THE ARENA

Brian Viriri is back on the podcast with some amazing insights! Don't miss this conversation. We discuss the pros and cons of contact sports, finding one's identity as an older athlete, and the parallels of rugby and jiu-jitsu.

Make your jiu-jitsu everlasting. Focus on the fundamentals, efficiency, and FUN!

Attaining and retaining are not the same. The longer you roll, the simpler your game becomes!

No one cares about your jiu jitsu training except you.Make it yours!

My guest today is Laina Giselle Mason, who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 16 years of mental health experience. She works from an intersectional feminist lens, pulling from modalities like IFS, Somatic and Polyvagal Theory, DBT, and Cognitive Processing Therapy; not because she likes acronyms, but because she's genuinely curious about finding what actually works for each person. She has a particular venn diagram of clients who identify as survivors of sexual trauma, LGBTQIA+ folks, and people navigating the wild ride of middle age. She currently serves as the Supervisor of Clinical Education and Development with the New York City Psychotherapy Collective. She's also a mom to two incredible boys, which she'll tell you is its own form of advanced training. Laina has been on the mats for over eight years, holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Evolution Grappling Academy under Mike Palladino, and coaches there too. She came to BJJ the way a lot of people come to therapy: looking for something else, and finding far more than she expected. When she's not in the gym or the virtual therapy room, she's outside somewhere, dancing or making art out of dead flowers and bones, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about her.  We discuss the role of jiu-jitsu as part of trauma treatment, red flags , and the overall benefits to practitioners. This is an episode you are going to want to share!! My appreciation for Laina's time and expertise. Thank you for listening, and as always, enjoy the show!

Easy equals hard. Hard equals hard. Choose your hard.

Factors YOU can control: your physical being, your effort, your reponse to adversity, and your mindset!

If you grapple, you are the minority. The struggle is the success!

Putting your children, and yourself, in the right rooms!

Have you ever been stuck? On the mats and in life.