{"id":662,"date":"2019-05-22T17:38:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T21:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reach.lndo.site\/supporting-the-supporters\/"},"modified":"2023-05-22T17:41:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T21:41:45","slug":"supporting-the-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reachma.org\/blog\/supporting-the-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting the Supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>May is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mentalhealthamerica.net\/may\">Mental\nHealth Month<\/a>, which has been observed since 1949. Mental Health Month helps\nto raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to stop the negative\nstigma that is often associated with it. Our mental health is so important\nbecause it affects every aspect of our lives, including how we think, act, and\nfeel. In honor of Mental Health Month, we interviewed REACH\u2019s Clinical\nSupervisor, Erica, to learn more about her role at REACH and the intersection\nbetween mental health and domestic violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Can you start off by\ntelling us a little bit about your role at REACH and your background?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My position at REACH is as a clinical supervisor.&nbsp; I provide clinical supervision for our\nadvocates and our child and adolescent therapist.&nbsp; I also consult with both our community and\nresidential teams to ensure that we are providing the most trauma informed\nservices possible.&nbsp; It is an incredible\nprivilege to support such committed and talented staff.&nbsp; In addition to providing clinical supervision\nat REACH, I have a therapy practice in Waltham.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why is clinical\nsupervision so important for the staff at REACH?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clinical supervision encompasses helping staff better understand\ntrauma and its impact so that they can do their best work with survivors, and\nsupporting staff in understanding and coping with their own traumatic\nexposure.&nbsp; There is no way to do this\nwork without an emotional impact.&nbsp; Our\nstaff routinely hear about terrible acts of violence and injustice.&nbsp; My goal in my work with the staff is to\nprovide space for them to develop and strengthen the ability to hold the trauma\nthat they are exposed to and to still see the beauty and strength in their\nwork.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Could you speak on\nthe intersection between mental health and domestic violence?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are multiple ways in which mental health and domestic\nviolence intersect.&nbsp; First, being abused\nor being exposed to abuse is traumatic.&nbsp;\nTrauma creates extraordinary impact on one\u2019s mental health.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Every aspect of one\u2019s life can be impacted\nby trauma (sleep, appetite, physical health, learning and general\nfunctioning).&nbsp; It is essential that\nmental health providers understand domestic violence and the impact of trauma\nand that survivors receive information about trauma.&nbsp; Many abusers will use a survivor\u2019s mental\nhealth difficulties against them, despite the reality that many mental health\ndifficulties are directly related to the abuse.&nbsp;\nSurvivors are often told that they are crazy and unstable by their\nabusive partners.&nbsp; This can prevent\nsurvivors from getting mental health care that can help them heal.&nbsp; Abuse is about power and control and abusers\nfrequently exploit any vulnerability in their partner.&nbsp; If their partner has struggled with their\nmental health, this can become a focus of the abuse.&nbsp; For instance, an abuser may prevent a\nsurvivor from getting mental health treatment, may throw away their medications\nused to treat depression, or may attempt to interfere with their treatment\n(calling their therapist and reporting unstable behavior in the guise of a\ncaring partner).&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>With May being Mental\nHealth Month, do you have any tips for how folks can practice self-care, both\nat work and in their free time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-care can mean so many different things to people.\u00a0 We live in a trauma saturated world and we all need to care for ourselves so that we can care for each other.\u00a0 I would encourage people to create practices in their daily lives that remind them of the good in themselves and in our world.\u00a0 While those practices can look different for everyone, a place to begin can be to think of self-care as nourishment of your five senses.\u00a0 What sounds are nourishing for you?\u00a0 What can you look at or visualize that calms you? What tastes comforting and nourishing to you? What smells create a sense of peace for you? What touch feels safe to you?\u00a0 Once you begin to have some ideas, you can incorporate this self-care into your daily life.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking care of our own mental health is essential to overall health and well-being. For more information, materials, and tools that can assist advocates, human service providers, community organizers, policy makers, and others to address the impact of trauma on individuals, organizations and systems, check out this <a href=\"https:\/\/healingtrauma.janedoe.org\/what-is-the-isj\/\">website<\/a> created by Jane Doe, Inc. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May is Mental Health Month, which has been observed since 1949. Mental Health Month helps to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to stop the negative stigma that is often associated with it. Our mental health is so important because it affects every aspect of our lives, including how we think, act, and feel. In honor of Mental Health Month, we interviewed REACH\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supporting the Supporters - REACH<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reachma.org\/blog\/supporting-the-supporters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supporting the Supporters - REACH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May is Mental Health Month, which has been observed since 1949. 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