Your mental health matters

We all go through situations in life that may leave us distraught or feeling lost. It’s what we do after the fact that can have the most profound impact on us. God puts obstacles in our way to bring out the best in our minds, bodies, and spirit. In these trials that God has endured, you have to remember that you may not have what it takes to go alone. Trauma affects us at our very core and if left untreated you can lose who you are and everyone around you.

Today #ERICALYNNFAM I host a round table with three powerful women within the community that each bring a unique perspective on mental health. They bring stories of adversity, they bring knowledge on healing, and they bring stability. We have an in-depth discussion on mental health from multiple angles and share our perspectives on living life with a healthy mind and overcoming trauma

What You Will Learn From This Episode:

1. #ERICALYNNFAM We welcome Our First guest wrongfully imprisoned for a crime she had no involvement in for 9 years. Stephanie Shepard uses her past to help others. ([03:11])

2. Our next guest Dr. Corlanne Criffith-Hunte PSY.D. She is a Human Industrial Trauma Psychologist and the Founder and Chairwoman of Created for Greatness Leadership Group, Inc. as well as being an esteemed Professor at the College of New Rochelle.([05:11])

3. Stephanie shares her story and sheds light on the wrongful injustices commonly happening in the criminal justice system. ([06:13])

4. Stephanie endured 9 years of imprisonment and during that time lost her Father. This loss behind bars dramatically affected the rest of her life. ([09:50])

5. Dr. Criffith-Hunte. Shares her relationship model and how it relates to trauma. ([12:12])

6. Stephanie talks about her mental rehabilitation and the steps she has taken and continues to take to transform her life. ([24:27])

7. Our third guest Shawanna Vaughan is the Founder of Silent Cry Inc. a New York-based non-profit organization that takes a holistic approach to aftercare from mass incarceration, gun violence, and trauma. She brings a plethora of knowledge with her having been incarcerated herself and using that experience to transform the lives of those behind bars and re-entering the world outside. ([23:15])

8. Shawanna shares her harrowing journey of entering the prison system at 17 years of age. ([28:30])

9. Stephanie and Shawanna both utilized writing behind bars as a way to keep hold of their inner self. ([30:25])

10. Dr. Corlanne discusses how complex the trauma Stephanie and Shawanna experienced is and how we as a community have to take ownership of our institutionalized individuals in order to heal them. ([32:32])

11. Stephanie Discusses The Last Prisoner Project. This program gave Stephanie the platform to tell her story and the means to find her purpose in life. ([44:26])

12. Shawanna shares how she is actively working on justice reform. She is getting laws in place to ensure people placed in prison have access to adequate mental health services. ([47:26])

13. A member of the #ERICALYNNFAM shares his story of being wrongfully incarcerated and his continuous journey of healing and self-growth. ([1:02:58])

14. Erica Lynn’s final thought. ([1:11:52])