S3E6 – Exploring Mental Health

In this sixth episode of Season 3 of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany—Mariëlle is still on a break from the show—has clinical mental health counsellor Eric Mills on the show to discuss mental health.

Together, Bethany and Eric explore mental health services, both in terms of how they might show up in our stories and how we can help ourselves as we write.

Listen to it here on Podbean or find us on your favourite podcast app.

What we talked about

• What professionals exists in mental health services and their different roles
• Some modalities of therapy and what they are used for
• How writers can keep therapy scenes simple for themselves
• When an author needs to do more research to write a believable situation
• How to recognize when we might be having a stress response to our own topics of writing
• Some approaches to supporting ourselves when engaging in topics that carry personal trauma
• What we need to do when writing topics other people close to us may not want us to be writing about

Some terms that were used in this episode

• Clinical psychologist
• Psychiatrist (can subscribe medication)
• Clinical mental health counsellor
• Clinical wocial worker
• Equine therapy (horse therapy)
• Puppy therapy
• Play therapy
• Shame
• Compassion work

(Re)sources mentioned on the show

• Eric Mills quoted from Quanita Roberson. You can find more about her by searching your podcast app with her name. She has appeared as a guest on several different podcasts.
• Please write to diversityinwriting@gmail.com if you’d like more information on equine therapy.
• If you have more questions for Eric Mills, please also email the podcast at the above email address and we’ll put you in touch.

Promotions

• Bethany’s Editing Your Novel’s Structure: Tips, Tricks, and Checklists to Get You From Start to Finish: https://theartandscienceofwords.com/new-book-for-authors/
• Mariëlle’s Kickstarter starts October 10th! Follow it here! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/grow-your-creative-mindset

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