Being Beautiful

Hey Humans! I believe I say more than enough in the intro to this one and so this will be brief. All I want to say is, I love you, I see you, You Are VALID!!! Their laws can't define us and we will never be erased because we are Human!!!! Anyone who would take the freedom of thought and expression away from any other living creature is inhuman.

Hey humans! It's official. Welcome to Season 2 of Being Human! In this our second episode of the season, we get to revisit the human experience explored in season 1 episode, Being Beautiful. On that episode we heard from my amazing hair artist Lisa Anderson about the concept and the commercialism of beauty. Today we hear from her amazing Bebe Birds! Three fantastic humans who are also badass hair artists. Enjoy!

Hey Humans! This episode is for all you humans out there who have either birthed, adopted or had to be the full time caregiver to a human bebe at any point in the first, let's say, 0-3 years of their life. Parenting is hard! It is made even harder by Daddy Capitalism, of course, but also by the terrible idea white supremist came up with called, the Nuclear family. My ancestors said, why have a whole community of big humans and small humans working together to support each other when you can have just one dude and one lady care for 2.5 kiddos and a dog/cat?! Face palm emoji here. I invited my friend, neighbor and fellow social worker, Jessie Gutierrez, on to talk all things bringing humans into this world. Jessie is a LIMPH and specializes in perinatal mental health. Jessie and I both identify as humans who birthed humans who like to use the term, mom or mama, for ourselves. Therefore, we do navigate this conversation using the labels we identify with, but want to make sure anyone who listens knows, this label isn't for everyone who birthed a human or adopted or care gives for one. So when you hear the word, mom, mother, mama, in this episode, know we are including anyone who can share these experiences. Milk Workshttps://milkworks.orgPostpartum Support International (PSI) is a wonderful resource for maternal mental health.  PSI has a Nebraska chapter that can help link moms and families with perinatal providers.  https://psichapters.com/ne/ PSI also has many free online support groups. . https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/ Division of Labor The documentary I mentioned is FairPlay by Eve Rodsky. (Also she has a book and podcast). It was streaming on Hulu but here is a link for info. https://www.fairplaylife.com/documentary

Hey Humans, this is another super special episode with another super special guest. Being adopted gave me this special gift of being able to naturally and intuitively understand that humans can connect in deep and personal ways. Some call this family, some love and I now would call it community. I speak to every human in my life about building a community of care. To me, this means, understanding that all relationships for which I am involved with another human should involve some aspect of care in order to help cultivate community bonds. These are built when we take care in simple interactions such as being pleasant to the cashier at the store or trying to breath through our stress when stuck in traffic or learning to zipper merge, but having patience for those who haven't. This also means going on vibes when it comes to services you value. Plenty of humans have the skills, you should get things like; medical/dental/any health care, hair stylists, food, emotional support and cultivate joy with humans whom you trust and value. Like I always say, you gotta like your therapist or it isn't gonna work no matter how "qualified" they are. Cultivating a community of care takes a different kind of process than most of us have been taught through our capitalistic colonial systems. I am grateful for my adoption history, my loving family biological and chosen and the many amazing women and men of color and LGBTQ's in my life who have shown me in so many ways what care means, what community means and how important it is to our sense of security in this wild ass world.

Hey Humans! We are back with another one. This episode is special in a lot of ways, but to find out you have to listen. Enjoy another deep talk with a surprise guest on the theme of the ever so annoying debate of whether it is our nature or our nurture that matters most.....and we solved it folks, the answer is NURTURE!!!!! It is always how we nurture our nature that is the most important thing we can do for ourselves and others. 

Hey Humans! This is a great episode with yet another great friend. Humans need community, but in our modern society that can be easier said than done. An amazing member of my chosen family, Noelle Obermeyer and I discuss a very special moment we shared recently that led her to understand the importance of her allyship to the LGBTQ community and area's for growth she has recognized. We discuss the ever so boring theme of politics, but as always, we make it very entertaining with lots of deep thought trains, F bombs and laughs. This is a special one to me. I hope you enjoy and feel the love in it. 

Hey Humans! Welcome back to another episode of the pod. Today's guest is the incomparable Laura Kinney-Dover of the Laura Kinney Therapy Collective and Life Span Counseling. Laura and I worked together in the beginning of our careers in mental health. Today we talk about how we have evolved as practitioners, learn about Laura's main modality Brain Spotting. Humans get lost our minds and then store those feelings in our bodies. Brain Spotting is a therapy modality that helps us get out of our heads and figure out what to do with those sensations in our bodies. As always a fun talk with lots of laughs and cursing. Enjoy!  https://www.laurakinneytherapy.com/ https://www.lifespancounselingne.com/

Hey Humans! Welcome to another episode of the pod. My guests this time are two major professional and personal life mentors of mine. The one and only Barb Harris of Creighton School of Social Work fame and Kara Cavel, therapist and educator at large. I was blessed to cross paths with these humans at 2 very pivotal moments in my life. The guidance and teaching they gave me during these times would be significant catalysts that projected my journey in this human experience in all the right directions. We shit on capitalism, but also discuss the need to recognize how we benefit in it. Then we talk about Boundaries! What are they? How do we set them? Better question, how do we enforce them? All this and many, many laughs. Enjoy. 

Hello Humans, welcome back for another episode of Being Human. Today we talk to an amazing human and my friend/hair stylist Lisa Anderson. Lisa and I have known each other for a decade and shared many a deep talks in and out of her salon chair. She joins me to talk about the concept of Beauty, its different evolutions, how capitalism has created a billion dollar industry around convincing us what is wrong with our appearance while simultaneously selling us their "solutions" and how truly messed up that is. As usual there is a lot of laughter in between some deep diving on the human experience. Enjoy!

Hello Humans, On this episode I talk to Monica, a blast from the past. Monica and I grew up going to jr high and high school together. We lived what seemed like very different lives with very different takeaways from that shared upbringing. However, in the advent of social media we went on these journey's separate but always with windows to witness each other from afar. It was in this window of social media we would occasionally connect over various life stuff. Which is why I knew I had to get her on the pod for a deep talk. The theme of this episode is being survivors of religious trauma and exploring how we each experienced this and what has brought us healing.