September 26, 2024 • 49 mins
Ever wondered why mental health care remains inaccessible to so many and why therapists are burning out at alarming rates? In this enlightening episode, Karen Green and Dr. Roldan shed light on the systemic barriers that prevent lower-income individuals from accessing essential mental health services. We delve into the financial and logistical challenges faced by both patients and clinicians, revealing how low reimbursement rates and delayed insurance payments contribute to a cycle of burnout and financial strain. Our discussion also touches on the unique hurdles older women encounter, pushing them towards alternative forms of support like coaching.
Navigating the emotional and logistical minefield of being a therapist is no small feat. Discover the hidden pressures therapists face, from managing crises to unpaid hours spent on necessary tasks like charting and dealing with insurance companies. We examine generational differences in work-life balance attitudes and highlight the extensive training and continuing education that therapists must undertake to remain licensed. This episode paints a vivid picture of the dedication and unseen labor required in the therapeutic profession, emphasizing the importance of maintaining boundaries to prevent burnout.
San Diego's soaring cost of living and the broader financial struggles impacting different generations are also front and center in our conversation. Learn about the predatory nature of student loans, the lack of financial education, and the economic pressures making it increasingly difficult for younger generations to achieve financial stability. We explore the struggles of single-parent households and the elderly, discussing innovative solutions like intergenerational living arrangements. Tune in for practical advice and resources designed to help you navigate these complex issues, fostering a more supportive and understanding community.
Emergency Helplines
- Emergency: 988
- NAMI Helpline: 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) - www.nami.org/help
- National Crisis Text Line: Text HELLO to 741741
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988 - www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 - www.thehotline.org
- SAMHSA Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) - www.samhsa.gov
- LGBT Trevor Project Lifeline: 1-866-488-7386 - www.thetrevorproject.org
- Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) - www.veteranscrisisline.net
- Ayuda en Español: 1-888-628-9454 - www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/es
- National Deaf Therapy: www.nationaldeaftherapy.com
- BIPOC Therapist Finder:...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Karen Green.
I'm an adjunct instructor at alocal community college here, as
well as an administrativeprofessional in the mental
health business, so I'm superhappy to be here with you, dr
Roldan, on our Oasis podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to Oroasis
Community Podcast.
I am Dr Roldan, your host.
I am a doctor in clinicalpsychology, a BIPOC therapist
professor and a mindful somaticcoach.
While I am a therapist,remember I'm not your therapist.
This podcast is not asubstitute for professional
(00:43):
mental health care, but we haveresources in our website and
Instagram to support you in thatsearch.
Join us for a cozy, feltconversation about mental health
, personal growth andmindfulness.
We explore tools to care foryour mind, your body and your
soul.
Check the footnotes fordisclaimer, trigger warnings and
(01:05):
additional resources for eachone of the episodes.
So grab your favorite cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate, wrap
yourself in a warm blanket andfind a coffee spot here with us
to be kind, to be brave, loudand strong in your search of
(01:25):
mental health wellness.
Welcome to your Oasis.
Thank you so much, karen andwelcome everybody.
I want you guys to grab yourcup of coffee, your cup of tea
or ice water or whateverbeverage you have that warms and
fuzzes your heart.
So cheers to everybody andwelcome to another awesome
(01:46):
episode of Oroasis CommunityPodcast.
Here we have our amazingprofessor, karen.
Because I'm a professor too,I'm able to call her by her name
If you're a student, tip forthe day, please call your
professors by their last name.
I know in high school we'reused to talk to our professors
or teachers just first namebasis, but, as a professor, just
(02:09):
to let you know, call them bytheir last name.
So today we have a specialtopic.
We're going to talk about twoimportant topics for September,
or yellow September, that is,society awareness month and
those two topics are menopauseand access to mental health, two
(02:32):
important topics that Karenknows so much about, not only
for life experiences but alsobecause she works in the field.
So, karen, tell us what is yourexperience about access?
Do you because people alwaysthink that access is for
everybody, that everybody can goto therapy, that therapy is not
(02:54):
hard to find a therapist, thatinsurance will pay for it?
Oh, my favorite, that theyalways say, oh, why therapists
are so expensive if they goprivate pay.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So can you talk?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
about it?
What is your experience aboutthat, either personal or
professional.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, in a past life I was also a consultant for
several local nonprofits inhealth and human services.
So I can tell you with allseriousness, there is an immense
barrier to care for people whoare in the lower socioeconomic
(03:35):
levels, so people who maybedon't make as much money, people
who are currently insuredthrough Medicaid or Medi-Cal.
There's a lot of barriers toaccess because not a lot of
providers take those insurances.
And if you don't take thoseinsurances, all you can offer
(03:56):
the patient is a self-pay accesskind of thing, and those
patients can't afford those.
It really doesn't even matterhow cheap your rates are If you
work on a sliding scale or ifyou you know a lot of patients
hear that, oh, sliding scale,okay, great, I'm going to be
able to get in there and affordcare, and the fact of the matter
is they can't afford that care,no matter how low it is,
(04:19):
because they're busy trying tomeet some basic needs like
shelter and food.
So it's important to remember,both as a provider and as a
patient, that we might need toput a lot of time into exploring
how to access those resourcesand if you're a person who maybe
(04:42):
doesn't have as much knowledgeabout the field, doesn't have as
much knowledge about the field,doesn't have as much knowledge
or experience in advocating foryourself, it might be really
difficult to find someone toactually help you.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Right and just to let people know, as a clinician, a
lot of the things that I hear isoh, why you guys don't have
space or why you don't take myinsurance.
And the scary part that peopledon't know is, like clinicians,
we are tied to whatever theinsurance company said.
For example, I have in the pastI used to work for nonprofits
(05:20):
that they pay really low forhourly rate but you get a stable
income, versus if you go toeither private practice or some
other companies, you don't getpaid until like nine, six months
.
The insurance meaning theinsurance pay, and sometimes the
insurance is like we don't wantto pay, we deny the claim, and
(05:40):
this was like six months.
So I had one of my classmatesthat they were in private
practice and they were takinginsurance and a year later
$60,000 were not paid and shehad to declare bankruptcy and
now she doesn't even do therapyanymore because she got burned
(06:01):
out, which, in this industry,one thing that people don't see
is, like a lot of us, we cannotwork or we cannot do our
internships and why not and workat the same time.
So we have rippling studentloans, which it creates, the
loop over and over and overright Also creates burnout for
(06:23):
clinicians.
So if you see a clinician thatneeds a little more love, please
just give them a little bit oflove, because it is hard.
It is hard to be in this kindof industry because you have to,
like, see like nine, 10 clientsa day and, to be honest, that
is not healthy even for theclinician or the client right?
(06:44):
And the other thing is accessto therapy, believe it or not,
therapists, we have to havetherapy because we deal with a
lot of things and you will besurprised how difficult it is to
find a therapist for us.
And you will say but you areright, there, right, it's your
industry and it doesn't.
(07:05):
And then when you think aboutolder women that are like in
their 40s, 50s or you're asenior citizen, forget it.
Finding an appropriate care isimpossible and that's why some
people go with coaches, becausethey're more accessible and less
expensive.
(07:26):
Granted, they don't have thetraining that we have, but it's
almost like sometimes therapyfeels elitist Meaning if you
don't have the money, you don'thave the care, and then the
people that need it the most isthe people that doesn't get it
that have the hardest timeaccessing it.
A hundred percent, a hundredpercent, a hundred percent, and
what has been your experienceworking in this industry about
(07:48):
burnout for therapists?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh my goodness, it's rampant.
Because of these sort of thingsthat you were just speaking on,
I think patients don'tunderstand a lot of times that
mental health care is structuredvery differently than medical
health care and a lot of timespatients think that it works the
(08:15):
same.
It doesn't work the same.
When you go to see a doctor,your doctor schedules 15 minutes
for you.
They can see four patients anhour, so they could see 30, 40,
sometimes more patients a day,depending on how they structure
their schedule.
For therapists that is not thecase.
You get an hour with thattherapist, so if you don't show
(08:38):
up, they can't squeeze someoneelse in.
They can't double book somebodythe way that a medical health
professional might do.
So it's a very different kindof scenario, not to mention the
issues that therapists, clinicalpsychologists, marriage and
family therapists, socialworkers are tackling can
potentially be much more seriousand much less stable.
(09:05):
So you're looking at a patientthat may or may not be in crisis
, may or may not have a safetyplan, may or may not know what
to do next, and you have to sitdown with that patient and take
care of them until they're readyto be done.
You can't just stop because thetime is up.
So a lot of times I thinktherapists take that on.
(09:26):
You know, as you know, it'svery easy to get emotionally
involved with your patients.
We have ways that we limit thatand tools that we use to hold
those boundaries, but you stillcarry it with you and at the end
of the day, if you've had six,seven, eight hard clients,
you're going to go home andyou're going to feel that in
(09:46):
your body and in your mind.
So it's really important fortherapists to have a safe place
where they can go to unload that, to learn coping skills, to
learn ways to maintain thoseboundaries so that they can
prevent burnout.
And I mean especially it's thesame in every industry really
Turn off your phone, set yourboundaries as far as what your
(10:10):
work hours are and don't workoutside those hours.
I think that's a reallyimportant thing for people to
remember your time is your timeRight?
And if it's not the scheduledtime you're supposed to be
working, don't work, don't do it.
Sometimes it's difficult, butyou got to hold that boundary.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
It's super important for your mental health and I'm
glad that you bring that up,because your generation and my
generation we see that verydifferently.
Right, your generation is likewhat do you mean?
You're not going to work afterwork, that you have to.
And in my generation is like inthe middle, and then the new
generation is like peace out,I'm not doing that, right.
But the thing is like, forexample, in the medical
(10:49):
profession, right, like you say,the doctor can see multiples
because they only see it for 15minutes.
They can double book.
If I say I'm going to see youat 9 am, I have to see you at 9
am, not 9.30, 9.15.
Sure, emergency happens becausewe have to take care of the
patient before you, but hardlyever we move it or we let you
(11:10):
know, right.
But the other part that theydon't know is that medical
professionals, they have atranscriber, meaning somebody
that writes the notes for them.
The other one that they don'tknow is that you have to
sometimes depending if you havesomebody that is a specialist
like you, or therapists thatjust go by themselves you have
to call the insurance companiesto see if they're going to take
(11:32):
this thing and if they approvethis treatment, et cetera, et
cetera, and it's hours in thephone that we don't get paid,
and then the hours of doingnotes and your notes are not
like tiny notes at all or liketemplates, because a lot of the
medical professionals they havetemplates.
I'm not criticizing or anything.
They have a very systematickind of I call it puppy meal of
(11:55):
a system that they can go reallyfast, really quick, but you
miss a lot of things like that.
And then as therapists, wespend an hour with our client
and then we have to spendanother 30 minutes doing notes
and finding things for them anddoing worksheets or workbooks or
resources or sending them tohospitals, outpatient, inpatient
(12:18):
.
You know, like there is morebehind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It's a lot like being a teacher.
Like you get paid for the hoursyou're lecturing but you don't
get paid for the hours thatyou're grading, that you're
researching, that you're writinglesson plans.
That's all folded into thathourly rate that you're getting
for that lecture hour.
So it's very similar fortherapists you don't get paid
for the time you're charting,for the time that you're
researching, for the time thatyou're finding tools and
(12:43):
developing treatment plans.
You're only getting paid forthat hour that you're
face-to-face with the patient,that specific encounter.
So I think a lot of people feellike maybe that rate is
inflated or it's not fair andwhy, do you charge so much?
but they don't realize what goesinto that hour.
It's not just that hour, itmight be five hours that go into
(13:05):
that one hour.
So it's really difficult toexplain to people.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Right.
And then the other one that islike the difference between a
counselor MFD, msw versus a PhD,psyd, and then the treatment
plans right.
A CBT versus a traumaspecialist totally different
plans, right.
A CBT versus a traumaspecialist is totally different
and people don't know this.
But we have to get trainingafter we're trained.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Every year we have to make a lot of trainers in order
to keep up with the currentthings and with your licensing
requirements you can't remainlicensed unless you take a
certain number of hours ofcontinuing education Right.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And those hours of continuing education are not
cheap either.
So that's what, when you're ababy therapist like me like I
call it baby therapist we'relike, see the world, like, oh my
God, I'm going to be so happyafter I finish.
Now you have to payexponentially like scary numbers
of tests and ECUs, and why notand I say this not to scare
(14:12):
anybody that's going to thefield, but I feel like a lot of
grad students, a lot of collegestudents, get burned now because
we enter careers that we don'thave the same value that we put
in out.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
We have emotion.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know we have.
I always say we get paid insouls and we get paid in knowing
that we did a good job.
That's it In fulfillment, yeah,in fulfillment, but sometimes
that's not enough, and when youhave a cranky yeah, you can't
pay your rent with fulfillment.
That's for sure.
No.
Especially not in San Diego,Right?
So for everybody that ishearing us international here in
(14:47):
the United States we live inCalifornia and in California we
live in San Diego, one of themost expensive cities in the
United States.
So the average income to makeit here you have to make
$150,000 a year by yourself, byyourself, and that's the low
bracket.
That's not like you're livingthe life, which creates another
(15:08):
problem and depression for theolder generation.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, for sure, Because in your years it was like
$100,000.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's like I'm living the life.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
But you could buy a house with that Right Like full
cash out here.
Give me a house now.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Right now.
I have seen, not only inclients but in friends, and why
not?
Because the discrepancy inunderstanding money right,
because that's the main thingunderstanding money and
inflation.
Oh, absolutely, what has beenyour experience, not only as
your personal experience, butI've seen in the profession and
(15:47):
in other people that they don'thave a clue about how much
things cost One and two.
They keep saying, oh, in mytime, I used to this in my time.
So we live a lot in the pastand then we become very
depressed, and then we becomevery insulated and then we
become just not good.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yes, 100 percent.
You know, I could easily say inmy day I mean back back when I
first moved out of my mother'shome I was renting a one bedroom
apartment for four hundreddollars a month.
I mean in San Diego.
Now you can't get a one-bedroomapartment for $2,400 a month.
(16:28):
So it is surprising to someonelike me, someone who's an older
individual, someone who's beenaround for a while, it is
surprising to find this kind ofinflation when it comes to the
cost of living, when it comes tobuying cars, homes, renting
apartments, buying any kind ofdaily good.
(16:49):
It is extremely surprising andit's really sad to see our kids,
who are now adults, not beingafforded the same kind of
freedoms that we had when wewere kids.
You know they can't afford tomove out on their own.
They can't afford to do thethings that we had when we were
kids.
You know they can't afford tomove out on their own.
They can't afford to do thethings that we did.
And it makes sense when you readin the news that you know fewer
(17:11):
millennials, fewer Gen Zs, arehaving kids.
Well, no wonder they can't evenafford to raise themselves, let
alone raise a child, or affordto have a family.
Well, at least not here inSouthern California.
Maybe it's a little differentin other parts of the country,
but from everything that I'velearned, it's not Because you
have to remember when you livehere in Southern California.
(17:32):
Yes, it's $150,000 to have alivable annual wage, and that
might be lower in other parts ofthe country, but the cost of
living is different as well.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So, you.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You might only need $50,000 to live in Mississippi,
but what's the cost of livingthere?
Is that, proportionally, it'sstill not enough money, right?
Things are still too expensive.
They're gas, food, homes.
So it's creating a nation ofpeople that are living under an
enormous amount of stress on adaily basis because they can't.
(18:08):
They're being told that theyneed to achieve certain things
to be successful, and they are.
It is impossible to achievethose things unless you've been
born with an enormous advantagefinancially.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, and that's the other thing that back in the in
your days being a high schooler,it gave me a good job,
Absolutely.
Now, if you go to college andget your BA, not enough, that is
like less than high school now.
And not only that, the amountof money that you get into,
because people say like, youhave financial aid, you have
(18:40):
student loans.
And for people that doesn'tknow about student loans, I feel
that it's criminal that we give18, 19 year olds 10,000, 20,000
, 50,000, 60,000 dead withouteducating them.
One and two, you know youcannot get a credit card when
you are like that age, so thattells you something.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Do not, do not mistake that for financial
freedom.
It is not financial freedom, itis predatory.
The only one who's getting anykind of freedom is the
institution that's giving youthat money, because they're
earning money on the money thatthey gave you.
So just don't don't mistakethat for financial freedom.
(19:24):
It's really a pair of handcuffsand it's the thing that needs
to be associated with makingthose kinds of decisions is
critical thought.
18 years old, first of all, thatperson's brain isn't even
completely developed.
Second of all, they haven'teven been through college yet,
(19:46):
so they haven't even developedthe idea of how to have critical
thought, of the ways to thinkabout things, to make healthy
decisions.
So it is extremely predatory,extremely predatory.
I'm not talking about federalstudent loans like Stafford
loans, loans that are lowinterest rate, that are just
(20:06):
strictly for school supplies,books, things like that.
I'm talking about these privateloans where you're getting
$35,000, $50,000, $75,000, toquote unquote.
Live on while you're in schoolnot realizing that when you pay
that back, that loan rate is 19%, 20%, 25%, sometimes 30%, and
(20:27):
you're paying back three timesthe amount of money that you
actually borrowed.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, and one thing that I always tell my students
they get shocked is that whenyou get your student loans, the
interest rate is daily, notmonthly like because people
always think, oh, it's monthly,no, and that's why I hear apr
they hear annual percentage rateright, but it's that doesn't
(20:52):
mean that you're only paying itannual, that it's only accruing
annual right.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
It's accruing every single day on the amount that's
owed.
So unless you pay it back rightaway in full, you're paying a
lot of money in interest, a lotof money.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I say this because there is the middle
generation between you and meright that they did this, they
didn't know, and now they're incrippling debt.
They have destroyed theircredit scores and I hate when
people tell them oh, if you workharder, or you shouldn't know
when you went to school thatgetting a liberal arts degree
(21:28):
was not going to give you.
They did everything that theywere told to do by society,
right, and now they are juststruggling.
And that is the ripple effectof how we don't have enough
professionals.
We don't have enough mentalhealth professionals to help
that thousands of thousands ofpeople.
(21:50):
That is hurting.
And then you have professionalslike me that then we live.
Well, I'm still a therapist,but like a lot of my classmates,
they just stop.
They went and did coaching,they went to the
entrepreneurship, one becausethey didn't have so many
restrictions, but two becausethey can help more people,
because they were not sorestricted to things.
(22:10):
Not saying go be a coach,because that is a different
story that you can hear in theother episodes.
But I believe that everybodydeserves to heal, Everybody
deserves a path to healing, butfirst we need to know what we
are healing for.
And the part that people don'ttalk about is the systematic
problem that we have becausethey always blame the person.
(22:32):
They don't see the systemExactly Because they say, oh,
it's the person's fault and I'mlike no, if I didn't have, if
I'm already minus negative 20,how is it going to be my fault?
Exactly the favorite that theylike to say oh, they're playing
the victim.
No, we don't have the sameresources that you do we didn't
(22:55):
start in the same place.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
So you can't call the system fair.
If you started out from aposition of generational wealth,
you have an advantage oversomeone who has started out with
a beginning of generationalpoverty.
There's no doubt about it.
It's not an equal playing fieldhere.
(23:20):
In.
The only way to solve theproblem is to dismantle the
system and rebuild it in a waythat provides advantages to
people who are less advantage,which levels the playing field,
and then we have everybodystarting at the same point and
then we can talk about making itfair for everybody from that
(23:43):
point on.
But as long as we're sayingthat we have a young person here
who's got two parents in prisonand is living with a
grandmother with a drug problem,and then we've got a young
person over here whose parentsare, you know, trust fund babies
and they've never had to work,are, you know, trust fund babies
(24:05):
and they've never had to work,those two people don't have an
equal opportunity, no matterwhat anyone says.
It's glaringly obvious.
And if anyone says it'sdifferent, they're wrong, right.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And the funny thing is that statistics show that
when we are born in poverty, ittakes eight generations to get
out of it.
Eight If you get out of it whenyou are born in wealth, it
takes one to two generations toduplicate it or triple.
(24:35):
So just right there, you have astats right.
And when both Karen and I do,we teach right.
We teach college students.
She teaches in communitycollege, I teach in the
university level and thepressures that everybody has
when they start college,especially community college,
when you have people that iscoming back to college, or they
(24:58):
didn't have the opportunity togo right out of high school
college or they didn't have theopportunity to go right out of
high school.
I have, just in the universities, not that many older students.
I was myself an older studentbecause I immigrated here as an
adult and the system is notcreated for us to study at all.
Like it was so difficult.
I did a lot of tip foreverybody out there.
(25:19):
I did my three years in college, in community college because
one they have different times togo to school.
I will go to night classes andwork like a meal during the day.
I have three jobs.
I will go full time to schooland then I was beat every day
but I did it right.
And then I have some myclassmate when I transferred to
(25:43):
the university.
It was like they were throwingtheir MacBook away because they
were like, oh, it's a year old,I don't want it anymore.
And I'm like, can we donate it,can you?
Can you donate?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
it to me yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So this is not people , because people think like
mental health is only for people.
That quote unquote I'm sorryyou're crazy which that is not a
term or like you're not tryinghard enough, and I use this to
examples because the two want toget better yeah.
Well, you have to know thatyou're not better.
Right For somebody like me thatwe were growing as immigrants
(26:18):
here in like poverty is againstus all the time because we're
starting from scratch.
Remember that we're startingfrom scratch.
Remember that we're startingfrom scratch zero, everything
right, regardless of what youthink.
And then you have somebody elsethat has a lot of things.
We both have the same pressureto succeed, to be this, to be
that right.
And when we entered thecolleges thank goodness now the
(26:39):
new generations don't have somuch that we didn't have Like
741-741 text line to talk tosomebody when you're dealing
with your mental health.
We have care for them and somany things, but still it's not
enough.
Why?
Because as a society, we don'ttalk about the discrepancies
that we have, about the lack ofmonetary literacy that we have
(27:06):
Absolutely so can you talk aboutthat?
The monetary literacy orsociety lack, from your
perspective?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Sure, you know, back when I was growing up, when I
was in high school, a millionbillion years ago, we had a
class called home economics andin home economics you learned
how to start a bank account,balance a checkbook, pay your
bills.
You learned how to quote,unquote, run your home, learn
(27:35):
how to cook, learned how to sew,learn how to do a lot of things
.
We don't.
We don't have that class inschool anymore.
Because of school anymore,because of different kinds of
budget cuts in education, welost that kind of elective class
along with a lot of our artsand music classes, so nobody was
(27:59):
there to pick up the slack whenwe lost that class.
My generation was the firstgeneration that really had two
working parents or maybe camefrom a single family home.
I came from a single familyhome and had a mom who had to
work multiple jobs just to keepa roof over our heads, so she
didn't have a whole lot of timeto dedicate to teaching us about
(28:22):
basic things like that.
You know she was too busytrying to keep us afloat, and
now I think it's getting.
I do think it's getting better.
There are more resources foryoung people to learn those
things, but they do need to knowwhere to find them.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And they do need to know how to access them.
So, once somebody has thatability, there's a lot of great
information out there.
There's a lot of books outthere, there's a lot of courses
online that you can take to helpyou become financially literate
.
But what does someone do who,even though they may be
(29:03):
financially literate, they don'thave the financial resources to
even take advantage of thosethings.
So you know, it's all.
It's all well and good to say,oh, get yourself a high yield
savings account, save, you know,six months of expenses, or.
But when someone is livingpaycheck to paycheck and they
can't even afford to put anymoney into a regular savings
(29:25):
account, they can't afford tohave anything left over, then
where does that person go?
And that's what I think that,as a society, we need to focus
on is what do we do for thosepeople whose barrier to access
is life?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Right In essence.
And how do we treat that Right?
I love the course I teachbecause my course that I teach,
one of my kiddos told me I teachfreshmen.
That's why I call it kiddos.
It's like kindergartner,because everybody comes from
different groups and differentschools and everything Right.
So it's so many differentlevels and belief systems and my
(30:04):
class is about teach you how tolive life, how to love yourself
, how to navigate college andlife.
And they freaked out so muchbecause my class doesn't have
that.
You know I don't.
No, don't worry about the zero,it's okay.
They're like what do you mean?
Don't worry about the zero?
Why do I have a zero?
Blah, blah, blah.
And because they are so used towork for a point, to work for
(30:27):
something, and when they cannotget it they just freak out.
And my class I started with.
So you start with a zero andyou start piling up your points.
Apparently that's not how theydo it in the other classes, so
they were freaking out the firsttwo weeks.
Apparently that's not how theydo it in the other classes, so
they were freaking out the firsttwo weeks.
Oh my gosh Like literallybreakdowns, which I love in the
(30:49):
sense of, like I make all mystudents to grab 741, 741 text,
that way they can have it intheir phone.
The safety phone apps, too, fortheir schools.
Everybody in your school youhave a safety app.
The reason I say this?
Because either if you choose togo to college or you choose to
go just to life, it's very, veryhard the world that we live in
(31:13):
right now.
And the first two months thatyou're out of high school, or
either in college or the work,is what we call the red zone,
when people commit suicide andwhere people also have uh
addiction and etc.
Etc, etc really really high riskright, so we already have
negative in there, right, and Ionly mentioned this because a
(31:36):
lot of people say, oh, our newgeneration is lazy, or new
generation I.
I was like, they were born inanxiety, they were born in the
middle of pandemics, in themiddle of things that people say
, oh well, I was born when theWorld War II was happening, you
know the recession, yeah, but wehave economic freedom, which we
don't have now.
Now think about that when wetalk about seniors or retiring
(32:01):
people.
People cannot retire, peopleAbsolutely.
People cannot retire anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No, I have an 85-year-old mother who just
stopped working.
Right, because Social Securityis not enough.
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yes, people always say, oh, your parents didn't
work.
My mom, she worked really hard,but her Social Security was
like only $900.
What are you going to do withthat?
And then, if, for example, ifyou need memory care or you need
something that is specializedbecause welcome to having
(32:36):
Alzheimer's and any other kindof Any kind of chronic disease
Right, you're one check awayfrom homelessness and then,
absolutely, um, you, you're toowhat you're one check away from
homelessness and then, or ordisability system keeps you
broke because, um, people thatdoesn't know this from outside
of the united states, we pay forour, for our insurance, for our
(32:56):
health insurance, and we payobscene amounts of money for it,
just to go-.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Obscene amounts of money.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Obscene.
Just to give you an example,this called the cheap rate
$1,000 for a single 20, 30something $1,000.
That's the cheapest one.
And then you have Every month,every month, and you make $3,000
a month, and then your haveevery month, every month, and
you make 3000 a month, and thenyour house costs 2000.
(33:26):
And that's why everybody hasroommates here in San Diego,
because you cannot afford it.
You can't even afford a studio,right.
But now think about that as aperson that worked really hard.
And now you want to retire your50, 60, well, here's 65, 67,
and you can't.
And then I have a lot of my.
(33:48):
There's a program in myuniversity that for college
students because you know we'rebroke you get to live with an
older person and both help eachother.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know.
But the downside of that isalso like the autonomy of
somebody that is, in theirsenior years they start losing.
Not the autonomy that we thinkwhen you get older, it's the
autonomy to be free, yes, and beokay.
And that brings me to menopause.
So menopause starts atthree-ish.
(34:23):
Three-ish meaning you arepre-permanent, and why I did
this dip by is because you needto learn first about the
educational system, theoppression system, and then the
medical system to talk about.
Welcome to gaslighting, becauseyou're a woman and you have
things oh my gosh, that's sotrue, right, I mean so true, I
(34:50):
um, I just appalled or how weare treated as women and ignore
like, for example, I haveopiates and I had for years a
horrendous, horrendousendometriosis and and I will go
to the doctor and say this andthis and this and I'm very
anxious, or this and that, and Iwas like you're being
overdramatic.
(35:10):
Or just take a Tylenol andyou're talking about
excruciating pain that was inthe floor crying like for seven
days, like this is not normal,right?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
And depending on this , I'm going to give you a
psychiatric referral.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Right, like I think you are hysterical.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I can't find anything physically wrong with you, so
I'm going to give you a referralto a psychiatrist.
Right, right.
And you're like wait what?
And then we go.
I'm going to give you a sock inthe nose, buddy.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And then we go because we want to feel better,
absolutely and, and, and then wego, and then it happens that
chronic illnesses are not athing here, in the united states
, meaning if you have it, theydon't let you have it.
Um, right, for a lot of peopletrigger warning uh, that went to
the pandemic and have longcovet.
(35:59):
They develop chronic illnesseslike POTS, like vertigo cuckoo
pops that came out of that.
And you go to the doctors andit's not their fault either.
That's what I'm trying to say.
You say why my doctor is suchan right and we're like because
they only have 15 minutes.
And they didn't learn about thisin medical school, so they're
(36:20):
flying blind Right right andwe're not going to enter too
much into, like the terrifyingthing of certain states in our
country that are not teachingabout medical care.
Certain medical care, right.
But as a woman, the first thing, like for endometriosis, you
have to like you know, uh,sometimes you have to just take
(36:41):
all your lady beats out right Inmy Eric's meal to this day the
first thing that the doctorswill ask is like did your
husband know?
Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like like you, have no autonomy as a woman.
That that this mindset stillexists today to me is not only
baffling but infuriating.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Right, and can you tell us about your not your
story, but like your experienceabout navigating menopause,
pre-menopause and or medicalsystem as a person that's
educated, Because the worst Iwas saying, the worst thing that
can happen to somebody is likethat you're so educated that you
(37:24):
understand, like what they'redoing to you and you are like no
.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Excuse me, what Right ?
And after your story I willgive you guys a tip that you're
going to laugh.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But go ahead, Tell us how was your experience you
know it was a real shock for me,because now we all know as
women that menopause will happen, right, we don't know when it's
.
It's a little bit of a medicalmystery.
It happens on its own time andfor some women it can take.
It can be a decades longprocess, for some women it's
(37:59):
overnight.
But without fail, it comes withhormonal shifts, it comes with
physiological shifts, it comeswith a whole host of things that
, even though you might knowabout them, you are not prepared
for them.
I know I wasn't was terrifying,if I'm being honest, I was not.
(38:23):
I literally thought I was goingcrazy.
I was having the worst panicattacks, still having a lot of
trouble sleeping.
The hot flashes, the weightgain, the sort of redistribution
of things in your body it's allreally unexpected, even though
it's expected.
(38:45):
And the fact of the matter isdoctors don't know a lot about
female physiology.
So you know the decades anddecades and decades the century,
if you will, of medicalknowledge that we've garnered
has mostly been about men, drugstudies, any kind of anatomical
(39:07):
studies.
All of it was done on men.
So what young doctors are beingtaught in medical school is
based on male anatomy, malebrain chemistry, male physiology
.
So there's not a lot of doctorsthat know how to deal with this
thing.
There's not a lot of doctorsyet I do believe that's changing
(39:29):
that are prepared to deal withthe repercussions of not only
the female body but the changingfemale body, not just our
anatomy but the brain chemistryand everything that is
associated with that, just ouranatomy but the brain chemistry
and everything that isassociated with that.
So it's confusing, it's scaryand it's kind of infuriating,
(39:52):
because all you're looking foris answers and when you go to
the person that you think issupposed to be the one who has
the answers, and they have noanswers for you.
You really are at a loss and asa person who is educated, who's
been in the field for almost 40years, who is able to advocate
for myself, for me it was almostunreal.
(40:14):
I was like, am I living inbizarro world here?
Like what is happening?
That nobody knows how to helpme with these, these issues and
these problems?
Nobody can advise me, nobodycan tell me what to do next, how
to help this, what, where to go.
So it's, it's reallychallenging.
As an older woman, you know alot of freedoms come with
(40:38):
getting older as a woman in thissociety, but there's a lot of
challenges that are associatedwith it as well.
So that's definitely one ofthem.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Right, and one like having a chronic illness or
having just your menopause andpre-menopause.
My recommendation and this iswhat I was laughing, because I
always come with a binder when Igo to the doctor because I know
they're only going to have 15minutes.
I already know that.
So I'm like let me save yousome time because sometimes
they're very repetitive with thesame test.
I'm like I already did thatlike a year ago.
So I help them, you know, andsay, oh, we're going to do your
(41:11):
thyroid.
Wait, this is my thyroid thing.
This is my most recent thyroidtest and I'm like, oh, I didn't
saw that.
I'm not trying to put them downor anything.
I'm trying to save their timeand save my life, right, exactly
.
So that's one thing that we cando as a society to help each
other to.
This is what I need.
But also, don't go to Googledoctor.
(41:33):
That doesn't help that mucheither.
That just terrifies you more.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
But if you don't self-diagnose, if you are not a
medical student, if you are nota medical doctor, please stay
away from WebMD.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yes, to wrap it up, what is?
Three little nuggets that youcan give somebody that is in
your age group and is trying towant to survive, and the other
one to strive I think a veryimportant thing that women,
especially my age, need toremember is we need community.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
So let's find other women our age.
We grew up in a generation thatwas very kind of pick me, you
(42:37):
know.
We didn't have a community oflike-minded women around us to
lean on, to rely on, for support, to help support, and we need
each other as women.
Only we can understand whatwe're going through, and I think
it's very important to havethat community, to find that
community and to rely on thatcommunity.
(42:59):
We're not built as humans totake all of this on by ourselves
.
We're meant to live communallyat the heart of it.
Our brains have not evolvedpast that yet.
Top thing that you can do tohelp keep yourself sane and
(43:20):
healthy is find a group ofpeople that you can rely on and
that you can talk to on theregular, because being isolated
just makes everything worse.
The second thing I think youcan do is see your doctor every
year, make sure you're stayingon top of your health, do all
the preventative health thingsthat you need to do and catch
things early so that it iseasier to solve those problems
as they come along.
(43:41):
And lastly, I think, utilizingthe things that come along with
new technology.
There's lots of like apps onyour phone, meditation apps,
things that you can use to helpkeep track of your health, and
I'm a data nerd, so I love stufflike that.
Anything that can tell me moreabout myself is like super
(44:02):
exciting for me.
Maybe a little conceited, butthere we go.
But I think that those kinds ofthings especially, you know, as
we grow older, it helps to nothave to leave your house, you
know.
It helps to not have to makeextra special time for that when
we already lead such stressfuland busy lives.
You can just hit that app, youcan lay down in a quiet room,
(44:24):
you can meditate for five or 10minutes and come back with maybe
a little bit of refreshed, alittle bit calmer, a little bit
healthier than you were beforeyou started.
So those are three things thatI would really recommend.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Thank you for that and for everybody that's
listening.
That's why we create our Oasiscommunity a community because we
cannot human alone.
We are mammals and we are notmeant to do human alone.
What do I mean?
The Oasis slogan is be kind, beloud, be proud of you.
(44:58):
Sometimes we can't, so we goand grab somebody that will do
it for us too, and we can gothrough life and after we take a
break and reassess right, Ilove that.
The other part that I love isself-advocacy is a way to save
yourself, but sometimes we don'tknow what to advocate for it,
and that's why podcasts, youtube, you know the Red Square and
(45:24):
other ones are very good, but bemindful that not everything
that you hear is true.
But us in between generations Ithink that's the part that
we're missing the most Talk toeach other because, believe it
or not, all of us, no matter whoyou are, no matter where you
(45:45):
are, no matter what economic orstatus you are, we have
struggled with our mental health.
We have been in that dark placeand some of us make it out,
some of us didn't, and becauseof that, no matter where you are
, community can save you inmultiple things.
So I'm going to put allresources there under the
(46:06):
footnotes.
I'm also going to give you guysand girls and my senior lovings
.
I'm going to give you a freejournaling.
So you're going to learn fivedifferent types of journaling
with that journal.
So just go to the footnotesthat it will be the link there
Super important.
Get it all out.
Yeah, get it all out, and thereis different types right there
(46:29):
is like the one that you draw,so you will learn so many
awesome things.
But finally, I just want to, ifyou notice, we talk, and I talk
to anybody, any age, andprobably we stay more in tune
with what is happening in theworld because we teach, because
we have the youngsters talkingto us Like I learn so much from
(46:50):
my students all the time, 100%100% and the resiliency that
they have right All the time100% 100%, and the resiliency
that they have.
Right and the same with mysenior citizens.
I learned so much of what lifehas to offer and how easy it is
to lose it too.
Oh gosh, yeah, for everybodyout there, please go talk to one
(47:10):
of your senior citizens.
Just go, just go learnsomething.
We are curious humans, so justgo learn something.
Just, we are curious humans, sojust go learn something new
from them.
And for everybody else listen,remember, grab your cup of
coffee, tea or beverage, take awarm sip and let that be your
reminder that connecting to yourbody is the solution for a lot
(47:32):
of your problems.
And I also will post ameditation for you.
That is one of the episodes tohelp you to just send yourself.
Karen, thank you so very muchfor having the time to come to
talk to our audience, and if youare in the community college
that Ms Karen is teaching, youare a lucky one.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thank you so much, doc.
Doc, I appreciate you.
This has been so much fun.
Thank you so much for invitingme of course.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Thank you so much and until next time.
As we conclude today's episode,take a moment to reflect.
Be proud of the journey, forevery step that brings you
closer to who you truly are.
Embrace the kindness towardsyourself as you did to each one
(48:26):
of our guests.
Honor the bravery in youractions and celebrate the
importance of mental wellnesswith us.
And remember it's an exercisethat we practice daily.
Continue to grow and flourish,knowing that we are in this
training for our mental wellnesstogether.
(48:47):
We are so proud to have you aspart of our community, so join
us on Instagram at OasisCommunity Podcast for more
inspiring conversations,valuable resources and supported
content, including journals,worksheets and content in
Spanish.
Exciting things are in thehorizon.
(49:09):
Our Oasis Community break roomsare coming soon to grab tools
and take a break for your mentalhealth are coming soon to grab
tools and take a break for yourmental health.
Also, we are featuring oursix-month training ethical
mental health coaching programdesigned for new and experienced
coaches, as well as holisticand healing professionals.
Enroll to create a safe andtransformative experience to
(49:32):
your clients.
Links in the bio.
Until next time, take care,stay connected and welcome to
our Oasis community.
Hi, I'm Karen Green.
I'm an adjunct instructor at alocal community college here, as
well as an administrativeprofessional in the mental
health business, so I'm superhappy to be here with you, dr
Roldan, on our Oasis podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to Oroasis
Community Podcast.
I am Dr Roldan, your host.
I am a doctor in clinicalpsychology, a BIPOC therapist
professor and a mindful somaticcoach.
While I am a therapist,remember I'm not your therapist.
This podcast is not asubstitute for professional
(00:43):
mental health care, but we haveresources in our website and
Instagram to support you in thatsearch.
Join us for a cozy, feltconversation about mental health
, personal growth andmindfulness.
We explore tools to care foryour mind, your body and your
soul.
Check the footnotes fordisclaimer, trigger warnings and
(01:05):
additional resources for eachone of the episodes.
So grab your favorite cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate, wrap
yourself in a warm blanket andfind a coffee spot here with us
to be kind, to be brave, loudand strong in your search of
(01:25):
mental health wellness.
Welcome to your Oasis.
Thank you so much, karen andwelcome everybody.
I want you guys to grab yourcup of coffee, your cup of tea
or ice water or whateverbeverage you have that warms and
fuzzes your heart.
So cheers to everybody andwelcome to another awesome
(01:46):
episode of Oroasis CommunityPodcast.
Here we have our amazingprofessor, karen.
Because I'm a professor too,I'm able to call her by her name
If you're a student, tip forthe day, please call your
professors by their last name.
I know in high school we'reused to talk to our professors
or teachers just first namebasis, but, as a professor, just
(02:09):
to let you know, call them bytheir last name.
So today we have a specialtopic.
We're going to talk about twoimportant topics for September,
or yellow September, that is,society awareness month and
those two topics are menopauseand access to mental health, two
(02:32):
important topics that Karenknows so much about, not only
for life experiences but alsobecause she works in the field.
So, karen, tell us what is yourexperience about access?
Do you because people alwaysthink that access is for
everybody, that everybody can goto therapy, that therapy is not
(02:54):
hard to find a therapist, thatinsurance will pay for it?
Oh, my favorite, that theyalways say, oh, why therapists
are so expensive if they goprivate pay.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So can you talk?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
about it?
What is your experience aboutthat, either personal or
professional.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, in a past life I was also a consultant for
several local nonprofits inhealth and human services.
So I can tell you with allseriousness, there is an immense
barrier to care for people whoare in the lower socioeconomic
(03:35):
levels, so people who maybedon't make as much money, people
who are currently insuredthrough Medicaid or Medi-Cal.
There's a lot of barriers toaccess because not a lot of
providers take those insurances.
And if you don't take thoseinsurances, all you can offer
(03:56):
the patient is a self-pay accesskind of thing, and those
patients can't afford those.
It really doesn't even matterhow cheap your rates are If you
work on a sliding scale or ifyou you know a lot of patients
hear that, oh, sliding scale,okay, great, I'm going to be
able to get in there and affordcare, and the fact of the matter
is they can't afford that care,no matter how low it is,
(04:19):
because they're busy trying tomeet some basic needs like
shelter and food.
So it's important to remember,both as a provider and as a
patient, that we might need toput a lot of time into exploring
how to access those resourcesand if you're a person who maybe
(04:42):
doesn't have as much knowledgeabout the field, doesn't have as
much knowledge about the field,doesn't have as much knowledge
or experience in advocating foryourself, it might be really
difficult to find someone toactually help you.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Right and just to let people know, as a clinician, a
lot of the things that I hear isoh, why you guys don't have
space or why you don't take myinsurance.
And the scary part that peopledon't know is, like clinicians,
we are tied to whatever theinsurance company said.
For example, I have in the pastI used to work for nonprofits
(05:20):
that they pay really low forhourly rate but you get a stable
income, versus if you go toeither private practice or some
other companies, you don't getpaid until like nine, six months
.
The insurance meaning theinsurance pay, and sometimes the
insurance is like we don't wantto pay, we deny the claim, and
(05:40):
this was like six months.
So I had one of my classmatesthat they were in private
practice and they were takinginsurance and a year later
$60,000 were not paid and shehad to declare bankruptcy and
now she doesn't even do therapyanymore because she got burned
(06:01):
out, which, in this industry,one thing that people don't see
is, like a lot of us, we cannotwork or we cannot do our
internships and why not and workat the same time.
So we have rippling studentloans, which it creates, the
loop over and over and overright Also creates burnout for
(06:23):
clinicians.
So if you see a clinician thatneeds a little more love, please
just give them a little bit oflove, because it is hard.
It is hard to be in this kindof industry because you have to,
like, see like nine, 10 clientsa day and, to be honest, that
is not healthy even for theclinician or the client right?
(06:44):
And the other thing is accessto therapy, believe it or not,
therapists, we have to havetherapy because we deal with a
lot of things and you will besurprised how difficult it is to
find a therapist for us.
And you will say but you areright, there, right, it's your
industry and it doesn't.
(07:05):
And then when you think aboutolder women that are like in
their 40s, 50s or you're asenior citizen, forget it.
Finding an appropriate care isimpossible and that's why some
people go with coaches, becausethey're more accessible and less
expensive.
(07:26):
Granted, they don't have thetraining that we have, but it's
almost like sometimes therapyfeels elitist Meaning if you
don't have the money, you don'thave the care, and then the
people that need it the most isthe people that doesn't get it
that have the hardest timeaccessing it.
A hundred percent, a hundredpercent, a hundred percent, and
what has been your experienceworking in this industry about
(07:48):
burnout for therapists?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh my goodness, it's rampant.
Because of these sort of thingsthat you were just speaking on,
I think patients don'tunderstand a lot of times that
mental health care is structuredvery differently than medical
health care and a lot of timespatients think that it works the
(08:15):
same.
It doesn't work the same.
When you go to see a doctor,your doctor schedules 15 minutes
for you.
They can see four patients anhour, so they could see 30, 40,
sometimes more patients a day,depending on how they structure
their schedule.
For therapists that is not thecase.
You get an hour with thattherapist, so if you don't show
(08:38):
up, they can't squeeze someoneelse in.
They can't double book somebodythe way that a medical health
professional might do.
So it's a very different kindof scenario, not to mention the
issues that therapists, clinicalpsychologists, marriage and
family therapists, socialworkers are tackling can
potentially be much more seriousand much less stable.
(09:05):
So you're looking at a patientthat may or may not be in crisis
, may or may not have a safetyplan, may or may not know what
to do next, and you have to sitdown with that patient and take
care of them until they're readyto be done.
You can't just stop because thetime is up.
So a lot of times I thinktherapists take that on.
(09:26):
You know, as you know, it'svery easy to get emotionally
involved with your patients.
We have ways that we limit thatand tools that we use to hold
those boundaries, but you stillcarry it with you and at the end
of the day, if you've had six,seven, eight hard clients,
you're going to go home andyou're going to feel that in
(09:46):
your body and in your mind.
So it's really important fortherapists to have a safe place
where they can go to unload that, to learn coping skills, to
learn ways to maintain thoseboundaries so that they can
prevent burnout.
And I mean especially it's thesame in every industry really
Turn off your phone, set yourboundaries as far as what your
(10:10):
work hours are and don't workoutside those hours.
I think that's a reallyimportant thing for people to
remember your time is your timeRight?
And if it's not the scheduledtime you're supposed to be
working, don't work, don't do it.
Sometimes it's difficult, butyou got to hold that boundary.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
It's super important for your mental health and I'm
glad that you bring that up,because your generation and my
generation we see that verydifferently.
Right, your generation is likewhat do you mean?
You're not going to work afterwork, that you have to.
And in my generation is like inthe middle, and then the new
generation is like peace out,I'm not doing that, right.
But the thing is like, forexample, in the medical
(10:49):
profession, right, like you say,the doctor can see multiples
because they only see it for 15minutes.
They can double book.
If I say I'm going to see youat 9 am, I have to see you at 9
am, not 9.30, 9.15.
Sure, emergency happens becausewe have to take care of the
patient before you, but hardlyever we move it or we let you
(11:10):
know, right.
But the other part that theydon't know is that medical
professionals, they have atranscriber, meaning somebody
that writes the notes for them.
The other one that they don'tknow is that you have to
sometimes depending if you havesomebody that is a specialist
like you, or therapists thatjust go by themselves you have
to call the insurance companiesto see if they're going to take
(11:32):
this thing and if they approvethis treatment, et cetera, et
cetera, and it's hours in thephone that we don't get paid,
and then the hours of doingnotes and your notes are not
like tiny notes at all or liketemplates, because a lot of the
medical professionals they havetemplates.
I'm not criticizing or anything.
They have a very systematickind of I call it puppy meal of
(11:55):
a system that they can go reallyfast, really quick, but you
miss a lot of things like that.
And then as therapists, wespend an hour with our client
and then we have to spendanother 30 minutes doing notes
and finding things for them anddoing worksheets or workbooks or
resources or sending them tohospitals, outpatient, inpatient
(12:18):
.
You know, like there is morebehind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It's a lot like being a teacher.
Like you get paid for the hoursyou're lecturing but you don't
get paid for the hours thatyou're grading, that you're
researching, that you're writinglesson plans.
That's all folded into thathourly rate that you're getting
for that lecture hour.
So it's very similar fortherapists you don't get paid
for the time you're charting,for the time that you're
researching, for the time thatyou're finding tools and
(12:43):
developing treatment plans.
You're only getting paid forthat hour that you're
face-to-face with the patient,that specific encounter.
So I think a lot of people feellike maybe that rate is
inflated or it's not fair andwhy, do you charge so much?
but they don't realize what goesinto that hour.
It's not just that hour, itmight be five hours that go into
(13:05):
that one hour.
So it's really difficult toexplain to people.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Right.
And then the other one that islike the difference between a
counselor MFD, msw versus a PhD,psyd, and then the treatment
plans right.
A CBT versus a traumaspecialist totally different
plans, right.
A CBT versus a traumaspecialist is totally different
and people don't know this.
But we have to get trainingafter we're trained.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Every year we have to make a lot of trainers in order
to keep up with the currentthings and with your licensing
requirements you can't remainlicensed unless you take a
certain number of hours ofcontinuing education Right.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And those hours of continuing education are not
cheap either.
So that's what, when you're ababy therapist like me like I
call it baby therapist we'relike, see the world, like, oh my
God, I'm going to be so happyafter I finish.
Now you have to payexponentially like scary numbers
of tests and ECUs, and why notand I say this not to scare
(14:12):
anybody that's going to thefield, but I feel like a lot of
grad students, a lot of collegestudents, get burned now because
we enter careers that we don'thave the same value that we put
in out.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
We have emotion.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know we have.
I always say we get paid insouls and we get paid in knowing
that we did a good job.
That's it In fulfillment, yeah,in fulfillment, but sometimes
that's not enough, and when youhave a cranky yeah, you can't
pay your rent with fulfillment.
That's for sure.
No.
Especially not in San Diego,Right?
So for everybody that ishearing us international here in
(14:47):
the United States we live inCalifornia and in California we
live in San Diego, one of themost expensive cities in the
United States.
So the average income to makeit here you have to make
$150,000 a year by yourself, byyourself, and that's the low
bracket.
That's not like you're livingthe life, which creates another
(15:08):
problem and depression for theolder generation.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, for sure, Because in your years it was like
$100,000.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's like I'm living the life.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
But you could buy a house with that Right Like full
cash out here.
Give me a house now.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Right now.
I have seen, not only inclients but in friends, and why
not?
Because the discrepancy inunderstanding money right,
because that's the main thingunderstanding money and
inflation.
Oh, absolutely, what has beenyour experience, not only as
your personal experience, butI've seen in the profession and
(15:47):
in other people that they don'thave a clue about how much
things cost One and two.
They keep saying, oh, in mytime, I used to this in my time.
So we live a lot in the pastand then we become very
depressed, and then we becomevery insulated and then we
become just not good.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yes, 100 percent.
You know, I could easily say inmy day I mean back back when I
first moved out of my mother'shome I was renting a one bedroom
apartment for four hundreddollars a month.
I mean in San Diego.
Now you can't get a one-bedroomapartment for $2,400 a month.
(16:28):
So it is surprising to someonelike me, someone who's an older
individual, someone who's beenaround for a while, it is
surprising to find this kind ofinflation when it comes to the
cost of living, when it comes tobuying cars, homes, renting
apartments, buying any kind ofdaily good.
(16:49):
It is extremely surprising andit's really sad to see our kids,
who are now adults, not beingafforded the same kind of
freedoms that we had when wewere kids.
You know they can't afford tomove out on their own.
They can't afford to do thethings that we had when we were
kids.
You know they can't afford tomove out on their own.
They can't afford to do thethings that we did.
And it makes sense when you readin the news that you know fewer
(17:11):
millennials, fewer Gen Zs, arehaving kids.
Well, no wonder they can't evenafford to raise themselves, let
alone raise a child, or affordto have a family.
Well, at least not here inSouthern California.
Maybe it's a little differentin other parts of the country,
but from everything that I'velearned, it's not Because you
have to remember when you livehere in Southern California.
(17:32):
Yes, it's $150,000 to have alivable annual wage, and that
might be lower in other parts ofthe country, but the cost of
living is different as well.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So, you.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You might only need $50,000 to live in Mississippi,
but what's the cost of livingthere?
Is that, proportionally, it'sstill not enough money, right?
Things are still too expensive.
They're gas, food, homes.
So it's creating a nation ofpeople that are living under an
enormous amount of stress on adaily basis because they can't.
(18:08):
They're being told that theyneed to achieve certain things
to be successful, and they are.
It is impossible to achievethose things unless you've been
born with an enormous advantagefinancially.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, and that's the other thing that back in the in
your days being a high schooler,it gave me a good job,
Absolutely.
Now, if you go to college andget your BA, not enough, that is
like less than high school now.
And not only that, the amountof money that you get into,
because people say like, youhave financial aid, you have
(18:40):
student loans.
And for people that doesn'tknow about student loans, I feel
that it's criminal that we give18, 19 year olds 10,000, 20,000
, 50,000, 60,000 dead withouteducating them.
One and two, you know youcannot get a credit card when
you are like that age, so thattells you something.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Do not, do not mistake that for financial
freedom.
It is not financial freedom, itis predatory.
The only one who's getting anykind of freedom is the
institution that's giving youthat money, because they're
earning money on the money thatthey gave you.
So just don't don't mistakethat for financial freedom.
(19:24):
It's really a pair of handcuffsand it's the thing that needs
to be associated with makingthose kinds of decisions is
critical thought.
18 years old, first of all, thatperson's brain isn't even
completely developed.
Second of all, they haven'teven been through college yet,
(19:46):
so they haven't even developedthe idea of how to have critical
thought, of the ways to thinkabout things, to make healthy
decisions.
So it is extremely predatory,extremely predatory.
I'm not talking about federalstudent loans like Stafford
loans, loans that are lowinterest rate, that are just
(20:06):
strictly for school supplies,books, things like that.
I'm talking about these privateloans where you're getting
$35,000, $50,000, $75,000, toquote unquote.
Live on while you're in schoolnot realizing that when you pay
that back, that loan rate is 19%, 20%, 25%, sometimes 30%, and
(20:27):
you're paying back three timesthe amount of money that you
actually borrowed.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, and one thing that I always tell my students
they get shocked is that whenyou get your student loans, the
interest rate is daily, notmonthly like because people
always think, oh, it's monthly,no, and that's why I hear apr
they hear annual percentage rateright, but it's that doesn't
(20:52):
mean that you're only paying itannual, that it's only accruing
annual right.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
It's accruing every single day on the amount that's
owed.
So unless you pay it back rightaway in full, you're paying a
lot of money in interest, a lotof money.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I say this because there is the middle
generation between you and meright that they did this, they
didn't know, and now they're incrippling debt.
They have destroyed theircredit scores and I hate when
people tell them oh, if you workharder, or you shouldn't know
when you went to school thatgetting a liberal arts degree
(21:28):
was not going to give you.
They did everything that theywere told to do by society,
right, and now they are juststruggling.
And that is the ripple effectof how we don't have enough
professionals.
We don't have enough mentalhealth professionals to help
that thousands of thousands ofpeople.
(21:50):
That is hurting.
And then you have professionalslike me that then we live.
Well, I'm still a therapist,but like a lot of my classmates,
they just stop.
They went and did coaching,they went to the
entrepreneurship, one becausethey didn't have so many
restrictions, but two becausethey can help more people,
because they were not sorestricted to things.
(22:10):
Not saying go be a coach,because that is a different
story that you can hear in theother episodes.
But I believe that everybodydeserves to heal, Everybody
deserves a path to healing, butfirst we need to know what we
are healing for.
And the part that people don'ttalk about is the systematic
problem that we have becausethey always blame the person.
(22:32):
They don't see the systemExactly Because they say, oh,
it's the person's fault and I'mlike no, if I didn't have, if
I'm already minus negative 20,how is it going to be my fault?
Exactly the favorite that theylike to say oh, they're playing
the victim.
No, we don't have the sameresources that you do we didn't
(22:55):
start in the same place.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
So you can't call the system fair.
If you started out from aposition of generational wealth,
you have an advantage oversomeone who has started out with
a beginning of generationalpoverty.
There's no doubt about it.
It's not an equal playing fieldhere.
(23:20):
In.
The only way to solve theproblem is to dismantle the
system and rebuild it in a waythat provides advantages to
people who are less advantage,which levels the playing field,
and then we have everybodystarting at the same point and
then we can talk about making itfair for everybody from that
(23:43):
point on.
But as long as we're sayingthat we have a young person here
who's got two parents in prisonand is living with a
grandmother with a drug problem,and then we've got a young
person over here whose parentsare, you know, trust fund babies
and they've never had to work,are, you know, trust fund babies
(24:05):
and they've never had to work,those two people don't have an
equal opportunity, no matterwhat anyone says.
It's glaringly obvious.
And if anyone says it'sdifferent, they're wrong, right.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And the funny thing is that statistics show that
when we are born in poverty, ittakes eight generations to get
out of it.
Eight If you get out of it whenyou are born in wealth, it
takes one to two generations toduplicate it or triple.
(24:35):
So just right there, you have astats right.
And when both Karen and I do,we teach right.
We teach college students.
She teaches in communitycollege, I teach in the
university level and thepressures that everybody has
when they start college,especially community college,
when you have people that iscoming back to college, or they
(24:58):
didn't have the opportunity togo right out of high school
college or they didn't have theopportunity to go right out of
high school.
I have, just in the universities, not that many older students.
I was myself an older studentbecause I immigrated here as an
adult and the system is notcreated for us to study at all.
Like it was so difficult.
I did a lot of tip foreverybody out there.
(25:19):
I did my three years in college, in community college because
one they have different times togo to school.
I will go to night classes andwork like a meal during the day.
I have three jobs.
I will go full time to schooland then I was beat every day
but I did it right.
And then I have some myclassmate when I transferred to
(25:43):
the university.
It was like they were throwingtheir MacBook away because they
were like, oh, it's a year old,I don't want it anymore.
And I'm like, can we donate it,can you?
Can you donate?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
it to me yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So this is not people , because people think like
mental health is only for people.
That quote unquote I'm sorryyou're crazy which that is not a
term or like you're not tryinghard enough, and I use this to
examples because the two want toget better yeah.
Well, you have to know thatyou're not better.
Right For somebody like me thatwe were growing as immigrants
(26:18):
here in like poverty is againstus all the time because we're
starting from scratch.
Remember that we're startingfrom scratch.
Remember that we're startingfrom scratch zero, everything
right, regardless of what youthink.
And then you have somebody elsethat has a lot of things.
We both have the same pressureto succeed, to be this, to be
that right.
And when we entered thecolleges thank goodness now the
(26:39):
new generations don't have somuch that we didn't have Like
741-741 text line to talk tosomebody when you're dealing
with your mental health.
We have care for them and somany things, but still it's not
enough.
Why?
Because as a society, we don'ttalk about the discrepancies
that we have, about the lack ofmonetary literacy that we have
(27:06):
Absolutely so can you talk aboutthat?
The monetary literacy orsociety lack, from your
perspective?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Sure, you know, back when I was growing up, when I
was in high school, a millionbillion years ago, we had a
class called home economics andin home economics you learned
how to start a bank account,balance a checkbook, pay your
bills.
You learned how to quote,unquote, run your home, learn
(27:35):
how to cook, learned how to sew,learn how to do a lot of things
.
We don't.
We don't have that class inschool anymore.
Because of school anymore,because of different kinds of
budget cuts in education, welost that kind of elective class
along with a lot of our artsand music classes, so nobody was
(27:59):
there to pick up the slack whenwe lost that class.
My generation was the firstgeneration that really had two
working parents or maybe camefrom a single family home.
I came from a single familyhome and had a mom who had to
work multiple jobs just to keepa roof over our heads, so she
didn't have a whole lot of timeto dedicate to teaching us about
(28:22):
basic things like that.
You know she was too busytrying to keep us afloat, and
now I think it's getting.
I do think it's getting better.
There are more resources foryoung people to learn those
things, but they do need to knowwhere to find them.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And they do need to know how to access them.
So, once somebody has thatability, there's a lot of great
information out there.
There's a lot of books outthere, there's a lot of courses
online that you can take to helpyou become financially literate
.
But what does someone do who,even though they may be
(29:03):
financially literate, they don'thave the financial resources to
even take advantage of thosethings.
So you know, it's all.
It's all well and good to say,oh, get yourself a high yield
savings account, save, you know,six months of expenses, or.
But when someone is livingpaycheck to paycheck and they
can't even afford to put anymoney into a regular savings
(29:25):
account, they can't afford tohave anything left over, then
where does that person go?
And that's what I think that,as a society, we need to focus
on is what do we do for thosepeople whose barrier to access
is life?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Right In essence.
And how do we treat that Right?
I love the course I teachbecause my course that I teach,
one of my kiddos told me I teachfreshmen.
That's why I call it kiddos.
It's like kindergartner,because everybody comes from
different groups and differentschools and everything Right.
So it's so many differentlevels and belief systems and my
(30:04):
class is about teach you how tolive life, how to love yourself
, how to navigate college andlife.
And they freaked out so muchbecause my class doesn't have
that.
You know I don't.
No, don't worry about the zero,it's okay.
They're like what do you mean?
Don't worry about the zero?
Why do I have a zero?
Blah, blah, blah.
And because they are so used towork for a point, to work for
(30:27):
something, and when they cannotget it they just freak out.
And my class I started with.
So you start with a zero andyou start piling up your points.
Apparently that's not how theydo it in the other classes, so
they were freaking out the firsttwo weeks.
Apparently that's not how theydo it in the other classes, so
they were freaking out the firsttwo weeks.
Oh my gosh Like literallybreakdowns, which I love in the
(30:49):
sense of, like I make all mystudents to grab 741, 741 text,
that way they can have it intheir phone.
The safety phone apps, too, fortheir schools.
Everybody in your school youhave a safety app.
The reason I say this?
Because either if you choose togo to college or you choose to
go just to life, it's very, veryhard the world that we live in
(31:13):
right now.
And the first two months thatyou're out of high school, or
either in college or the work,is what we call the red zone,
when people commit suicide andwhere people also have uh
addiction and etc.
Etc, etc really really high riskright, so we already have
negative in there, right, and Ionly mentioned this because a
(31:36):
lot of people say, oh, our newgeneration is lazy, or new
generation I.
I was like, they were born inanxiety, they were born in the
middle of pandemics, in themiddle of things that people say
, oh well, I was born when theWorld War II was happening, you
know the recession, yeah, but wehave economic freedom, which we
don't have now.
Now think about that when wetalk about seniors or retiring
(32:01):
people.
People cannot retire, peopleAbsolutely.
People cannot retire anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No, I have an 85-year-old mother who just
stopped working.
Right, because Social Securityis not enough.
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yes, people always say, oh, your parents didn't
work.
My mom, she worked really hard,but her Social Security was
like only $900.
What are you going to do withthat?
And then, if, for example, ifyou need memory care or you need
something that is specializedbecause welcome to having
(32:36):
Alzheimer's and any other kindof Any kind of chronic disease
Right, you're one check awayfrom homelessness and then,
absolutely, um, you, you're toowhat you're one check away from
homelessness and then, or ordisability system keeps you
broke because, um, people thatdoesn't know this from outside
of the united states, we pay forour, for our insurance, for our
(32:56):
health insurance, and we payobscene amounts of money for it,
just to go-.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Obscene amounts of money.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Obscene.
Just to give you an example,this called the cheap rate
$1,000 for a single 20, 30something $1,000.
That's the cheapest one.
And then you have Every month,every month, and you make $3,000
a month, and then your haveevery month, every month, and
you make 3000 a month, and thenyour house costs 2000.
(33:26):
And that's why everybody hasroommates here in San Diego,
because you cannot afford it.
You can't even afford a studio,right.
But now think about that as aperson that worked really hard.
And now you want to retire your50, 60, well, here's 65, 67,
and you can't.
And then I have a lot of my.
(33:48):
There's a program in myuniversity that for college
students because you know we'rebroke you get to live with an
older person and both help eachother.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know.
But the downside of that isalso like the autonomy of
somebody that is, in theirsenior years they start losing.
Not the autonomy that we thinkwhen you get older, it's the
autonomy to be free, yes, and beokay.
And that brings me to menopause.
So menopause starts atthree-ish.
(34:23):
Three-ish meaning you arepre-permanent, and why I did
this dip by is because you needto learn first about the
educational system, theoppression system, and then the
medical system to talk about.
Welcome to gaslighting, becauseyou're a woman and you have
things oh my gosh, that's sotrue, right, I mean so true, I
(34:50):
um, I just appalled or how weare treated as women and ignore
like, for example, I haveopiates and I had for years a
horrendous, horrendousendometriosis and and I will go
to the doctor and say this andthis and this and I'm very
anxious, or this and that, and Iwas like you're being
overdramatic.
(35:10):
Or just take a Tylenol andyou're talking about
excruciating pain that was inthe floor crying like for seven
days, like this is not normal,right?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
And depending on this , I'm going to give you a
psychiatric referral.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Right, like I think you are hysterical.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I can't find anything physically wrong with you, so
I'm going to give you a referralto a psychiatrist.
Right, right.
And you're like wait what?
And then we go.
I'm going to give you a sock inthe nose, buddy.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And then we go because we want to feel better,
absolutely and, and, and then wego, and then it happens that
chronic illnesses are not athing here, in the united states
, meaning if you have it, theydon't let you have it.
Um, right, for a lot of peopletrigger warning uh, that went to
the pandemic and have longcovet.
(35:59):
They develop chronic illnesseslike POTS, like vertigo cuckoo
pops that came out of that.
And you go to the doctors andit's not their fault either.
That's what I'm trying to say.
You say why my doctor is suchan right and we're like because
they only have 15 minutes.
And they didn't learn about thisin medical school, so they're
(36:20):
flying blind Right right andwe're not going to enter too
much into, like the terrifyingthing of certain states in our
country that are not teachingabout medical care.
Certain medical care, right.
But as a woman, the first thing, like for endometriosis, you
have to like you know, uh,sometimes you have to just take
(36:41):
all your lady beats out right Inmy Eric's meal to this day the
first thing that the doctorswill ask is like did your
husband know?
Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like like you, have no autonomy as a woman.
That that this mindset stillexists today to me is not only
baffling but infuriating.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Right, and can you tell us about your not your
story, but like your experienceabout navigating menopause,
pre-menopause and or medicalsystem as a person that's
educated, Because the worst Iwas saying, the worst thing that
can happen to somebody is likethat you're so educated that you
(37:24):
understand, like what they'redoing to you and you are like no
.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Excuse me, what Right ?
And after your story I willgive you guys a tip that you're
going to laugh.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But go ahead, Tell us how was your experience you
know it was a real shock for me,because now we all know as
women that menopause will happen, right, we don't know when it's
.
It's a little bit of a medicalmystery.
It happens on its own time andfor some women it can take.
It can be a decades longprocess, for some women it's
(37:59):
overnight.
But without fail, it comes withhormonal shifts, it comes with
physiological shifts, it comeswith a whole host of things that
, even though you might knowabout them, you are not prepared
for them.
I know I wasn't was terrifying,if I'm being honest, I was not.
(38:23):
I literally thought I was goingcrazy.
I was having the worst panicattacks, still having a lot of
trouble sleeping.
The hot flashes, the weightgain, the sort of redistribution
of things in your body it's allreally unexpected, even though
it's expected.
(38:45):
And the fact of the matter isdoctors don't know a lot about
female physiology.
So you know the decades anddecades and decades the century,
if you will, of medicalknowledge that we've garnered
has mostly been about men, drugstudies, any kind of anatomical
(39:07):
studies.
All of it was done on men.
So what young doctors are beingtaught in medical school is
based on male anatomy, malebrain chemistry, male physiology
.
So there's not a lot of doctorsthat know how to deal with this
thing.
There's not a lot of doctorsyet I do believe that's changing
(39:29):
that are prepared to deal withthe repercussions of not only
the female body but the changingfemale body, not just our
anatomy but the brain chemistryand everything that is
associated with that, just ouranatomy but the brain chemistry
and everything that isassociated with that.
So it's confusing, it's scaryand it's kind of infuriating,
(39:52):
because all you're looking foris answers and when you go to
the person that you think issupposed to be the one who has
the answers, and they have noanswers for you.
You really are at a loss and asa person who is educated, who's
been in the field for almost 40years, who is able to advocate
for myself, for me it was almostunreal.
(40:14):
I was like, am I living inbizarro world here?
Like what is happening?
That nobody knows how to helpme with these, these issues and
these problems?
Nobody can advise me, nobodycan tell me what to do next, how
to help this, what, where to go.
So it's, it's reallychallenging.
As an older woman, you know alot of freedoms come with
(40:38):
getting older as a woman in thissociety, but there's a lot of
challenges that are associatedwith it as well.
So that's definitely one ofthem.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Right, and one like having a chronic illness or
having just your menopause andpre-menopause.
My recommendation and this iswhat I was laughing, because I
always come with a binder when Igo to the doctor because I know
they're only going to have 15minutes.
I already know that.
So I'm like let me save yousome time because sometimes
they're very repetitive with thesame test.
I'm like I already did thatlike a year ago.
So I help them, you know, andsay, oh, we're going to do your
(41:11):
thyroid.
Wait, this is my thyroid thing.
This is my most recent thyroidtest and I'm like, oh, I didn't
saw that.
I'm not trying to put them downor anything.
I'm trying to save their timeand save my life, right, exactly
.
So that's one thing that we cando as a society to help each
other to.
This is what I need.
But also, don't go to Googledoctor.
(41:33):
That doesn't help that mucheither.
That just terrifies you more.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
But if you don't self-diagnose, if you are not a
medical student, if you are nota medical doctor, please stay
away from WebMD.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yes, to wrap it up, what is?
Three little nuggets that youcan give somebody that is in
your age group and is trying towant to survive, and the other
one to strive I think a veryimportant thing that women,
especially my age, need toremember is we need community.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
So let's find other women our age.
We grew up in a generation thatwas very kind of pick me, you
(42:37):
know.
We didn't have a community oflike-minded women around us to
lean on, to rely on, for support, to help support, and we need
each other as women.
Only we can understand whatwe're going through, and I think
it's very important to havethat community, to find that
community and to rely on thatcommunity.
(42:59):
We're not built as humans totake all of this on by ourselves
.
We're meant to live communallyat the heart of it.
Our brains have not evolvedpast that yet.
Top thing that you can do tohelp keep yourself sane and
(43:20):
healthy is find a group ofpeople that you can rely on and
that you can talk to on theregular, because being isolated
just makes everything worse.
The second thing I think youcan do is see your doctor every
year, make sure you're stayingon top of your health, do all
the preventative health thingsthat you need to do and catch
things early so that it iseasier to solve those problems
as they come along.
(43:41):
And lastly, I think, utilizingthe things that come along with
new technology.
There's lots of like apps onyour phone, meditation apps,
things that you can use to helpkeep track of your health, and
I'm a data nerd, so I love stufflike that.
Anything that can tell me moreabout myself is like super
(44:02):
exciting for me.
Maybe a little conceited, butthere we go.
But I think that those kinds ofthings especially, you know, as
we grow older, it helps to nothave to leave your house, you
know.
It helps to not have to makeextra special time for that when
we already lead such stressfuland busy lives.
You can just hit that app, youcan lay down in a quiet room,
(44:24):
you can meditate for five or 10minutes and come back with maybe
a little bit of refreshed, alittle bit calmer, a little bit
healthier than you were beforeyou started.
So those are three things thatI would really recommend.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Thank you for that and for everybody that's
listening.
That's why we create our Oasiscommunity a community because we
cannot human alone.
We are mammals and we are notmeant to do human alone.
What do I mean?
The Oasis slogan is be kind, beloud, be proud of you.
(44:58):
Sometimes we can't, so we goand grab somebody that will do
it for us too, and we can gothrough life and after we take a
break and reassess right, Ilove that.
The other part that I love isself-advocacy is a way to save
yourself, but sometimes we don'tknow what to advocate for it,
and that's why podcasts, youtube, you know the Red Square and
(45:24):
other ones are very good, but bemindful that not everything
that you hear is true.
But us in between generations Ithink that's the part that
we're missing the most Talk toeach other because, believe it
or not, all of us, no matter whoyou are, no matter where you
(45:45):
are, no matter what economic orstatus you are, we have
struggled with our mental health.
We have been in that dark placeand some of us make it out,
some of us didn't, and becauseof that, no matter where you are
, community can save you inmultiple things.
So I'm going to put allresources there under the
(46:06):
footnotes.
I'm also going to give you guysand girls and my senior lovings
.
I'm going to give you a freejournaling.
So you're going to learn fivedifferent types of journaling
with that journal.
So just go to the footnotesthat it will be the link there
Super important.
Get it all out.
Yeah, get it all out, and thereis different types right there
(46:29):
is like the one that you draw,so you will learn so many
awesome things.
But finally, I just want to, ifyou notice, we talk, and I talk
to anybody, any age, andprobably we stay more in tune
with what is happening in theworld because we teach, because
we have the youngsters talkingto us Like I learn so much from
(46:50):
my students all the time, 100%100% and the resiliency that
they have right All the time100% 100%, and the resiliency
that they have.
Right and the same with mysenior citizens.
I learned so much of what lifehas to offer and how easy it is
to lose it too.
Oh gosh, yeah, for everybodyout there, please go talk to one
(47:10):
of your senior citizens.
Just go, just go learnsomething.
We are curious humans, so justgo learn something.
Just, we are curious humans, sojust go learn something new
from them.
And for everybody else listen,remember, grab your cup of
coffee, tea or beverage, take awarm sip and let that be your
reminder that connecting to yourbody is the solution for a lot
(47:32):
of your problems.
And I also will post ameditation for you.
That is one of the episodes tohelp you to just send yourself.
Karen, thank you so very muchfor having the time to come to
talk to our audience, and if youare in the community college
that Ms Karen is teaching, youare a lucky one.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thank you so much, doc.
Doc, I appreciate you.
This has been so much fun.
Thank you so much for invitingme of course.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Thank you so much and until next time.
As we conclude today's episode,take a moment to reflect.
Be proud of the journey, forevery step that brings you
closer to who you truly are.
Embrace the kindness towardsyourself as you did to each one
(48:26):
of our guests.
Honor the bravery in youractions and celebrate the
importance of mental wellnesswith us.
And remember it's an exercisethat we practice daily.
Continue to grow and flourish,knowing that we are in this
training for our mental wellnesstogether.
(48:47):
We are so proud to have you aspart of our community, so join
us on Instagram at OasisCommunity Podcast for more
inspiring conversations,valuable resources and supported
content, including journals,worksheets and content in
Spanish.
Exciting things are in thehorizon.
(49:09):
Our Oasis Community break roomsare coming soon to grab tools
and take a break for your mentalhealth are coming soon to grab
tools and take a break for yourmental health.
Also, we are featuring oursix-month training ethical
mental health coaching programdesigned for new and experienced
coaches, as well as holisticand healing professionals.
Enroll to create a safe andtransformative experience to
(49:32):
your clients.
Links in the bio.
Until next time, take care,stay connected and welcome to
our Oasis community.
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