Raising Awareness during Mental Health Awareness Month

Building a Better Tomorrow |Volume 1, Issue 3, May 2022

Greetings!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so this issue is meant to highlight the importance of self-care. Our Clinical Director, Dr. Jaimee Perez, provides her insights on this topic below, but I wanted to take a moment to share my own thoughts as well as my appreciation for you, our valued clients and readers.

As you read over this month's newsletter, it is my hope that you will feel empowered and encouraged to work and strive towards being your best self. Our dedicated team continues to grow. Below you'll find an interview with Brittney, our newest addition to the team. Brittney discusses trauma, as well as how important it is to destigmatise mental health in our communities. Dr Jaimee also discusses this below. I want to take this time to encourage each and every one of you as you continue your mental health journey and we at Cornerstone are dedicated to helping you along that journey.

If you feel like your friends or family would benefit from them, please feel free to share it with them. I hope you and your family have continued health and mental wellness.

Wishing you a happy May and a joyous summer,

Justin McManus, LCSW, CAP, SATP

Dr Jaimee's Corner: You Are Not Alone!

By Dr. Jaimee Perez, PhD

Behold, I am with you always...

Some of you may have heard about the tragic events that took place at a local high school on Friday, May 13th.

A young man named Romen Phelps was killed following an altercation with police after he crashed his van through the school’s gate. As the story has developed, Romen’s friend has come forward to share with the local community about Romen’s struggle with mental illness.

According to Romen’s friend, he had been taken to a local hospital by paramedics the day prior due to concern about his mental status & behavior. Romen was apparently released only a few hours later and his friend expressed concern that he did not receive the help he desperately needed. The tragedy of the events of May 13 could have been avoided.

This month is Mental Health Awareness Month and throughout the month many organizations and associations are campaigning to raise awareness about the importance of mental health, the value of and need for excellent mental health services and supports, and the need to reduce stigma around mental illness and the need to access services. The tragedy that unfolded on Friday highlights in the most heartbreaking ways possible why we as a nation, state, and local community need a month-long campaign dedicated to mental health awareness and advocacy. I don’t have all the answers or know all the details to be able to say with certainty where the failure occurred. I do know that Romen deserves to have his memory and legacy be more than the last 48 hours of his life. What I fear most as both a psychologist and as a human being is the villainization of those who suffer with mental illness. If the system failed him, which may be the case, then I believe we as a community need to ask how we can do better. Romen will not be the last individual who will succumb to a mental health crisis and need immediate intervention and care, and if we want to prevent such tragedies in the future, then I think we need to begin to invest in the local mental health infrastructures for the outcome we want.

If you are receiving this newsletter, you are one among the millions who have experienced mental health issues and have accessed mental health services to address them. I want to acknowledge the courage it took to make that call to Cornerstone Counseling to begin the journey to psychological well-being. You may have faced stigma and resistance within yourself and/or those around you. Whatever challenges you faced before taking that step, you confronted them, stepped out in vulnerability, and made the courageous and loving decision to get the help you needed. Mental Health Awareness Month is for and about you and for those who have yet to make that call and may not know where to begin.

Cornerstone Counseling of Palm Beach and its staff takes its mission of healing and restoration of psychological health seriously. We consider it a great privilege and responsibility and we strive to live up to our calling as mental health providers and healers. We understand that without our psychological health, we face greater challenges in living fulfilling lives. When you come to us, we help you come to understand, as best as possible, the factors that have affected your mental health and we work to empower you with effective tools to make the changes you want to see in yourself.

In the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month, we wanted to share ways that you can support your psychological health and bring awareness to the value and importance of mental health services to your spheres of influence. Below is a link to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) of Palm Beach website, which is an organization that provides support and resources to those with mental illness and their loved ones. Their website also includes links to many community resources and organizations, as well as a link to access help if you or someone you love is in crisis.

In honor of Romen and his friend who made the brave and right decision in calling the police and paramedics, we at Cornerstone encourage you to seek help for yourself or a loved one in crisis by calling 911, calling the National Suicide Hotline (800-273-8255) or 211.

We hope to continue to be a beacon of light and hope to all who come through our doors. In honor of Romen’s memory, we hope to shine a light on the value and importance of mental health support.

https://namipbc.org/

Working on Our Wounds, with Brittney Morales

Hey folks, Mike here! This month, I sat down with Brittney Morales, one of the newest members of our team, to discuss how clients can heal from deep wounds of trauma.

Brittney joins us from Barry University, where she completed her graduate training. Here, she provides her thoughts on trauma as well as raising mental health awareness.

Brittney Morales, MS., RMHCI, RMFTI

Since it is May, and May is mental health awareness month, what is an aspect of mental health that you think needs more awareness and why?

I was just talking to a client about this in session today. People think that trauma is someone who has gone to war, in a bad car accident or a horrific event has happened to them to put them in the hospital. Trauma is a negative event that has negatively impacted a person longer than just temporarily. So trauma can look different for everyone. I could see something happen, and it not affect me at all. The same thing could negatively impact someone else significantly. So I think that with mental health gaining acceptance in our culture, trauma is something that explicitly needs attention and awareness. People’s emotions and experiences are valid, especially when trauma is involved and it’s perfectly okay to find the professional help one needs to heal, and in fact, the healthy and responsible thing to do.

As a follow-up for those who may struggle or are struggling with their own traumas, how do you attempt to guide them through healing?

I think it's very important for the clinician to gather details of the event and understand how currently their body (pscyhologically and somatically) responds to the event’s memories and triggering stimuli. There are many different therapies and modalities that can help us provide the best care to walk with the client through their healing process.

For example, Internal Family Systems is a great way to work with trauma. EMDR which is very different, offers the ability to help separate the somatic from the memory. However, no matter what form of trauma therapy is used, the event will always be with that person. The silver lining is the emotion will significantly decrease or dissipate altogether. Also, I have found it extremely important to start with someone's childhood and gather information from there to present day.

Cornerstone Counseling’s adult assessment provides a vast array of useful questions, which have immensely helped me to help the client pull “puzzle pieces” together as to why certain events in their life have affected them the way they have.

I tell my clients, “We spend the rest of our lives trying to manage and heal from the first ten to twelve years of our lives.” Our personal, interpersonal and traumatic issues perhaps happened within our adult lives, but if we work through them, many times we can trace them back to a childhood wound. So I believe it's very important to gather as much information about a person’s life. I tell my clients, “The first few weeks are going to be me learning you, learning the blueprint, how you operate, so that I can meet you where you are today. To intimately learn a person and their story allows me to understand my clients as best I can and builds an amazing therapeutic alliance.

What about the larger question then that of society? What do you think mental health professionals can or should do in order to change that stigma?

Definitely bringing more accurate awareness to the word “trauma” is very important. How we speak to our clients about trauma, validating them for what their experiences have been and how their mind and body have decided to work for or against. Validation is critical to this arena of mental health. . People have a right to claim that trauma and seek support.

There's a person who's dealing with something mental health related, but they don't know if therapy is right for them. How would you help them to discern if it were?

I have a poignant question I like to challenge my clients with, which allows them the opportunity to intentionally discern: “Is something “nagging” or “itching” within you? And if so, is “it” managing you more than you are managing it?

This isn’t to say we should always be in control of everything. That isn’t realistic. However, when someone finds an imbalance, especially when it comes to the quality of their life and/or interpersonal world, these are significant signs it’s time to consider professional guidance and care.

What do you want the public to know about mental health?

I want people to know that whatever it is they are going through, whether “big” or “small”, it's still their experience, and that automatically means it’s worthy of attention, care, and compassion. And they are entitled to the emotions, the thoughts, the feelings, that stem from the experiences that have influenced their life.

Previous generations have this mentality of, “just buck up!” I truly believe we’ve entered into a new era where it's okay to say, “let me take a pause to assess what's going on here.” I truly wish for people to know that if they just allow themselves a moment to disconnect from what surrounds them (phone, TV, computer, anything which distracts) to just be with themself, I wholeheartedly believe people would be a lot more open to seeking the support they deserve.

Thank you, Brittney for taking the time to talk with us this month!

Thank you! Mental Health is such a serious issue in our society. I just hope my words can be a comfort to those who need to see them.