Beyond Well With Sheila Hamilton

Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (2016, Hachette Books) as well as the brand new essay collection The Witches are Coming (2019, Hachette Books). In 2018 she wrote and executive produced Shrill as a half-hour comedy for Hulu, which just wrapped its second season. With frequent collaborators Ahamefule J. Oluo and Charles Mudede, she wrote and executive produced Thin Skin, an independent feature film, currently in post-production, and she and Oluo are writing a script for Shonda Rhimes’s upcoming Netflix anthology series Notes on Love.

We are starting 2020 by taking a look back at a few of our favorite shows from 2019. This show was originally released in November of 2019. It features special guest Israel Nebeker. He is the founder of Blind Pilot and a singer/songwriter whose music now reaches millions of fans. In this episode, Israel talks about confronting one of the darkest periods of his life by wandering into the Black Forest in Germany—with no path to follow and not sure if he would ever find his way out. It was only by confronting his loneliness, his fear, and his belief that he was powerless to change the dynamic that he experienced a significant awakening.  This interview was voted one of our favorites by the Beyond Well Team because of how open, authentic and vulnerable  Israel and his music is. Don’t miss it.

There is a reported increase in the number of people seeing psychologists and psychiatrists for politically based fear, anxiety, and depression. In this episode, Dr. Goff and Dr. LeJeune discuss ways to stay healthy, engaged and positive during times of political stress. One of the hallmarks of politically induced anxiety is hyper-vigilance. Learn how to recognize it, calm your nervous system, and get busy applying your energy to something positive.

We are starting 2020 by taking a look back at a few of our favorite shows from 2019. This show was originally released in June of 2019.  Storm Large: musician, actor, playwright, author, awesome. She shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova, where despite having been eliminated in the week before the finale, Storm built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day. Storm joins us to talk about growing up with a severely mentally disturbed mother and the message she received from her mother's doctor, "Oh yeah, you will absolutely end up like your Mother. It's hereditary." But, this conversation is not about Storm's efforts to outrun a diagnosis, it's an artist's journey back to herself. Storm's autobiographical musical memoir, Crazy Enough, played to packed houses in 2009 during its unprecedented 21-week sold-out run in Portland. She's back for the ten-year reunion stronger, wiser, and larger in spirit than ever before. (Don't miss the after the show co

In October of 2019 we spoke to pop Superstar Lauv. He was on top of the world with the kickoff of his How I’m Feeling Tour, and using his global platform to promote mental health. In every show, Lauv takes a few minutes to describe his descent into depression and severe OCD, and why he credits therapy and medication with allowing him to regain his creativity and confidence.  Lauv has partnered with Microsoft to create a worldwide mental health platform that connects people all over the globe. “No Matter where people are in the world, they can see that someone else is experiencing something really similar.”    Check out MyBlueThoughts.World and our blog of the concert at TheAnthem in D.C.@BeyondWellWithSheilaHamilton.com

This show was originally released in March of 2019. We're thrilled to Re-visit Lidia Yuknavitch. The author of nine books, including The Chronology of Water, The Small Backs of Children, The book of Joan, and the Misfits Manifesto. Lidia's Ted Talk, The Beauty of Being a Misfit has been viewed 2,862,000 times. We think she has something to share about how telling and retelling your story can help re-frame traumatic experience.

Dave Dahl speaks openly about his ongoing management of depression and bipolar disorder and the excruciating climb back from a manic episode that nearly ended his life. Dahl’s entrepreneurial journey began in prison. In 1987, Dave was addicted to drugs and incarcerated for home burglary. Dave returned to his family bakery in the mid 2000’s and quickly developed a marketing juggernaut, Dave’s Killer Bread. In 2015, the Dahl family sold the business for $275 million dollars. In this interview, Dave talks with Sheila about the crucial necessity of management of his mental health symptoms.

We are starting 2020 by taking a look back at a few of our favorite shows from 2019. This show was originally released in March of 2019. It features special guest Cheryl Strayed. The message of Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Trail has helped millions of people process grief in a new and profound way. In this episode of Beyond Well, Sheila Hamilton and Dr's Brian Goff and Jenna LeJeune talk about the potential of bouncing forward after loss, and of grieving from a place of honesty and self-compassion.

Mike Schmidt is running for Multnomah county district attorney with one of the most multi-dimensional views toward the criminalization of the mentally ill we’ve ever heard. Mike’s experience as an inner city school teacher informs his sense of justice and rehabilitation.

Dr. Brian Goff and Dr. Jenna LeJeune debate the nature of #self-care and whether the notion of self care has a negative impact on  people’s lives because it singles out your “self” from all the other selves you love (people, pets, work partners, etc.)  Jenna argues to  be sure to include you always in the group of people you are caring well for, using the skills of LovingKindness Meditation, Brian is more  open to the notion of #selfcare as it can help people who might otherwise have restricted or denied themselves love and compassion a gateway to care.

Do “Trigger warnings” and “Safe Spaces” really keep us safe? Dr Jenna LeJeune and Dr. Brian Goff discuss the dangerous trend toward identifying feelings as painful and thoughts as dangerous and harmful.  But what are meant to be “safe-spaces” turn into echo chambers, shutting down any diversity of perspective or thought. New research suggests that trigger warnings may actually result in increased anxiety and Increased stigmatizing beliefs. 

C. Lamar Frizzell, CEO of Cedar Hills Hospital, has worked in the field of behavioral healthcare for over 20 years. Most recently, Frizzell held a similar role at Willow Creek Behavioral Health located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Frizzell brings practical experience as a line-staff member and is educated in the fields of both Mental Health and Divinity In this interview, Sheila talks with Frizzell about the enormous pressure facing psychiatric hospitals because of an explosion of people in crisis. There are never enough beds, care is complicated, and psychiatric doctors and nurses are in short supply. Frizzell’s personal history growing up in a home where mental health problems were abundant informs his compassion and empathy for people in crisis.

What makes a meaningful life? How Can we all live lives of purpose, focusing on who and what matters most to us regardless of whatever difficulties we are facing? These are the questions at the heart of Beyond Well cohost Jenna LeJeune, Ph.D. and her partner Jason Luoma, Ph.D.'s new book Values in Therapy" A Clinician's Guide to Helping Clients Explore Values, Increase Psychological Flexibility, and Live a More Meaningful Life. In this very personal episode of Beyond Well, Jenna and Jason offer some of their ideas on what it means to live a value based life and how doing so can bring a sense of meaning, purpose, and vitality to our everyday lives.

Nastashia Minto is an author, poet, and spoken word artist with the Soul of a Southern Pastor. In this interview, Nastashia talks about finding faith while abandoning her religion and delivers two of her stunning spoken word performances.

This is one of the most relevant conversations you’ll hear if you hunker down from late November until the New Year. The holiday blues are often a barometer of the stories we tell ourselves about what we should have, and compare those narratives to stories about what others seem to have. We invite you to a discussion on what some view as the hardest time of the year.

Cassidy Quinn is one of the most beloved Northwest news and entertainment personalities. As host of a tv news program, Tonight with Cassidy, a radio show and a popular Youtube channel, Cassidy barely has time to sleep. In this episode, Cassidy talks about what it took to finally admit that she was suffering from depression and anxiety, and how she lives well despite her diagnosis.

Israel Nebeker is the founder of Blind Pilot and a singer/songwriter whose music now reaches millions of fans. In this episode, Israel talks about confronting one of the darkest periods of his life by wandering into the Black Forest in Germany—with no path to follow and not sure if he would ever find his way out. It was only by confronting his loneliness, his fear, and his belief that he was powerless to change the dynamic that he experienced a significant awakening.    This interview was voted one of our favorites by the Beyond Well Team because of how open, authentic and vulnerable  Israel and his music is. Don’t miss it.

As an actor on the hit series American Vandal and someone who is constantly in the public eye, Kiah Stern has no plan B. She’s working plan A with an intensity and focus rarely talked about when people dream of becoming a star. We talk with Kiah about how best to deal with a barrage of “feedback,” solicited or not. From her body to her hair to her various film and tv roles, Kiah (who played Jenna Hawthorne in Season Two of American Vandal) has developed specific techniques for how to deal with solicited and unsolicited feedback. In this episode, Kiah explains her love/hate relationship with social media, how she incorporates audition like techniques in her everyday life, and when she says no to external feedback.

People are increasingly unsure about kids, and the US and European fertility rate is at an all time low. According to Pew Research, 1 in 5 people will remain childless. This week, the Beyond Well Team talk about the growing number of people who are intentionally childless. If you are attempting to decide whether to have children, this episode is for you. As a farm girl raised in eastern Oregon, Jackie ShannonHollis expected to become another someday. But, after several failed relationships, Jackie met the love of her life, a man who did not want children. In direct and intimate language, Hollis talks about her consideration of what to keep and what to abandon to make space for love. Her debut memoir, This Particular Happiness is receiving critical acclaim for its honesty, its poetry, and one woman’s ability to tell the truth about our most intimate desires.

Ron Artis II is growing into a newly accessible and emotionally acute period of his life. His new album, Love is Love, is a departure from the funk and soul fans are accustomed to from his wildly popular band, Ron Artis II and the Truth, but its stunning lyrics and melodic sound reveal a growth Ron himself says he nearly missed, “From the age of thirteen to eighteen, while I was concentrating on becoming the best guitar player I could be, I thought emotions were something to be dispensed with, a distraction. I didn’t realize how much potential for creativity I was missing.”