A flagship moment on this theme
"I want to instill pride within our community to be prideful of the heritage that they come from. If you're from Hawaii, there is a lot of intergenerational trauma associated with our language, with practicing our culture."
This is Ka'ehu's mission stated plainly and in direct sequence — pride as the goal, intergenerational trauma as the obstacle. It cuts right to what makes this organization different from a conservation nonprofit.
Where this is a central topic
10 episodes
Community Health, Local Solutions with Malcolm Furgol
Malcolm's work defines the episode: local health improvement coalitions collect community health data, identify root causes of health disparities, and organize multi-sector work groups to advocate for systemic change.
Reconnecting with Hawaiian Heritage | Lohelani Furtardo-Gaspar of Ka`ehu
Ka'ehu's entire programming evolution was driven by direct community requests — after-school programs, family activities, post-fire recovery days — all on free, publicly accessible county-owned land.
High School Innovators Making a Difference | The Glenelg High School Robotics Club
The entire episode centers on a student program delivering free adaptive equipment directly to people with disabilities through community events, presentations, and direct distribution across Maryland.
Healing Together as a Family | Julia Dunn of Olivia's House: A Grief and Loss Center for Children
Olivia's House is built entirely on community peer support: families heal together in groups, a volunteer companion network extends a three-person staff, and the community the organization has served funds it in return.
Grief Counseling in a Natural Setting | Kaili Van Waveren of ThorpeWood
ThorpeWood operates through a three-pronged community model — nonprofit partnerships, direct programming, school collaborations — serving unaccompanied minors, children of incarcerated parents, and students with chronic absenteeism.
Nurturing Plants for Therapeutic Benefits | Aaron Vander Meer and Antoinette Vasseur of ClearView Communities
Plants with Purpose donates plants monthly to local nonprofits and businesses chosen by the residents themselves, creating community integration pathways that also open doors to volunteering and employment.
Supporting Grieving Kids Through Play and Connection | Brie Overton of Experience Camps
The camp model works through community infrastructure: outreach through hospice and school programs, returner campers becoming counselors, year-round meetups, virtual campfires, and a private Minecraft server that extends the community to kids who can't attend in person.
The Power Of Partnerships In Creating A Safer Community | Katie Cashman of Change the Conversation
The episode's spine is Katie's philosophy that small organizations reach more people through co-presenting partnerships and community coalitions than any one organization can alone, illustrated with a state's attorney and child advocacy center partnership on cyber safety.
A Creative Approach to Grief Support | Jamie Eaton of Living Through Loss
Living Through Loss operates entirely outside the clinical session: community group tiers, retreats, art exhibits, equine therapy, and a planned wind phone installation, all framed as community-scale healing infrastructure.
From Personal Passion to Community Impact | Talon and Travis Holleman of R.O.O.T.S
ROOTS is built explicitly around community need surveys, and every expansion — summer camp, library programming, care farming — came from the community asking for it rather than the founders pushing an internal agenda.
Where this comes up substantially
8 episodes
Real Change
The Real Change Initiative — a local consumer education campaign expanding into advocacy and professional unification — is the concrete example the episode centers, showing what grassroots organizing looks like when clinicians decide to act.
Wrapping Up 2024 and What's Next for the Podcast
Rachel highlights guests working in architecture for wellness and trauma-aware youth programming like Roots in Delaware as examples of mental wellness innovation happening at the community level, outside the clinical frame.
Nonprofit Efforts for Teen Mental Health | Chea Weltchek of Teens with Trauma
The nonprofit operates through community referral channels including CPS, school counselors, and other nonprofits, reflecting a community-infrastructure model for reaching teens outside the private-pay system.
Healing the Body, Healing the Mind | Samantha Rodriguez and Stephanie Dunker of ATI Physical Therapy
ATI's Frederick clinic emphasizes serving the local community regardless of insurance type or injury, and the conversation surfaces direct-access PT as something most patients and many clinicians do not know is available.
Connecting Black and Brown Individuals with Therapists Who Understand | Crysta Harris of the Black Brown Delaware Therapists Directory (BBDT)
The directory functions as a geographically targeted community resource with goals to expand into Sussex County, with perinatal partnerships and scholarship support alongside the provider listing.
Expanding EMDR Therapy To A Group Setting | Regina Morrow Robinson of The Book, EMDR Group Therapy
Concrete deployment examples include elementary and high schools, children's hospitals, university settings, first responder teams, and disaster response in Ukraine and with Syrian refugees.
Welcome To The Mental Health Entrepreneur with Rachel Harrison
The SheWeek event and Rachel's conversations with government, nonprofit, and hospital leaders in her community are what prompted the show, positioning entrepreneurship as a community-scale response to local mental health need.
The Intersection of Purpose, Success, and Mental Health | Dr. Ajita Robinson of The Book, The Gift of Grief
Dr. Robinson describes consulting work with university counseling systems and workplace wellness programs as a model for trauma-informed community-scale service delivery.
Mentions
6 episodes
Mentions
6 episodes
Empowering Neurodivergent Voices | Crystal Bowen of Delta Learning Solutions
Crystal frames Delta Learning Solutions as a collective rather than a traditional business, with members sharing resources and working in ways that honor their neurodivergence — a model she explicitly contrasts with isolation and individual bootstrapping.
Transforming Stress Into Art | Emily Twynham and Samira Butt of Mediate and Create
The online Facebook group is described as a genuine weekly community where people across continents share progress and build relationships, pointing to group-based creative wellness as a meaningful access model.
Nature as Our Co-Therapist | Gina Strauss of Center for Nature Informed Therapy
Gina briefly describes leading nature informed groups at a Baltimore City homeless shelter with women recovering from addiction, showing the modality's reach beyond private practice settings.
Proactively Addressing Mental Health | Rachael Bevilacqua of Sanare Today
Rachael imagines community-based alternatives to the diagnosis-driven model, including spaces people could join for connection and support without a clinical indication, as a post-discharge continuity structure.
The Shift Towards Patient-Centered Healthcare | Anders Vege of the "What Matters to You?" Movement
The WMtY question has been adopted in prisons, youth mental health services, and school settings, briefly mentioned as evidence of the framework's reach beyond clinical care.
Trauma-Informed Design for Safer Schools | Kerri Brady of Huckabee
School buildings are framed as community assets that serve taxpayers, families, and community members beyond just enrolled students.
Looking to go deeper in your own work?
These TSTI trainings build on conversations from the episodes above.