#12 Change Your Perspective, Learn, and Share with Sydney Estrada, AMFT and Lauren Thomas, AMFT

12/10/20 • 60 min

CatharSIS: a Podcast about the Meaning of Life

Sydney Estrada and Lauren Thomas, both Associate Marriage and Family Therapists, share how their experiences with racism, colorism, and racial trauma led to pursuing careers in therapy.
The discrepancies amongst the Black community within the education system, due to colorism, empowered Lauren to prioritize her practice for uplifting Black women of various backgrounds as well as unpacking racial trauma.
Sydney currently works at the Child Development Institute, where she and Maayan met. She supports young children and their families understand and develop social/emotional skills. After experiencing, first hand, the disparities in the education system, Sydney aims to provide the mental health resources necessary for children and families to thrive in all environments.
In this episode, Lauren and Sydney unpack the term "code switching", racism in the school system, the importance of having faith in something (even if it's just in yourself), and of course, how they define their meanings of life.
Get in touch with Lauren:
Instagram: @therapywithlt
Website: therapywithlt.com
Get in touch with Sydney:
Instagram: @showandtellyourstory
Get in touch with Maayan and Michal:
Website: https://www.sistersinpsychology.com
Instagram: @sistersinpsychology
Email: [email protected]
Books and Resources Mentioned:
Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief by David Kessler, MD.
Journey of Souls by Michael Newton, PhD.

Previous Episode

#11 How to Be There for a Grieving Friend with Medical Student Kira Sklar

For most of us, death is a topic that was typically avoided in our households growing up. So, when a friend loses a loved one, it's difficult to know how to respond, especially if we've never experienced deep loss ourselves.
You don't know what to say, and don't want to say the wrong thing, so you say nothing. For those grieving, it can then feel like they are all alone.
With the help of her therapist, Kira learned how to be very vocal with her friends about what she needed from them when her father passed away by suicide. It helped as well that her father was also very vocal about his depression, in an effort to take away the shame and stigma, hoping others find it easier to open up about their own struggles.
In this episode, Kira shares the story of her father's death, and we discuss the importance of normalizing grief and the different ways we've felt supported by friends through our grief. We also talk about the different ways we've personally approached sharing the information that our fathers have passed with new people we meet.
Resources Mentioned:
The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression
by Edward Bullmore
Healing from Within: Psychological Techniques You Can Use to Help the Mind Heal the Body by Dennis T Jaffe, PhD.
Get in touch with Kira Sklar:
[email protected]
Donate to 'Sick Not Weak' Organization (organization that Kira's dad was very much involved with):
https://www.sicknotweak.com/
Get in touch with Maayan and Michal:
Website: https://www.sistersinpsychology.com
Instagram: @sistersinpsychology
Email: [email protected]

Next Episode

#13 F*ck Shame: Overcoming Addiction through Connection, with Dr. Adi Jaffe, PhD

You wouldn't know it just by looking at Dr. Jaffe today, but he was once convicted and sentenced to 1 year in jail for using, buying and selling hard drugs. After getting out of jail, it was impossible to find anyone who'd accept him for a job.
For many in the US, this situation leads people back to crime and in jail again, and so the cycle repeats. But for Dr. Jaffe, he attributes his success to the fact that he had (and has) a strong support system--people who believed in him and saw his value.
In this episode, Dr. Jaffe shares his full story from being a drug addict and becoming a convicted felon, to where is is today: an author, TedEx speaker, and nationally recognized expert on mental health, addiction, relationships and shame.
We also unpack his perspective on why putting drug users in jail isn't the right approach, why the goal of 100% abstinence for drug and alcohol addiction recovery isn't the right approach either, how we can truly help people stuck in the cycle of addiction, why community is so important, and much more.
Adi Jaffe, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized expert on mental health, addiction, relationships and shame. He was a UCLA lecturer in the Psychology department at UCLA for the better part of a decade and was the Executive-Director and Co-Founder of one of the most progressive mental health treatment facilities in the country - until he started IGNTD.
Dr. Jaffe, through IGNTD, is changing the way people think about, and deal with mental health issues. His passion in the role of shame destroying lives is the philosophy behind IGNTD Recovery and its aim to greatly reduce the stigma of addiction and mental health.
Resources Mentioned:
Free resource from Dr. Jaffe: https://www.igntd.com/feelingswheel
Dr. Jaffe's Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/A9xFJ_hqzDQ
Get in touch with Dr. Jaffe:
Website: https://www.adijaffe.com
Book: https://www.theabstinencemyth.com
Igntd: https://www.igntd.com
Get in touch with Michal and Maayan:
Website: https://www.sistersinpsychology.com
Instagram: @sistersinpsychology
Email: [email protected]