss our own experiences with mental health in early motherhood and what new moms often go through.
The Power of Affirmations (Bob Baker)
Bob Baker has been my virtual mentor for years. I have never actually met him before, but every morning, I listen to his podcast and let him guide me in speaking affirmations over my life. He is here today to share with us his own journey to embracing affirmations. Positivity had such a huge impact on my own healing, and Bob plays a big part in keeping that going in my daily life.
Borderline Personality Disorder: The Road After Discovery (Debbie DeMarco Bennett)
In 2010, Debbie DeMarco Bennett learned that she had borderline personality disorder, (BPD) was in and out of psychiatric hospitalizations, frequently threatening suicide, unable to keep a job and her relationships were very hot and very cold. Having grown up in the foster care system and being placed in group homes she had been working with her psychiatrist and therapist at the health organization Kaiser, where she received her diagnosis of BPD. Her psychiatrist introduced her to Dialectical Behavior Therapy, (DBT), and after she enrolled into treatment, she realized that she was not crazy, but rather, was just someone who felt deeply, intensely, and never really learned how to manage when difficulty surfaced.
Can Empathy Heal? (Solo)
In this powerful solo episode, we hear a story of a daughter’s disappointment and how her mother makes space for that pain, with love and without judgement. Matana tells us how her daughter so badly wanted to travel abroad for a family wedding but due to covid travel restrictions, was unable to. Like so many facing mild or severe disappointments, regardless of the level of challenge, being there to help another person in pain can be daunting.
Surviving 9/11: Perseverance & Rebuilding After Catastrophe (Ari Schonbrun)
For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I had the privilege of interviewing one of the few people who survived the attack from a higher floor in the tower. Ari Schonbrun worked on the 101st floor in the accounts receivables department of a stock market firm. Of their 960 employees in that office, only 302 survived. Most of those who lived were not in the office that day.