Behavioral Health Today

The combination of music and nature can be a transformative one and a powerful tool to increase immersion and promote mindfulness in one’s life. In this episode, Dr. Erin Elmore speaks with Joshua Sam Miller. Joshua is a multi-disciplinary artist, environmentalist, and conscious entrepreneur on a mission to connect people to the natural world through immersive art. Recently, he has been an advocate for the importance of ocean conservation through Sounds of the Ocean, an immersive mindful...

We recognize that the stigma around mental health is preventing people from getting help. About 33% of all college students experience significant symptoms of depression, anxiety other mental health conditions, but only about 30% seek help. Talking about specifically college athletes, we know that only about 10% seek help. Despite this, data shows that up to 35% of these elite athletes suffer from some mental health crisis. With a program like Kicking the Stigma, a platform for vulnerable...

Oftentimes we’ll come at the licensing exam like we did other exams during our academic career, but the ASWB Social Work Licensing Exam is a whole other beast. We encourage taking the exam content and applying a learning process, that’s based on research, that’s going to enhance the encoding, retention, and recall of this material. If we can approach the Social Work Licensing Exam with a plan, and enhance what we can do, but let’s do it strategically. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor...

Nobody has a reference for parenting teens. For many, this is the first time doing this, so what are the right answers? Let alone what are the right answers for what you’re comfortable with. If you as a parent are doing the best you can, with the best intentions then you’re parenting fine. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Michael Klinkner. Michael is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 22 years of experience helping children, adolescents, and adults in therapy. Michael...

The best leaders are those individuals who can connect a mission and values with the way forward and what's happening right now. And so, connecting patient stories with what you're doing and where you're wanting to go. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Dr. Richard Winters. Richard is a practicing emergency physician and an executive coach at Mayo Clinic. He is also the director of Leadership Development for the Mayo Clinical Care Network, where he facilitates retreats and...

Every year, tens of thousands of teenagers struggle with thoughts of depression, deep sadness, isolation, suicide, stress, and feelings of helplessness. And sadly, too often the parents of these teens are the last to learn about this and sometimes too late to take action. In this episode, Dr. Graham speaks with Elliot Kallen. Elliot brings 25 years of leadership and management experience from the business sector to his role at A Brighter Day, a non-profit charity that helps spread awareness...

This episode resumes our conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guest Robin Glenn. In our last episode we identified the common mental health challenges of teens and adolescents and the benefits of Social and Emotional Learning being brought into this season of their lives. We discussed their SEL online training program, that assigns meaningful courses for students to take on their own with the goal of both teaching content but gaining insight into the student’s introspection through...

In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Robin Glenn. Robin is the CEO and co-founder of Based Education, an online mental health program that uses the social emotional learning model to help children and teens. Robin has over 20 years of experience as a licensed professional counselor working with at risk teens and has held several roles including school-based therapy specialist, private practice therapists for adolescents, treatment coordinator for intensive in and outpatient teens...

Students with neurological or executive functioning issues are told they can't do things on their own, they need help, and there's so much going on that's a problem. Russell Coaching is working to flip that on its head and build faith and self-esteem in their students. Encouraging everyone to find the solution instead of always focusing on the problem. In this episode, Dr. Erin Elmore speaks with Dr. Norrine Russell. Dr. Russell is the founder of Russell Coaching for Students, which uses an...

This episode resumes our conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guest Brian Lowery. In our last episode, we discussed an understanding of privilege by looking at the advantages and benefits associated with a specific identity and looking at these identities on the same level to recognize the advantages that come with your circumstances. We discussed we engage with privilege and how it can activate our defense mechanisms., and finally we discussed the psychological responses to privilege...

In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Brian Lowery. Brian is a professor of Organizational Behavior and a Social Psychologist by training at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brian is driving an initiative to shape enlightened and purposeful leaders for a diverse society. Brian’s research examines the operation of racial attitudes below the threshold of consciousness and the perception of inequality. He has been published in major scholarly journals such as the Journal of...

Ideally, when we're struggling, we get to stop and pause and ask ourselves, or be asked by someone, what if it could look differently? And when people ask those questions of themselves, Envision: You is right there, ready for them to come into, and to be walked through, some of these things in a way that can be very therapeutic and healing. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Steven Haden, MSW. Steven is the CEO and Co-Founder to Envision: You, a non-profit that works to improve...

This episode resumes this Clinicians’ Series conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guest Emily Varon, BCBA. In our last episode, we discussed the assessment process, finding symptoms, and beginning steps to create a new sleep routine. This involves an inventory on how the child falls asleep and paying attention to the changes in their sleep environment. We also see how Emily addresses and understands the goals of therapy and how to reach an endpoint. We'll resume our talk today by...

Today’s episode is part of our clinicians’ series, where we take you behind the therapist’s door to give you an insight into what happens within the therapeutic relationship. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Emily Varon, BCBA. Emily is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst with a dedicated focus on sleep-related behaviors. She has over 22 years of experience and devoted her practice to improving the sleep habits of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder since 2010....

We, as mental health professionals, come into our field with the best intentions and the best ethics and standards for practice. But no matter how professional our practice may be, an accident or misunderstanding can happen. And whether we’re at fault or not, we can find ourselves in the center of a malpractice claim and responsible for large legal and settlement fees. The best practice against harmful allegations, financially damaging lawsuits, and high legal fees is to have the appropriate...

This episode resumes the conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guest Moses Farrow, LMFT. In our last episode, we discussed the unique perspective and identity of adopted people, the importance of raising awareness around the adoptive process and some of the challenges around it, the need for safe spaces and the importance of trauma-informed perspective when addressing the adopted community, and finally, we discussed the experience of disenfranchised grief around the loss of life before...

About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. About 59% of those are from the child welfare or foster care system. 26% are from other countries and about 15% are voluntarily surrendered American babies. While a number of adoptions do go well, there are common, though often unrecognized and unaddressed issues within the adoption process and within the developmental stages, post adoption that deserves some attention. Trauma can in fact be evident in every part of the...

There’s a need and a demand for ABA services with increased funding beginning to occur. The Behavior Analysis field has some great momentum but as the field grows, and large private equity firms enter this space, there is a concern of degradation of the treatment provided and the quality of services. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Karen Chung, Karen has 12 years of experience as a Certified Behavioral Analyst and is the CEO and founder of Special Learning, Inc., an education...

Most shame-based messages are I am _____, and then we fill in the blank with whatever it may be. Most of our shame is unconscious. We have compensatory behaviors develop typically from an early age that set a course in our lives that everything we do is unconsciously driven by trying to avoid that feeling of I am (shame-based message) and to keep others from discovering this about us. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Ragan Schriver, PsyD, MSW. Ragan is an Associate Professor of...

This episode resumes the conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guests Dr. Jeanne Stanley and Dr. Theo Burnes. In our last episode, we discussed the best practices of the graduate school application process and guidance on where to start, we listed off some questions to ask yourself to help create a list of needs and wats as you look at graduate programs, and we discussed the importance of knowing when graduate school is the right time for you. We’ll resume our talk today by discussing...