Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio and The Black Effect. Hi. Everyone, it's
Speaker 1: Michelle Williams. I love my podcast because I don't limit
Speaker 1: what we talk about to just one topic. Whether it's
Speaker 1: a fashion icon or a major gospel artists, there's a
Speaker 1: lot to share and we can learn from those different journeys.
Speaker 1: On today's podcast, I'm gonna get deep about life and
Speaker 1: I want to be real and I get to talk
Speaker 1: about depression, anxiety and trauma with someone very near and
Speaker 1: dear to me and my amazing guests. She's going to
Speaker 1: help you recognize warning signs to look out for in
Speaker 1: others and in yourself right now on Checking In with
Speaker 1: Michelle Williams. You guys, I'm so excited about this episode
Speaker 1: of Checking In with Michelle Williams. Of course, you guys
Speaker 1: know it is a theme close to me, something that
Speaker 1: I walked through, something that I experienced. But we have
Speaker 1: a special guest. She is my dear cousin, my first cousin.
Speaker 1: My mother and her dad are brother and sister, and
Speaker 1: Brittany was there for me. She flew out to l
Speaker 1: A when I was in the hospital in July. Then
Speaker 1: in December eighteen, when I had another unfortunate breakdown and
Speaker 1: experienced the loss of my engagement, Brittany was there for me.
Speaker 1: She was there for me a moment that I don't
Speaker 1: even recall. I don't even remember how I even got
Speaker 1: the strength to get on a plane from New York
Speaker 1: back here to Atlanta, where I've been since December. And
Speaker 1: it's beak because of her, and because of her getting
Speaker 1: me the best care um that I've actually decided to
Speaker 1: stay because right now I'm way, way further along in
Speaker 1: my healing journey. But I don't think it's wise for
Speaker 1: me to just uproot and leave the city of Atlanta.
Speaker 1: My therapist is here, I've got some great faith foundations here,
Speaker 1: and I've got family here. And so Brittany really helped
Speaker 1: save my life. She's a licensed professional counselor, a National
Speaker 1: Certified Counselor, and a certified Trauma Practitioner. She has profound
Speaker 1: experience and working with individuals who have experienced trauma, post
Speaker 1: traumatic stress disorder as we know it to be as PTSD, anxiety, depression,
Speaker 1: grief loss, self esteem issues, and life transition. So you, guys,
Speaker 1: I want you to give my guest my cousin, my
Speaker 1: sister cousin. I want you guys to welcome Brittaney Phillips.
Speaker 1: Well from Brittany. Hey, I'm so excited to be here. Oh,
Speaker 1: we are finally excited to have you here. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to stay professional because we are related, and I don't
Speaker 1: want you to feel like because you're my cousin, we're
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna treat you like I treat other guests,
Speaker 1: but we have relationship. I try to keep my episodes conversational,
Speaker 1: so you guys excuse us for am on it if
Speaker 1: we have some relational banter. Brittany, you have been a
Speaker 1: part of my journey. Um, some of the scariest parts
Speaker 1: of my journey. But before we get to that, let
Speaker 1: us know why you decided to become a therapist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of a personal story. I think most
Speaker 1: therapists have a personal story of how they got into
Speaker 1: the field. And so for me, I was introduced to
Speaker 1: therapy about twelve years ago, maybe eleven years ago. I've
Speaker 1: been married eleven years, and so me and my husband
Speaker 1: got married and the first year marriage was a little
Speaker 1: rough for us, and so we experienced some different things
Speaker 1: that you know, caused me some anxiety and depression, and
Speaker 1: you know, he had his own um life experiences that
Speaker 1: he had and caused him some of those same feelings.
Speaker 1: And so we got into therapy about six to nine
Speaker 1: months into our marriage, and it was a life changing experience.
Speaker 1: Never in my life did I know that, you know,
Speaker 1: going through that therapy experience, I realized that I probably
Speaker 1: dealt with anxiety and depression as a teenager as a
Speaker 1: child and didn't have the language for what it was
Speaker 1: back then. And so just doing that personal therapy with
Speaker 1: us individually and together as a couple was so life changing.
Speaker 1: After one session, I was like, man, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to do this for other people. I want
Speaker 1: to be able to give them this opportunity, especially in
Speaker 1: our community we don't like therapy wasn't a thing. So
Speaker 1: I said, man, I want to become a therapist, to
Speaker 1: have somebody that looks like myself and be be able
Speaker 1: to be that for somebody that my therapist was for me.
Speaker 1: I've heard this story before, but it is amazing how
Speaker 1: you can go into a situation because you need help,
Speaker 1: but then it transforms your life in such a way
Speaker 1: that you're like, hey, I want the same thing to
Speaker 1: be around for people that I know, people that I love, Brittany,
Speaker 1: isn't it right where we feel like we want all
Speaker 1: our family members and friends to go to therapy. Everything
Speaker 1: can me saying it? I know they do because I'm like,
Speaker 1: they tell me a story, you need, you need therapy,
Speaker 1: You need to go talk to somebody about that. I
Speaker 1: just think, um that it's it's so needed. And because
Speaker 1: you have personal experience, I think your compassion is at
Speaker 1: a whole another level the way you can have empathy
Speaker 1: for people because you've gone through it. You walked through it,
Speaker 1: but you still let us know that you still are
Speaker 1: in therapy even though you're a therapist. Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: have a therapist. I me and my husband still go
Speaker 1: to therapy, and you know, we'll talk about what that
Speaker 1: looks like. But I say, therapy is not just for crisis.
Speaker 1: I think everybody should be in therapy just because it's
Speaker 1: part of like our wellness practice, Like you get up
Speaker 1: and brush your teeth or go get your teeth clean,
Speaker 1: or check up at the doctor. You should go have
Speaker 1: that mental health check up. You guys heard it from her,
Speaker 1: and I told you that I would tell you guys
Speaker 1: how Brittany had been a part of my life still
Speaker 1: is a part of my life when things were very
Speaker 1: scary for me. Brittany has been hands on literally there.
Speaker 1: She has been there even at times that I didn't
Speaker 1: know she was there, things that I don't even have
Speaker 1: recollection of. And maybe we'll go into a deeper discussion
Speaker 1: about how you can be so dark or deep into
Speaker 1: depression or I don't know, Britty, what do you think
Speaker 1: I was going through at that time when I didn't
Speaker 1: even recall certain things that you were doing? What was
Speaker 1: going on with me? Yeah, you were in a really
Speaker 1: dark state of depression, like clinical depression where you had
Speaker 1: moments of memory loss and blocking out, and those are
Speaker 1: symptoms of depression that we can talk about. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you have those. It's of you know, not really being
Speaker 1: coherent and being in the present moment. Listen, we always
Speaker 1: need somebody in our life. Where I don't think I
Speaker 1: was even in a place to fake it. But you know,
Speaker 1: Brittany never judged me. She was just they're offering her presence,
Speaker 1: even if it wasn't so many words as it is presence,
Speaker 1: and so I feel like we always need somebody around um.
Speaker 1: Even though she's a therapist. I think she was able
Speaker 1: to step back and not say much because at the
Speaker 1: same time I had to go through this process, I
Speaker 1: had to go through what I needed to go through,
Speaker 1: and just to have her presence and then her and
Speaker 1: her husband literally opening up their home to me where
Speaker 1: I was recovering, I got some of the best care.
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm still here in Atlanta. I didn't
Speaker 1: think I'd ever moved to Atlanta or be here, but um,
Speaker 1: she brought my tale to Atlanta and would not let
Speaker 1: me leave and I have been here ever since. Britty,
Speaker 1: you were mentioning how we are scared to talk about it,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna say it. We gotta destigmatize therapy
Speaker 1: in the black community. Why do you think we're scared
Speaker 1: of therapy. I think that's something that's been passed down
Speaker 1: just from generation to generation for us, and I think
Speaker 1: it has I guess, like a historical context to it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when we think about therapy and
Speaker 1: psychology and we look at it historically, it's that field
Speaker 1: has been dominated by white males, right, and it's still
Speaker 1: pretty much is dominated by by white I should say,
Speaker 1: white people. And so when we think about historically, like
Speaker 1: what we experienced in our relationship with white people, it's
Speaker 1: been that of tension, and we have some hurt and
Speaker 1: some trauma that we've experienced from it. And so I
Speaker 1: think that the messages that have kind of been passed
Speaker 1: down from generation to generation. You you hear people say like,
Speaker 1: don't go telling them all your business, don't go to
Speaker 1: school running your mouth, don't go tell them what happens
Speaker 1: in this house. I think our parents were protecting us
Speaker 1: more so, keeping us from seeking help. They wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that we didn't say something that would get
Speaker 1: them in trouble or get us taken away, or have
Speaker 1: um other people meddling in their business, because historically, when
Speaker 1: white people got involved in our families, it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: And so I think a lot of that trauma, historical trauma,
Speaker 1: is still within our community, y'all. If y'all could see me,
Speaker 1: I wish y'all could see. I'm holding my head because
Speaker 1: I didn't think about that, Brittany, I did not think
Speaker 1: about that. Wow. So that's of the foundational reason of
Speaker 1: why we are scared to go. So that is why
Speaker 1: it is so important that black people, brown people, we
Speaker 1: have to talk about times when we do go to therapy,
Speaker 1: and I think it's so good that we see more
Speaker 1: people like you, Brittany sitting on that other side of
Speaker 1: the seat. Um, this is not a word, but therapizing us. Yes.
Speaker 1: And I will say also, clients call me and I
Speaker 1: think it's important to have somebody that looks like you
Speaker 1: to understand your experiences. But I also say it's not imperative. UM.
Speaker 1: My therapist as a white woman, and I think she
Speaker 1: totally gets it. She's very culturally competent and aware. She's
Speaker 1: an ally and um for our community. And so some
Speaker 1: people will call me and say I only want a
Speaker 1: black therapist, And I say, you know, I understand that
Speaker 1: maybe some history lends you to that, but do you
Speaker 1: want a good therapist, because I can suggest some good
Speaker 1: therapist for you. They may not be black, but they're
Speaker 1: going to be quality therapist. So being for people just
Speaker 1: to be open to I was talking to another friend
Speaker 1: of mine. He's a black man, right, and I was
Speaker 1: telling him about my therapist. My therapist is not black,
Speaker 1: So I was like, I felt like I have to
Speaker 1: give that disclaimer because there are some people who say
Speaker 1: I want somebody that looks like me, I want to
Speaker 1: feel like I'm talking to my mom, or I want
Speaker 1: to feel like I'm talking to a father type figure,
Speaker 1: so I want them to look like me. Um. So
Speaker 1: I totally can get why, but don't let that be
Speaker 1: a disqualification of why you won't talk to a certain therapist.
Speaker 1: But for some people that is a deal breaker. So
Speaker 1: I'm praying that you can find what it is that
Speaker 1: you are looking for, who you're looking for, and how
Speaker 1: you want that person to look. Can you break down
Speaker 1: for us what happens in therapy. I know what happens
Speaker 1: in therapy, but I'm not on program tonight. As they
Speaker 1: say at church, what happens Brittany, break down what happens
Speaker 1: in therapy. I mean it could look so different for
Speaker 1: different therapists and their styles, but I think overall when
Speaker 1: we think about therapy and what it looks like for me,
Speaker 1: it's just creating a safe space for my clients to
Speaker 1: come in and feel comfortable, so they can get vulnerable
Speaker 1: and share some of the stories, share the things that
Speaker 1: they've experienced. When in therapy, you're going to process your thoughts,
Speaker 1: your feelings, your emotions, your actions. Um, you may look
Speaker 1: back at your childhood and find some of those experiences
Speaker 1: and look at your family of origin and see what
Speaker 1: messages were passed down to you from the is that
Speaker 1: were in charge of taking care of you. You're gonna
Speaker 1: look at how does those experience impact your today, how
Speaker 1: do they impact your future? And then looking at like,
Speaker 1: what do you want your future to look like? And
Speaker 1: so how do we create our today and align our
Speaker 1: values and our actions to line up so we can
Speaker 1: create the future that we want to see. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so much that happens in therapy and it's fun,
Speaker 1: it's fun, it's work. There are days you're gonna leave
Speaker 1: that you're gonna wish, you're gonna hate your therapists and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be mad that you're doing it. And the
Speaker 1: days you're gonna leave and you're gonna feel like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I can conquer the world. So it's just
Speaker 1: an experience that you have to try for yourself. The
Speaker 1: reason why I asked you about can you break down
Speaker 1: what happens in therapy because I feel like some people
Speaker 1: feel like you're gonna walk into a dark, spooky room
Speaker 1: and they're gonna lay you down on your back and
Speaker 1: they're gonna hypnotize you and put you under some deep
Speaker 1: spooky spell and then you're gonna cry and scream and
Speaker 1: all the and the boogeyman is gonna come and get
Speaker 1: you for talking about your problems. I'm just telling you
Speaker 1: I probably have exaggerating, but I really feel like people
Speaker 1: feel like I'm not going in that room. M M,
Speaker 1: I'm not. No, no, no no, I'm telling you. Brittany said,
Speaker 1: their job and duty is to create a safe place,
Speaker 1: you know, and so whatever that's safe place looks like
Speaker 1: for you, if you tell them, hey, that flower that
Speaker 1: you have kind of triggers me, maybe they'll move the
Speaker 1: flower when you come into that specific session. Like she said,
Speaker 1: their job is to create a safe place. So what
Speaker 1: are the physical and emotional signs that people should be
Speaker 1: aware of that probably is an indicator that they need help. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: I think that it can span a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: So if we're looking at like physical signs, and I
Speaker 1: think it's good that you said physical because a lot
Speaker 1: of times we don't think about how our physical symptoms
Speaker 1: can relate to emotional issues that are happening. So if
Speaker 1: we're looking at things like, say you're a person that
Speaker 1: has um, just have maybe an increased heart rate, you sweat,
Speaker 1: you feel jittery all the time. Those can be indicators
Speaker 1: that you're dealing with some anxiety. So it's not my
Speaker 1: coffee intake every day, or it could it might be
Speaker 1: you like coffee, so love coffee. Sure, it may be
Speaker 1: the caffee, but it also maybe just some anxiety that
Speaker 1: you're experiencing. If you have heart palpitations, muscle soreness, tightness
Speaker 1: in your chest, trouble sleeping, like things that we kind
Speaker 1: of just say, oh, I just had a long day,
Speaker 1: And if you're always saying, oh I have had a
Speaker 1: long day and you have been trouble sleeping, that could
Speaker 1: be an indicator that you're experiencing some anxiety. With depression,
Speaker 1: we're looking more at like low mood, changes in your appetite,
Speaker 1: feeling agitated, difficulty concentrating, staying on task, decrease interest in
Speaker 1: the things that you used to enjoy. Like if you
Speaker 1: used to do a certain sport or hobby and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you just stopped doing it and with
Speaker 1: no explanation, there may be some indicators that you may
Speaker 1: be experiencing some depression. Wow, so you definitely already answered
Speaker 1: the questions I was gonna ask, like what is depression?
Speaker 1: What is anxiety? So you've already covered that. What is trauma? Oh?
Speaker 1: I love this. I love talking about trauma. People probably
Speaker 1: think I'm weird, but trauma is Sometimes when we think
Speaker 1: about trauma, we u immediately get a checklist of things
Speaker 1: in our head. We think about physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect,
Speaker 1: domestic violence, and those things are traumatic experience. Is there
Speaker 1: a traumatic event? But trauma, the way I to find
Speaker 1: it is just any experience that overwhelms your ability to cope.
Speaker 1: So that can be anything that can be a divorce,
Speaker 1: a separation, a bad breakup, that could be relocating to
Speaker 1: a new city. Any experience that overwhelms your ability to
Speaker 1: cope with what's happening is considered trauma. And so some
Speaker 1: of those symptoms that we just already mentioned about depression
Speaker 1: and anxiety can overlap and be those same symptoms of trauma.
Speaker 1: When we experience like traumatic event, sometimes we can have
Speaker 1: a going recurrent nightmares or flashbacks the images of what happened,
Speaker 1: like if you were in a bad car accident, seeing
Speaker 1: those images over and over again, or having body sensations.
Speaker 1: Those are all signs of trauma, those intrusive thoughts that
Speaker 1: kind of come up, and the hyper vigilance kind of
Speaker 1: like feeling like you're on edge, always looking over your shoulder,
Speaker 1: worried about what's next. It's paranoia one of them. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: always kind of being worried about the next bad thing
Speaker 1: to happen. And then also there's something called dissociation, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of just feeling like you're not attached to
Speaker 1: your body, like you're not inside of yourself, almost like
Speaker 1: you're watching your life on a movie screen, like you're
Speaker 1: not really inside of what's going on. I remember we
Speaker 1: were in New York and you mentioned like not even
Speaker 1: knowing sometimes when I was present, you may have been
Speaker 1: experiencing some dissociation, like you were just not attached to
Speaker 1: what was happening in the present moment. I mean, because
Speaker 1: there was one time, y'all know, my my first love
Speaker 1: of music is hospel music, anything faith based, inspirational or
Speaker 1: praise and worship. And you said, you don't remember when
Speaker 1: I was playing praise and worship music or when I
Speaker 1: was praying, and I was like no, And you would think,
Speaker 1: because I love it so much that that should have
Speaker 1: penetrated or it should eve even lifted me up or
Speaker 1: lifted my mood, but it couldn't because I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that that's what you were doing. That's how out
Speaker 1: of it I was. For people that want to know
Speaker 1: what's probably happening with them or love doing. I definitely
Speaker 1: go into detail about December eighteen in my new book
Speaker 1: Checking In, which comes out. I already told you guys,
Speaker 1: I was gonna be a little sillier because my cousin
Speaker 1: is on here right now. So we have broken down
Speaker 1: what depression is, what anxiety is, and what trauma is,
Speaker 1: and one of the ways that a therapist will Now
Speaker 1: you have to be specialized in this technique, Britty, you
Speaker 1: tell me if I'm telling it right. E M d
Speaker 1: R is I a movement desensitization and reprocessing. It is
Speaker 1: therapy designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain
Speaker 1: and other distressing life experiences, including ps D, anxiety, depression,
Speaker 1: and panic disorders. Do you want to add take away
Speaker 1: what is your practical layman's think about E M d R. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you can get real clinical and
Speaker 1: real technical, but I'll just try to make it simple.
Speaker 1: E M d R is just the way of therapy
Speaker 1: of helping people reprocess what happened. When a trauma happens,
Speaker 1: When something happens that overwhelms our ability to cope, what
Speaker 1: can happen is um those images, those sites, those sounds
Speaker 1: can get stuck, like in our brain, it can get
Speaker 1: stuck in our body. We go into what's I'm sure
Speaker 1: people have heard of, uh the stress response called fight
Speaker 1: fighter freeze. Okay, so everybody, I need you to kind
Speaker 1: of examine what do you do in a moment of
Speaker 1: terror uncertainty? Do you fight? Flight? Meaning flight is running
Speaker 1: right ye? Getting away? Okay, I'm a runner. I like
Speaker 1: to get away or freeze where you just kind of
Speaker 1: just you're you're just stuck. You feel like you can't
Speaker 1: do anything. Yeah. And so when we experience something that's traumatics,
Speaker 1: a lot of times we get stuck in some of that.
Speaker 1: We can get those images and sights and sounds can
Speaker 1: get stuck in our head, get stuck on our body.
Speaker 1: The sensations can happen. So even after the event has occurred,
Speaker 1: something that triggers us can bring back all those body sensations,
Speaker 1: those images to us. So what E M d R does.
Speaker 1: It helps our brain reprocess that event, so we no
Speaker 1: longer have those strong reactions to it. And it's a
Speaker 1: way of therapy where you don't have to retell the
Speaker 1: story of what happened. Your brain is doing the processing.
Speaker 1: We do it through bilateral stimulation, which can either be
Speaker 1: done through i've movement, through tapping, things like that. But
Speaker 1: you don't have to go back and tell all the
Speaker 1: gory details of what happened. You can just tell your
Speaker 1: therapist like, this is the worst part. This is the
Speaker 1: image that keeps coming up for me. On a scale
Speaker 1: of zero to ten, how distressing is that to you?
Speaker 1: It's about an eight. I think about it a lot. Okay,
Speaker 1: what feelings come up for you? Fear and anxiety and terror? Okay,
Speaker 1: where do you feel that in your body? I feel
Speaker 1: it in my chest. I feel it in my stomach.
Speaker 1: And what negative beliefs do you have about yourself? I
Speaker 1: just feel like it was my fault. I would have
Speaker 1: did something different. It was my fault. What would you
Speaker 1: prefer to believe about yourself? Your therapist may ask, well,
Speaker 1: I would prefer to believe that I did the best
Speaker 1: that I could. All right, let's work on that and
Speaker 1: then we do some dr amazing, amazing. So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I have done E M d R and we were
Speaker 1: processing some things. And I'll just tell you about two
Speaker 1: of those times because I reacted in different ways to
Speaker 1: those E M d R sessions. So the first E
Speaker 1: M d R session I had, when I was walking
Speaker 1: out that therapy session, Brittany, I felt like I could fly.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, I believe to lie
Speaker 1: this whole time, and blah blah blah. I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: it was a lie, right, So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Okay, we're gonna do the next session.
Speaker 1: So we did the next time, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I shouldn't have done this. So I just
Speaker 1: want to encourage people that therapy will do that. E
Speaker 1: M d R is a type of technique, correct, Brittany.
Speaker 1: So so just know that every therapy session that you
Speaker 1: go to, guys, I'm gonna talk to you guys, just
Speaker 1: as somebody who goes to therapy. I have a standing
Speaker 1: appointment on Mondays at noon. Matter I've just scheduled, but
Speaker 1: I have one from literally Monday at noon. So I
Speaker 1: just want people to know, like every session you're not
Speaker 1: gonna walk out of there feeling like you're on top
Speaker 1: of the world. Sometimes you might walk out and say, man,
Speaker 1: I hate I shared that because it it made me
Speaker 1: sad all over again. But be honest with your therapists
Speaker 1: and say, yo, this made me sad again. It is
Speaker 1: the process of the highs and lows, the healing journey. Brittany.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't always feel good. When you scrape
Speaker 1: your knee or break your thumb or whatever you might do.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hurt before it gets better, right, And you know,
Speaker 1: and even you still might have a reminder of that wound,
Speaker 1: But when that wound is healed, it doesn't hurt anymore.
Speaker 1: So that's the whole thing. When people say forgive and forget, No,
Speaker 1: I might not forget because I can still see the
Speaker 1: physical residue of that wound, you know. So I just
Speaker 1: wanted to encourage people that therapy and techniques like a
Speaker 1: m d R. It's not gonna always be peaches and cream,
Speaker 1: but it is going to be worth it. So if
Speaker 1: you can just kind of plow through even the times
Speaker 1: where you go to therapy and you feel sad afterwards,
Speaker 1: plow through it, right, because it's I think it's a
Speaker 1: part of strengthening you. So I think I want to
Speaker 1: now transition into when the seasons change. Before the pandemic,
Speaker 1: even when the seas and has changed, we still went outside,
Speaker 1: We still did what we wanted to do. But now
Speaker 1: because we're on quarantine and even certain cities and states
Speaker 1: are back on lockdown, I want to talk about seasonal
Speaker 1: effective disorder. Can you share with us your take on
Speaker 1: S A D S A D D or just s
Speaker 1: A D S A D. Yeah, it's a sub type
Speaker 1: of depression and it's also kind of known as just
Speaker 1: the winter blues. You may have heard of that, And
Speaker 1: this happens more so often during the winter months, so
Speaker 1: like fall to winter, so like maybe November through February,
Speaker 1: that time when that daylight savings kicks in and we
Speaker 1: lose that hour of sunlight that can affect our serotonin levels.
Speaker 1: And serotonin is that mood regulator, so that gives us
Speaker 1: that boost of that billing good hormone that we have,
Speaker 1: that serotonin, and so lower serotonin levels are linked to depression.
Speaker 1: And then also another hormone we have is melotonin. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you guys are familiar with, like melot ton in
Speaker 1: like the tablets and the gummies to help you sleep.
Speaker 1: They familiar with gummies? All right, name melotonin. What kind
Speaker 1: of audience we got over here? Wait, might some folks
Speaker 1: that know about them? Edibles? Checking in? Checking in is
Speaker 1: turned up. We have a diverse crowd of folks that listen.
Speaker 1: So I love the way you said that, a diverse crowd.
Speaker 1: So melatonin, Uh, that's that sleep related hormone that's producing
Speaker 1: the brain and it increases in the dark. So the
Speaker 1: fact that it's darker, longer, and the days are shorter,
Speaker 1: we have an increase of melatonin that's being produced. So
Speaker 1: if you're a person that kind of are naturally leans
Speaker 1: towards depression or has struggles with depression, this is not
Speaker 1: medical advice. I'm just giving Britney's opinion. This is not
Speaker 1: the therapist. I might want to stay away from melotonin
Speaker 1: because my body's already producing it during these winter months,
Speaker 1: and so that might actually cause me to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more depressed by taking that melitonein. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's just kind of a seasonal thing and usually
Speaker 1: it goes away when the season over. It's over. Once
Speaker 1: we get more sunlight, get more daylight. And there are
Speaker 1: things I'm sure you're probably already gonna ask, but there
Speaker 1: are things that we can do to help ourselves and
Speaker 1: to kind of remedy that seasonal effective disorder. Well, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, as Brittany said, she is not giving medical
Speaker 1: advice because I am going to ask. So what are
Speaker 1: some of the things that she does. I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you some of the things that I do. But
Speaker 1: please talk to your physician, your psychiatrists, or your personal
Speaker 1: therapist before you run on and and do some of
Speaker 1: this stuff. We just want to tell you what works
Speaker 1: for us. So what are your remedies, what do you
Speaker 1: do during this time, or what do you do to
Speaker 1: combat depression, anxiety or past trauma. Yeah, so for me,
Speaker 1: I think movement is a big thing. So like whether
Speaker 1: that's exercise or yoga or dance, Like it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a structured activity, Like you can have a
Speaker 1: dance party by yourself at home, like put on some
Speaker 1: Destiny's Child or some Michelle Williams, right, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: go for it. Um. So movement um really produces our cortisol,
Speaker 1: and cortisol is that stress hormone. So movement is good
Speaker 1: for a seasonal effective depression disorder. I would get in
Speaker 1: the sun as much as I can doing light therapy.
Speaker 1: You can google light therapy and find out some ways
Speaker 1: to increase your light nutritional therapy as a as a
Speaker 1: good remedy for that seasonal effective disorder, because sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just a hormonal and balance, even for depression or anxiety
Speaker 1: and maybe a hormonal and balance. So you know what
Speaker 1: I found out. I talked to UM. We have a
Speaker 1: friend UM named Meg Linkston and she's a nutrition functional
Speaker 1: nutritional practitioner. I'm gonna bring her on. We gotta, we
Speaker 1: gotta have a conversation with her too. She's so dope.
Speaker 1: But she told me, and I didn't know this. So
Speaker 1: I thought seratonin was produced in our brain, right because
Speaker 1: it's a neural transmitter. She told me that nine of
Speaker 1: our serotonin is produced in our gut. WHOA, So the
Speaker 1: things that we eat, the things that we consume, can
Speaker 1: contribute to our mental state, to our depression, to our anxiety.
Speaker 1: So she was like, you gotta get on a good probiotic.
Speaker 1: You gotta do this. I was like, I hadn't. I
Speaker 1: knew there was a brain gut connection, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know it was that strong when she told me of
Speaker 1: serotonin was in your gut. You guys, that is going
Speaker 1: to be a whole other podcast episode about our gut
Speaker 1: health being linked to our brain health or our mental health.
Speaker 1: We can eat our way back to better mental health.
Speaker 1: The first time I got to Atlanta, you took me
Speaker 1: to yoga. And at first of all, y'all, I can't
Speaker 1: believe we went to yoga because honey, Brittany likes to
Speaker 1: cut a rug in church. Okay, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: and I've been to yoga, but how many of us
Speaker 1: because of your faith, right, those of who were raised
Speaker 1: in the Christian Church, you might have been taught yoga
Speaker 1: is not good and that is a total lie. Yoga
Speaker 1: helps with flexibility, with breathing, It helps to decrease anxiety.
Speaker 1: There are so many beneficial things for yoga. You also
Speaker 1: took me to a sound bath. Talk about it. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about because we worked about some of the remedies
Speaker 1: or some of the things that we could be doing
Speaker 1: to help us combat seasonal effective disorder or even any
Speaker 1: other mental health issue. Yeah. So, uh, a sound bath.
Speaker 1: We went to a couple of them. A friend named
Speaker 1: Danielle who's who was in Atlanta. So I think her
Speaker 1: company is called sound Embrace, but it's these big like
Speaker 1: court spoils. I believe it's courts and she makes sounds
Speaker 1: and vibrations that literally like wash over your body, like
Speaker 1: you're in a kind of like a yoga studio. You're
Speaker 1: laying down, the lights are low, and literally the vibrations
Speaker 1: help kind of change not just your energy, but what's
Speaker 1: happening on the inside, and it's start relaxing. Michelle fell
Speaker 1: asleep and all of them. I don't know if she
Speaker 1: really got the innefits of it. Well, that is a
Speaker 1: benefit good sleep. My listen, it was at night, my
Speaker 1: melotone and levels had increased, so that's what made me
Speaker 1: go to sleep. Listen, but it does sound beautiful. She
Speaker 1: is right. I even went to a sound bath in
Speaker 1: Chicago and I did fall asleep. I think is because
Speaker 1: the frequencies of the sound. I don't know, maybe my
Speaker 1: body needed it. But you guys, this is a fun podcast,
Speaker 1: but I hope it's been informative because sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: my podcast the foundation is mental health, but I don't
Speaker 1: want it to be so heavy for people. So we're
Speaker 1: trying to find ways to make it practical, because we
Speaker 1: are human, we still like to laugh. You can have
Speaker 1: depression and still function and still have some joy. You
Speaker 1: can be have anxiety, but we're gonna find joy in
Speaker 1: this now. Also, you, guys, my cousin Brittany, like I said,
Speaker 1: she is a licensed therapist. But every now and then,
Speaker 1: if you go to her page, every now and then,
Speaker 1: she'll go on her Instagram live and she'll do some meditation. Now,
Speaker 1: is it best that we do this visually? Or can
Speaker 1: you guide us through a thirty second it or to
Speaker 1: one minute meditation right now? You want to do one
Speaker 1: right now? I mean, what do you think? Can you?
Speaker 1: Can you say okay, absolutely, okay, cool, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go all right, So if you're driving, keep your
Speaker 1: eyes openly say alert while you're listening to this. Come
Speaker 1: back and listen to this portion later. Okay. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna invite you to kind of sit back
Speaker 1: and your see get comfortable. Everybody in production, y'all better
Speaker 1: be doing this too. I see you come on and
Speaker 1: close your eyes if that feels comfortable. If not, you
Speaker 1: can just take a low gaze at the floor and
Speaker 1: we're just gonna take a moment to focus on our breath.
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna do is do a slow inhale
Speaker 1: through our nose, expanding our diaphragm with air hold at
Speaker 1: the top, and really sat through your mouth. When you're ready, Nice,
Speaker 1: let's do that one more time, breathing slowly through your nose,
Speaker 1: expanding your diaphragm and release that through your mouth, pushing
Speaker 1: out all the air every bit, and just continue to
Speaker 1: do deep breathing on your own. And I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: a quick body scan for us so much you guys,
Speaker 1: just to bring your attention to the top of your
Speaker 1: head and just kind of notice what sensations, what you feel.
Speaker 1: And we're just gonna not judge ourselves. We're not going
Speaker 1: to try to change anything, but we're just going to
Speaker 1: be an observer, continuing to take those deep breaths, traveling
Speaker 1: down through your neck and your shoulders, noticing if there's
Speaker 1: any tension or tightness, maybe bringing your shoulders up towards
Speaker 1: your ears on that inhale, and then on your exhale,
Speaker 1: dropping your shoulders back down. Nice, travel down through our
Speaker 1: chests and our torso just kind of observing and noticing
Speaker 1: what we since any tightness, any openness, maybe there's some hunger,
Speaker 1: maybe some warmth or cool just notice whatever sensations come up,
Speaker 1: continuing to take those inhales and exhales, traveling down through
Speaker 1: our hips and our legs, thighs, traveling down through our
Speaker 1: knees and our shins and our calves, all the way
Speaker 1: down through our ankles and our feet, the tops of
Speaker 1: our feet, the soles of our feet, and our toes,
Speaker 1: noticing what we sent so without judgment, and together, let's
Speaker 1: take one final inhale through our nose and push out
Speaker 1: everything that doesn't serve you. And you're ready. You could
Speaker 1: open your eyes and how was that experience for you? Guys?
Speaker 1: It was amazing. I need I did notice that I'm hungry. Um,
Speaker 1: but that's okay. But when you said to think what
Speaker 1: you're feeling, but think about it without judgment. So if
Speaker 1: you felt like you're anxious about something, or you're worried
Speaker 1: about something, or you actually don't know how you feel,
Speaker 1: that's okay too. So we have to be aware of
Speaker 1: what we're feeling, and it's okay to feel it. Why
Speaker 1: would you judge yourself? Don't judge yourself. You're you know,
Speaker 1: the safest person should be you with yourself, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So, Brittany, you are such an amazing therapist,
Speaker 1: an awesome person, and awesome god fearing woman, one of
Speaker 1: the best cousins that I am blessed to have. She
Speaker 1: is a literal angel, and I don't know if she
Speaker 1: really knows that about herself. And um, I think you're
Speaker 1: phenomenal and we can't wait to have you back again
Speaker 1: as my in. I don't want to say as my guest,
Speaker 1: um as my sister. So we're so excited that you
Speaker 1: joined with us. Everybody, if you can clap, tap, torque,
Speaker 1: whatever you can do for my amazing cousin. And she's
Speaker 1: a brilliant therapist. Well, Brittany, now I forgot to ask you.
Speaker 1: Are you allowed to see family members? Allowed? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some theists that may do it. It's unethical,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would not treat a family member because
Speaker 1: that's a dual relationship, Like, Okay, I can't be your
Speaker 1: therapist and your cousin, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: think I tried when we talked earlier. I've tried very
Speaker 1: strongly to kind of stay in that cousin role and
Speaker 1: not kind of go over into that therapist role because
Speaker 1: I don't want to be your therapist. You want to
Speaker 1: be my cousin. And I can imagine that it's probably
Speaker 1: hard for you to turn Is it hard for you
Speaker 1: to shut that therapist off? Are you always assessing people? Yeah? Always,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like she said, you know,
Speaker 1: she is my cousin, and there are moments where we'll
Speaker 1: talk about personal things. But I hope she knows you
Speaker 1: know that there are times I've had to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I want you as my sister cousin. Do not feel
Speaker 1: like I'm coming to you as a therapist because I
Speaker 1: have my own. But at the same time, I have
Speaker 1: to respect that this is also what she does on
Speaker 1: a day today basis. So I'm excited to have you back.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I asked the question that I'm sure some
Speaker 1: people had. They probably wonder, well, have you consulted Michelle?
Speaker 1: All right? Have you been her therapist in the past? So,
Speaker 1: as she said, it's kind of unethical to be a
Speaker 1: therapist for a family member, just like we have an
Speaker 1: uncle who's our doctor, who's a family practitioner, and so
Speaker 1: this is this possibility that certain relatives he might not
Speaker 1: choose to see. But like I said, you are amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you are always welcome. Brittany. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you. I'm so excited. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to come back. All right, Well, we will see you
Speaker 1: again or talk to you again. Because they can't see you,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about but up. You guys can see her
Speaker 1: on her Instagram and her social media. Brittany tell us
Speaker 1: where we can find you. Yes, on Instagram, I'm at
Speaker 1: Brittany Antoinette. Also, I'm at Philip Psychotherapy and my website
Speaker 1: is Philip Psychotherapy dot com. All right now, you guys,
Speaker 1: it's p h I l l I P s C
Speaker 1: oops Phillips p h I L l I P S
Speaker 1: P why C t h E r A by Philip Psychotherapy.
Speaker 1: Alright you guys, we hope that you have enjoyed this
Speaker 1: episode of Checking In with Michelle. Williams. Will be right back. Listen, guys,
Speaker 1: I really hope that this changed your mind as it
Speaker 1: relates to what therapy is about, as it relates to
Speaker 1: what depression, anxiety and trauma really is. We are too,
Speaker 1: black women who are walking through this healing journey who
Speaker 1: both have therapists, but at the same time, we want
Speaker 1: to offer our experience as a way to jump start
Speaker 1: your healing journey. There's such a stigma. It's being chipped
Speaker 1: away at. But there's been a stigma about mental health,
Speaker 1: specifically in minority communities and in the church, because lots
Speaker 1: of times, you know, we've been told to just pray
Speaker 1: about it. God won't give you more than you can bear.
Speaker 1: Actually that's not even biblical. I don't know where we
Speaker 1: get these sayings from, but I'll tell you where we
Speaker 1: get these sayings from. We get these sayings um of
Speaker 1: saying stuff like God won't give you more than you
Speaker 1: can bear in a true effort. And I really believe
Speaker 1: our heart's posture is correct when we just want to
Speaker 1: help somebody and when we don't want someone to feel
Speaker 1: dad or heavy. I believe what people probably really want
Speaker 1: to say is that God can help you. As they say,
Speaker 1: He is a burden bearer. We can share that with him.
Speaker 1: But to say he won't give us more than we
Speaker 1: can bear, you might do more harm than good because
Speaker 1: to that other person you say that too, they are
Speaker 1: feeling like I can't bear it, I can't handle it. Listen,
Speaker 1: I have felt I can't bear this, I can't handle this,
Speaker 1: so I had to go and seek some help. So
Speaker 1: when you want to talk about, well, what are some
Speaker 1: of the things to look for when you feel like
Speaker 1: you need help? Is loss of relationship after relationship is
Speaker 1: one of those things, because maybe how you're responding is
Speaker 1: a direct effect of some depression and some anxiety. So
Speaker 1: now is the time to stop saying this is just
Speaker 1: who I am, This is who my mom is, this
Speaker 1: is who my dad is, this is who I was
Speaker 1: raised to be, especially when it's not working for you.
Speaker 1: So I really hope that this part cast lightened you up.
Speaker 1: I even hope that the one minute meditation even made
Speaker 1: you feel different about what yoga is or what other
Speaker 1: practices there are for you to I guess in a
Speaker 1: more practical way for me to tell us to lighten up,
Speaker 1: how to lift these heavy feelings, how to minimize these
Speaker 1: anxious thoughts. Anxiety comes up when we've overthought something that's
Speaker 1: probably not even gonna happen, right or that thing can
Speaker 1: happen because of our behavior and response to those anxious thoughts.
Speaker 1: But nine times out of ten, anxiety is a liar,
Speaker 1: and like Dr Caroline Leaf always tells us we actually
Speaker 1: have the power to control our mind. But that's a
Speaker 1: whole another podcast. Yes, I said another. Thank you all
Speaker 1: so much for sitting with me today, and I've got
Speaker 1: so much more staying tune my heart's posture. My goal
Speaker 1: and desire for this podcast is to help heal through
Speaker 1: my words, help heal through my experience. And I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful for I Heart Radio and The Black Effect for
Speaker 1: giving me this opportunity. Thank you for checking in with
Speaker 1: Michelle Williams. Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.