Break The Stigma: Recent Episodes
Maternal Infant Health Canada (MIHCan)
Break The Stigma is dedicated to reducing the stigma surrounding mental health. We are part of Maternal Infant Health Canada (MIHCan), an organization that improves the health of women, children, infants across the globe. We are collecting a cultural mosaic of perspectives from professionals, academics and people with lived experience to share traditional knowledge, techniques and personal stories on mental health, illness and imbalances to create healing resources. We hope you will find answers that work for you and find a safe space to share experiences and create collective wisdom
Join us today on Break The Stigma with Livia Peterson as she shares how she navigated living with anxiety and OCD. The steps she has taken and her words are an inspiration that emanate the message of finding patience, being persistent, knowing you are not alone and that seeking help is not a sign of weakness. Livia shows how powerful storytelling really is, and we hope you learn from her story!
Psychiatrist, Dr. Omnia Ahmed, joined Break The Stigma today for a wonderful interview. As a doctor from Egypt now living in the UK, she shares insights as to how the cultures in these countries differ in perspective on mental health. Dr. Omnia gives advice to all of us about combating self-stigmatization, what vulnerability means, gaining self-confidence, and being aware of assumptions we have about ourselves and others. This wonderful interview will give you ways to work on yourself and help you realize that “the most beautiful makeup is self-confidence”.
Ryan Zadrazil joins Break The Stigma, sharing his experience and journey with mental health from the young age of 13. It took several years for Ryan to gain an understanding of what was manifesting in his physical and mental body, and he explains the steps he took to achieve mental wellness. We hope you enjoy!
Today Tracy Liao shares her experience with mental health as a child, through motherhood, and how it was impacted, and ultimately revolutionized, by COVID. Her practices of yoga, meditation, sutra and Chinese medicine reveal the power of mind and spirituality. She shares her thoughts on how the struggle you go through has meaning and can be an asset to your life. Her words shine nothing short of light and love, encouraging the realization that you already have the courage, strength and skill to empower yourself if you just believe in the power of your mind and your true nature.
Today Shaun Lund joins Break the Stigma and shares his mental health journey, feelings and thoughts in a way that will bring goosebumps to your skin. We explore what it’s like to go from denial to acceptance of mental health imbalances, what happiness means, how diagnoses can impact you and how we are often our own biggest critic. Shaun explores how his perspective on mental health has changed, and continues to change, as he learns and grows. His biggest lesson has been that mental health, support and treatment are comprised of a mosaic of modalities, philosophies and ideologies, with everything from physical health, diet, exercise and sleep, to meditation herbal medication and eastern philosophies. While the process can be scary, long, and the struggle can seem unbearable at times, one thing does not change; you are never alone. This is an episode you do not want to miss.
Join us on Break The Stigma with Krista Samimi as she shares her relationship and journey living with Bipolar Disorder I. She shares the important role that the gut-brain axis played for her, and other techniques that helped her to find balance, wellness and gratitude.
Join us in listening to daughter, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Mary Ellen, as she recounts her childhood and lifetime relationship with mental health. She speaks about her parents who both had mental health challenges, a daughter who experiences bipolar disorder, as well as her experiences with major depressive episodes that lasted several years, bringing up the important role of genetics and mental health. Her unique experience recounts how the mental health system has changed over several decades, as well as the several areas in which it can improve. This episode is filled with years of unique experiences, knowledge, and inspiration.
Shirley Ross, a retired nurse, mother, communications expert and active volunteer, shares her unique story and relationships with anxiety, OCD and her mental health journey. She grew up in a home of mental ailments and experienced hardships from a young age through which she persevered while using techniques such as CBT, counselling, tapping, meditation and yoga. Her story is an inspiration and shows to everyone that anything is possible with a bit of courage and a lot of hard work.
Join us for this INCREDIBLE interview with nationally recognized clinician, advocate, speaker and musician, Carlos Larrauri. He shares his lived experience with schizophrenia through college, his career as a nurse practitioner working with others who live with mental illness, and now law school. Carlos shares seeds of inspiration throughout this interview that everyone should hear.
Listen as we Beak The Stigma with Tanelle Smith, a third-year medical student who reveals to us her mental health journey while conquering medical school. Stay until the end, because she gives her wonderful perspective on what it means to Break The Stigma and how we can all contribute to making the world a better place.
Listen to Jennifer, a professor in the Medical Laboratory Sciences at UBC, who is the 10x winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award and 3x winner of the Teaching Excellence Award. Jennifer shares her own experience with mental health that began from the young age of 8 and the defining moments that allowed her to practice unconditional love for self and others. She explores her perspective on the inequity experienced in our society and enlightens that everyone can benefit from living in the moment and from giving time, energy and an open heart to the people in your life and the broader community.
Join our Mother's Day Edition as Dr. Kranti Vora, an OBGYN physician in India, shares her journey with mental health during motherhood. From a personal and professional perspective, Dr. Kranti describes how we can each take steps to approach our own mental health, and explains what we can all do on an individual level to Break The Stigma.
On this episode, Leslie describes her relationship with mental health from a young age, and how that has progressed throughout her life. She describes the various methods that have helped her along the way to understanding and caring for her mental wellbeing.
Join as we hear Sheyn Hosanee, a recent UBC graduate, who shares his experience with mental health, beginning with leaving his home island of Mauritius at the young age of 10. He recounts his journey, describing that his community was crucial in exploring what mental health meant to him while emphasizing the fact that one's journey to mental well-being begins from within.