Matthew Sanford is a yoga teacher focused on trauma recovery. Matthew was paralyzed from the chest down at age 13 in a car accident that killed his father and sister. As a teen, he was encouraged to “overcome the silence” of his paralyzed body. He learned that he could listen to his body instead, and began over time to experience his body’s silence as a source of strength and connection.
Welcome to Safe Space Radio - Psychiatry Waiting Room
We are a nationally broadcast public radio show dedicated to fostering empathy, reducing stigma and inspiring the courage to have difficult conversations that improve our health. Below is a playlist of episodes that we hope will be of interest while you wait.
If you’d like to keep in touch after you leave your doctor’s office, please subscribe on the bottom of this page.
Living with Schizophrenia with Elyn Saks
Elyn Saks is a law professor and MacArthur fellow who lives with schizophrenia. We discuss how she came to the difficult understanding that she had the illness and needed treatment, and how she was able to achieve personal and professional success, contrary to our popular notions of life with psychosis.
Coping with Depression at Work with Clare Miller
Clare Miller is the director of the American Psychiatric Association’s Partnership for Workplace Mental Health. She works with employers to help them do everything they can to identify and treat depression among their employees. We discuss how to reduce the stigma of depression, and the value of people coming forward with their own stories. Clare tells the story of how colleagues helped her to get treatment for her own depression, and how this has made her a more effective advocate for others with untreated mental health issues.
The PHQ-9 questionnaire mentioned in the show can be found here:
http://www.cqaimh.org/pdf/tool_phq9.pdf
The Challenge of Seeking Asylum with Alice B
This episode of Safe Space Radio features Alice B, an asylum-seeker from Burundi who now lives in Portland, Maine. She talks about her work to support and empower women who have faced cultural silencing and endured trauma in both Burundi and the U.S. Alice and Anne explore ways that refugees might be connected with therapists who can help them tell the painful stories they need to document in order to apply for asylum.
