Mental Health Wellness & Community Advocate Vida Kalhor

09/22/22 • 52 min

As a Chaplain, entrepreneur, speaker, advocate, mentor and strategic connector; Vida Kalhor has over 20 years of leadership experience in healthcare and business operations and is the owner of Radiance Consulting, where she provides business and professional leadership coaching and accountability for her clients.

She is also the current Center Director at Amen Clinics in Hollywood; a mental health outpatient center helping patients to improve their brain health.

She has dedicated her time to improve her community by holding various board seats such as the Broward County School Diversity Committee, where she serves by working to improve equity for all students across Broward County Schools. She is also the secretary on the Governing Board of Imagine Charter School, where she works with other board members for student success, she is a board member for the Broward County Health Facility Authority, and she is a member of the Mental Wellness Networking Alliance (MWNA) working to stop the stigma that is associated with mental health in our community.

The decision to get involved in her community came as a promise to herself when she was 10 years old. Vida came to the United States when she was 10 years old as a 5th grader. She did not speak the language and had to be placed in the ESOL programs at school. She strived very hard to learn the language and become more independent. During this time, she faced many challenges. Challenges that made her make a promise to herself, that one day she would help others not have to go through what she went through, and she has stood on that promise ever since.

Vida is an advocate for students, seniors and people struggling with mental health challenges.

In this episode we discuss:

The struggles she faced and overcame as a first-time mother.
Grieving and mourning the women we were before we had children.
The challenges she faced and overcame when she came to the US from Iran.
Healing from trauma to be the best you can be for your children.
Informed Consent in Healthcare.
Asking for help and communicating needs to your partner and family.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Connect with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.motherhood.village1/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegcumberbatch/ Website: https://www.themotherhoodvillage.com/

Loved this episode? Leave a review and rating here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-motherhood-village-podcast/id1487274178

She is also the current Center Director at Amen Clinics in Hollywood; a mental health outpatient center helping patients to improve their brain health.

Vida is an advocate for students, seniors and people struggling with mental health challenges.

In this episode we discuss:

The struggles she faced and overcame as a first-time mother.
Grieving and mourning the women we were before we had children.
The challenges she faced and overcame when she came to the US from Iran.
Healing from trauma to be the best you can be for your children.
Informed Consent in Healthcare.
Asking for help and communicating needs to your partner and family.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Connect with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.motherhood.village1/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegcumberbatch/ Website: https://www.themotherhoodvillage.com/

Loved this episode? Leave a review and rating here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-motherhood-village-podcast/id1487274178

Previous Episode

The Architect of the Birth Justice Framework, Licensed Midwife Jamarah Amani

Jamarah Amani, LM is a community midwife who believes in the transformative and healing power of birth and that every baby has a human right to human milk. Her mission is to do her part to build a movement for Birth Justice locally, nationally and globally. Jamarah is the architect of the Birth Justice framework, the Black Midwives Model of Care and the Birth Justice Bill of Rights. She identifies as Black, Femme and Queer.

A community organizer from the age of sixteen, Jamarah has worked with several organizations across the United States, the Caribbean and in Africa on various public health issues, including HIV prevention, infant mortality risk reduction, access to emergency contraception and access to midwifery care. As a birth worker and activist, Jamarah has been tackling issues of racial justice, including the epidemics of Black maternal and infant morbidity/mortality for over fifteen years. She is currently the Executive Director of Southern Birth Justice Network, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working to expand the Birth Justice movement and to make midwifery and doula care accessible to marginalized communities. She is also the co-founder of National Black Midwives Alliance, the only national professional association in the U.S. specifically for midwives of African descent, and a founding member of the Queer and Transgender Midwives Association. Jamarah is the recipient of the 2019 Trailblazer Award from the City of Miami, which proclaimed a day in her honor- Jamarah Amani Day, celebrated annually on March 14.

She has been featured in a variety of media outlets including PBS, NPR, NBC and publications such as Vox, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Miami Times, among others. She has written for several blogs including the Huffington Post and the Birth Justice blog, and is a fellow of Echoing Ida, a collective of Black women and non-binary writers. In addition to parenting four children and watching the sunrise whenever possible, Jamarah offers midwifery care to families in South Florida and teaches workshops on Birth Justice to organizations across the United States. Jamarah is currently producing a documentary entitled Legacy Power Voice: Movements in Black Midwifery with her partner, filmmaker Karyl-Lyn Sanderson, scheduled to be released in 2022.

In this episode we discuss:

The root causes of health disparities in marginal communities.
Why the black maternal mortality rate is so high and what needs to be done to lower the number.
What full spectrum reproductive care consists of.
Questions black mothers & families should ask their providers and the research they should do to arm themselves with information.

Learn more about Jamarah and her work with Southern Birth Justice Network and National Black Midwives Alliance .

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Connect with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.motherhood.village1/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegcumberbatch/ Website: https://www.themotherhoodvillage.com/

Loved this episode? Leave a review and rating here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-motherhood-village-podcast/id1487274178

Next Episode

Helping Autistic Children Find Their Voice with ABA Speech founder, Rose Griffin, M.A. CCC/SLP BCBA

Rosemarie Griffin, MA, CCC/SLP BCBA, is an ASHA certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She divides her time between a public school and her own private practice, ABA SPEECH. ABA SPEECH offers therapy services, courses, consultations and products geared towards helping autistic students find their voice.

Rose is also the host of the Autism Outreach Podcast, a weekly show all about autism and communication. She is a sought after speaker who enjoys connecting with audiences at the local, state and national level. Rose is passionate about the mission of ABA SPEECH, which is to help all students become more independent communicators. Follow Rose on Instagram .

In this episode we discuss:

What to do if your little one is not yet speaking and/or has autism or another communication delay.
What you can do in your home environment to embed work on communication.
How communities can be more supportive of parents with children of autism.
How communication correlates to behavior.
What she covers in her Start Communicating Today Course .

Resources mentioned in this episode: