Have you ever felt held back by beliefs you can't seem to shake off? This episode features the insightful Stephanie Fu, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, who takes us on a journey through the labyrinth of trauma and self-limiting beliefs. Stephanie, with a wealth of experience working with both children and adults, offers her unique perspective on trauma-focused therapy. We delve into the depths of the subconscious mind of a child and explore the power of EMDR in healing from trauma.
The conversation takes an introspective turn as we unpack the formation of limiting beliefs and their profound influence on our lives. Drawing parallels with a block of ice, we bring to light the ingrained nature of these beliefs and the critical role of self-awareness and compassion in processing them. We open up about our personal struggles, revealing the resilience that comes from understanding and overcoming our limitations.
As we navigate the waters of mental health, we underscore the significance of self-validation and empathy in our daily interactions. We reflect on the importance of tuning into our emotions and learning to validate our feelings. We also highlight the commendable work of the nonprofit organization, Sola Amari, and their commitment to supporting children and families wrestling with mental health issues. Stephanie's personal experiences, her coping strategies, and her perspective on the healing process offer valuable insights and advice to anyone grappling with trauma or mental health concerns. Listen in for a conversation that could ignite your journey towards self-understanding and healing.
Stephanie Fu Ballance
www.healingoaktheraphy.com
Sola Amari Endowment
Instagram: @sola.amari
website: www.empowereast.org/sola-amari
Pippamintly
instagram: Pippamintly
website: pippamintly.etsy.com
Have you ever felt held back by beliefs you can't seem to shake off? This episode features the insightful Stephanie Fu, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, who takes us on a journey through the labyrinth of trauma and self-limiting beliefs. Stephanie, with a wealth of experience working with both children and adults, offers her unique perspective on trauma-focused therapy. We delve into the depths of the subconscious mind of a child and explore the power of EMDR in healing from trauma.
The conversation takes an introspective turn as we unpack the formation of limiting beliefs and their profound influence on our lives. Drawing parallels with a block of ice, we bring to light the ingrained nature of these beliefs and the critical role of self-awareness and compassion in processing them. We open up about our personal struggles, revealing the resilience that comes from understanding and overcoming our limitations.
As we navigate the waters of mental health, we underscore the significance of self-validation and empathy in our daily interactions. We reflect on the importance of tuning into our emotions and learning to validate our feelings. We also highlight the commendable work of the nonprofit organization, Sola Amari, and their commitment to supporting children and families wrestling with mental health issues. Stephanie's personal experiences, her coping strategies, and her perspective on the healing process offer valuable insights and advice to anyone grappling with trauma or mental health concerns. Listen in for a conversation that could ignite your journey towards self-understanding and healing.
Stephanie Fu Ballance
www.healingoaktheraphy.com
Sola Amari Endowment
Instagram: @sola.amari
website: www.empowereast.org/sola-amari
Pippamintly
instagram: Pippamintly
website: pippamintly.etsy.com
Welcome to Pockets of Time. I'm Chunky Panda. Dive in as we uncover those unexpected gems of clarity and inspiration, from mental well-being to light-hearted fun. We're all about growth and a positive mindset. Looking for a lift or some clear-headed insights. You're in the right pocket. Let's unravel the magic together. Welcome, welcome. Welcome back to Pockets of Time. I am here today with a special guest. Her name is Stephanie Fu Well, now, stephanie Balance, let me correct myself and she is a dear friend of mine that I've known for a minute in Raleigh, just being in the service industry, and she's also a mental counselor which I'm excited to dig on into these topics with her. So today we're going to be discussing a little bit of trauma and how that can play into your self-limiting beliefs. But yeah, I'm going to hand it over to Stephanie to introduce herself and tell her how she got into the counseling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you for having me here. I am a licensed clinical mental health counselor. I was going to applause for you.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to cheer her on first. Okay, all right, that's too long.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you. Yeah, but I was a high school English teacher initially and then a lot of the kids would come into my classroom, like before school. I had my planning period during third period, which is when all of their lunches were, so they would come in during lunch. They'd come into my classroom after school and I taught at a Title I high school, so it's like lower socioeconomic status and they would come in and talk to me about all kinds of things and home life and friends and stuff that they were going through. So that really inspired me to go back to grad school. So, yeah, I got a degree in mental health counseling and I got professionally licensed and that's what I do now I work with. At first, initially I worked with just kids, and then there are families and caregivers through family Therapy, and now I do adults and children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what are the big differences between the kids and working with like adults?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, adults, I think you can make a lot more cognitive process throughout a therapy session. A lot of the times we can accomplish a lot of different things and go into a lot of different topics and you can really see the progress that they make through just one session or just one conversation. And kids is a little bit different because sometimes they don't know how to verbalize how they're feeling. So a lot of things are done through play therapy or through a lot of kind of investigative things and you're looking for ambiguous things or looking for meaning behind what they're saying and things like that. So it moves a little bit at a slower pace. But, like I was telling you before, I love working with the kids. They're the bright spot in my day.
Speaker 1:Not that I don't love my adults too, but kids they have a different kind of resiliency and they're funny and hilarious and yeah, and it's almost like detective work, where you're just trying to dig into their subconscious mind, because a lot of it is just it's like they live in an abstract world. So for you it's like trying to find the paintbrush to paint the picture and understand it better.
Speaker 2:It is, and it's a lot of puzzle piecing too, because you want to make sure to talk to the caregivers and things as well, because you need that full, whole picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's amazing and I think you said that your topic, that you typically do with the patients, is, I think, based on traumas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I specialize in trauma. So a lot of my techniques, a lot of my treatments, a lot of my continuing education and things is centered around trauma. So I can do trauma focused CBT, trauma informed therapy, EMDR. That's a big one as well right now. I don't know if you've heard of that one, the EMR.
Speaker 1:What is that EMDR? It's your sorry, no, you're fine.
Speaker 2:It's a trauma focused, very evidence based treatment, but it focuses on a lot of science too and how the brain works. It's similar to if you're walking down the sidewalk or walking on a trail and you see a stick and you jump back because you think your first thought is, oh, it's a snake. So your fight or flight instincts kick over, and so EMDR does a lot of work with like desensitization. You can do eye movement, you can do tapping some therapists use a light bar, but it incorporates both sides of your brain to uncover a lot more trauma, because sometimes two people's brains block things off in trauma and so you don't remember things like that, and so it's a way of processing through trauma and healing through trauma.
Speaker 2:I specifically practice one called attachment based EMDR, which was formulated by a woman named Laurel Parnell, but I'm also very attachment focused too in my therapy treatment. But to me it makes the most sense because when you go into trauma work you're unlocking Pandora's box in a sense, and it's very scary for people because they've gotten by locking away their trauma in a sense, so that they can function on a day to day basis. So it's very scary at times and so I describe it as EMDR with a hug.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We go to their pace and it's a lot more talk. Therapy built around the trauma rather than just diving straight into the trauma work too.
Speaker 1:So it's almost like building a relationship with the patient as well too, because I mean there has to be some level of comfort.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because I've had some friends where you know they've been through a lot of things and sometimes a scent or just like a random sound can just bring them back into whatever it is, and it's almost like they don't realize that they have this memory. So when you say that, that's like super interesting to me and I think that is. That's a tough place to be as well too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's why I have all these essential oils over here too, on the side of my office. Because your olfactory senses are very powerful to unlocking memories in your mind. It's the quickest track to your amygdala too. So we have those senses as well. If clients ever get too triggered, they just pick their favorite one. When I do telehealth with clients as well too, sometimes in preparation for it, we never do trauma work that isn't planned we, because life doesn't stop happening to you I definitely let my clients know. If you want to talk about what's currently going on in your life. That's absolutely what we can do. If you want to dive into something that you know is a known trauma, we can plan for that as well too. And sometimes I tell them bring something that smells comforting to put beside your computer when we start talking, and that could be a Christmas tree candle, it could be a sugar cookie candle, whatever they want.
Speaker 1:I love that and that's crazy because certain sense like it's even you know the way your grandma smells or the way your grandpa smells. It's like it is a comforting scent, whether it's like tiger balm or whatnot, but for some reason that that scent brings me peace. But, yeah, wow, that's interesting. I never really thought about it that way.
Speaker 2:So thank you.
Speaker 1:So I feel like a lot of the times when we're talking about trauma-based things, we don't realize that. We carry it in our unconscious mind, like in the subconscious, so we act sometimes without even realizing that we're doing it. My question is how do you get someone to be a little bit more aware of that?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I think that trauma is a hard concept sometimes for people to think about. There's traumas like sexual abuse, emotional abuse, car accident, any sort of tragic accident, and that certainly is trauma. But there's also a lot of trauma as well that's underlying, based on the way you were raised, the people who were around you. If you were in a relationship for a long time and it wasn't extremely abusive where it was apparent to the eye, but it was abusive subtly to you and it affected the way that you think and the way that you behave. I personally believe that everybody has gone through trauma. It just depends. It's just very different, but trauma can be all kinds of different things.
Speaker 1:And I think it's interesting that you said that, because a lot of the times, depending on what you've gone through, not everybody has the same skill sets or tools to be able to process it. When you think about it, your three could be my 10, and it just depends.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and that's really important to consider too, because I think a lot of the times when people are going through something, they think, oh, but worse things are happening to people that I know, or worse things are happening to people on TV, and we're not in the business of comparing traumas and comparing griefs. That's not healthy and that's not helpful. Everybody's feelings are valid and everybody's experience is valid.
Speaker 1:I definitely have to catch myself. Well, back when I was younger, I didn't know any better, so for me I was just like well, if I can do it, you can do it. But it's like I'm not factoring into everything that's happening behind the scenes with this person. And, like you said, growing up, people grow up differently and generational trauma is a real thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Because sometimes we're not taught how to deal with our emotions or how to deal with trauma, and it's not the fault of anyone caregiver or anyone parent or anything like that. We're all well sometimes, but we're all trying to do our best in this world and we're all trying to figure it out. When you talk about generational traumas like that, there's such a wide variety of that kind of thing and so it's important. That's why therapy, I think, is so important, because you have a very personalized, very client-centered treatment plan where you can talk about what happened to you and what your experience was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you get that with free of judgment, and also it just helps to talk to someone who isn't involved.
Speaker 2:It's like you could talk to friends, but they have their bias opinions, but when you talk to a therapist or a mental counselor, it's different, yeah and in therapy, your therapist is there for you and solely you, whereas if you talk to friends or family, like you said, sometimes they are emotionally invested because they are your friends or your family too. And with that being said, it's also important that you find a therapist that you really connect with and that you have a good rapport. It's a little bit like dating. If you could imagine what if you stayed with the first partner you ever had, forever and ever. Sometimes, for some people, it does work. The first therapist they meet and talk to, they click, it works, and they see them for years and years. And sometimes you have to shop around.
Speaker 1:That is a pretty valid point because, like I said, I've heard of friends in the past who have searched for therapists who have just gave up because they're like oh this person, isn't it? And then I've had other friends who were like yeah, I searched, but then I found this person and I live by it.
Speaker 2:So definitely advocate for yourself in anything health-wise, but especially mental health too, for sure and therapists know we are trained in this before we go into the field, so your therapist isn't gonna take it personal.
Speaker 1:Going back to generational trauma, I find it to be interesting because a lot of the times what we don't realize is a lot of the stuff that comes from our family is back when their mom and their fathers and then back all the way to great grandma, great grandpa, and no one just knew to do any better. And I feel, like every single generation we are meant to break that and create better for ourselves. And I know that it starts with a lot of forgiving yourself and forgiving your family because, like you, can't really fault anybody for not knowing any better. But it is hard because the aftermath of it leads us into feeling differently about ourselves, where For me, I know, growing up I was always seeking some kind of approval.
Speaker 1:So for me I ended up putting myself into those kind of relationships where I had to always seek for approval and I was always like am I worthy of it? And I know that has definitely Limited me in like a lot of my relationships until recently that I've broken out of it. So my question to you is how does everything all play into those self-limiting beliefs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, trauma. Well, us as humans, we are very complex and Everything is connected within our brains. That's why sometimes, when you talk about hearing a song or smelling a certain scent, you're like, oh, this makes me think of something else, right, so everything is all connected and trauma has a way of, like you said, sometimes festering in there before we even notice. And, depending on what your generational trauma is, you might have a lot of different factors that go into it. Some people who have generational trauma of poverty, of Not that many opportunities, they're dealing with a lot of things like they don't know if they're gonna come home to running water or lights, on on top of this fractured relationship with their parents, or maybe the parents aren't even around. And Then what you speak of too, like sometimes because your first generation, right, american? Yeah, I am as well and we're both Asian, so I think we understand that, that pressure. But in other cultures as well too, I see that, not just the Asian cultures in your first generation.
Speaker 2:Here in America, there's certain expectations that are laid on you as well too, so it can be very hard to identify if you even have trauma and the way in. I believe in session what I do with a lot of my clients is finding out what their limiting belief is, because finding out what their limiting belief is a roadmap or a signal to where this all first started. And sometimes we go all over the place like they remember a memory of something that made them believe that about themselves. That was a year ago, or they remember a memory of something that happened to them when they were five years old. And it doesn't matter. You know we can. We have the time and the safe space to do that and to Process through all of that. But you mentioned one that I heard, which is I am not worthy and you know limiting beliefs. They sound like a whole bunch of different things. It's all my fault, I'm not worthy, I am dirty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why am I not lovable?
Speaker 2:But they all start with the. I am Right and there's something that is not true about us at the core, but it is what our trauma and our experiences have made us believe, and I use the metaphor of like it being frozen in ice.
Speaker 2:So that my clients can understand that as well too. So, at the birth of your limiting belief of I am not worthy, it's there and it's a thin layer of ice. But then something else happens to reaffirm that to you, or somebody mistreats you and you believe it's because I am not worthy. So then another layer of ice comes over it, and so you have so many layers and it's frozen solid as the truth. But it's not.
Speaker 1:That is so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because therapy and working on this healing through this trauma, that's you chipping away at that ice block and sometimes people get Upset that it hasn't happened in one or two sessions or even a couple months of sessions, but you've spent however many years of your life believing this, so you have to give yourself grace and compassion to that. It's going to take you time to chip away at that limiting belief.
Speaker 1:I Love that. That is definitely a beautiful Visual, that I think that now it like makes it a lot more clear, because you hear layers and stuff, but now you're like, oh wow, iced, and then iced, and then you have a giant block. And I think that is amazingly said, because I feel like there is a quote I think it's Oprah Winfrey but it's you don't manifest what you want, you manifest what you believe, and it's. I feel like your brain's always looking for evidence of like. When, when you say stuff to yourself like I'm not worthy, it's like your brain subconsciously is like oh, I'm not worthy.
Speaker 1:So every little thing that happens, it's like we do collect it and we box it up and then it becomes like a hardcore truth where it's like Almost immovable. It's definitely movable, but for you right now, it's yeah sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, it's like that game I spy that you sublative and you're a little, and he said I spy of my little eye Something blue and all of a sudden you're queued in to look for all the blue things. Exactly like you said.
Speaker 2:Yes if you believe I'm not worthy, then you are looking for all this evidence and these instances in which it Supports that, even if that's not healthier. That's not true, and you mentioned this earlier too. Sometimes it affects your behavior Absolutely, because sometimes we go into almost a survival technique when we're going through trauma too. But you also have to have compassion again for yourself, because that unhealthy behavior might have been what helped you get through that trauma at the time and you don't need it now. So now it's okay. How do I let go of that unhealthy behavior? How do I change that, because it no longer serves me?
Speaker 1:definitely I resonate with that a lot because I feel like it's like these reactions that you have towards people and you don't realize why you have them. And over time I've gotten to understand myself a bit more and I've been able to discern what it is that I'm doing at the time. So it could be something so simple, like my brother would always do he actually called me out for it, but I feel like it it's all in different levels. We have to be in a good space to be able to receive and to be open to getting that feedback, and for me it's like my brother he just would call me out on I would just get defensive and it wasn't like a.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like an aggressive defense, it was just like I felt like I was always like protecting or defending myself. Like it would be simple things like he would say, hey, somebody, or he would just be talking about a group where he would say, oh, like these people are doing these weird things. And I'm like, well, I don't do this weird thing. And he's just what, like why do you do that? And he was like no, we're not talking about you, we're not attacking you, it's you don't? There's no reason for you to sit there and think that it's happening. Or you're like like you have to go into defense mode. And I was like man, it's the little things that you don't realize, you even do, and I did.
Speaker 2:You feel the need to defend yourself.
Speaker 1:It was just. It goes back to stemming to when you're younger and you're like trying to prove yourself to people, your parents, or like I was bullied when I was younger. So a lot of that is like built in and I'm just really happy that I'm at a better space where I can receive that better, where I'm like, oh crap, like I'm doing it, like chill, kelly, relax.
Speaker 2:But it takes work and it takes healing to understand that the bullying was not my fault and that I have worth on the inside and I have something good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so definitely been a journey for me. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that acknowledgement piece that you talk about, that's really powerful. That's the key to everything when you can unlock what is that limiting belief and what are my behaviors. And it can seem daunting when you're like, oh no, I haven't covered this whole big thing, but that's you know. Honestly, I think it's half the battle, because as soon as you become aware of that, you're able to really dive deep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been diving deep and I feel like there is there's always there's so many levels. It's like you think that you get to a level and you're like oh, I'm good. Then you're like oh my goodness, there's more layers, so it's. I think it's beautiful and I think that's just life in general yeah. And that's because life keeps happening to you.
Speaker 2:So sometimes when people think, oh, and sometimes everybody is different, so sometimes they only need therapy for a period of time, and that's okay. I have some clients who come in for self maintenance and they don't come see me all the time, but once in a while they come and check in, but life still keeps happening to you, so there's still a lot to process and discover about yourself.
Speaker 1:Life keeps happening to you. I'm going to quote all these.
Speaker 2:Like Stephanie.
Speaker 1:Fu said I love it. So my question to you is if there's somebody that is struggling with it right now, what is like a couple of tips that you would say hey, this is something that you could ease into and start today to like work on those self limiting beliefs.
Speaker 2:So I definitely think that, for sure, if you can talk to a therapist, that would be helpful or a mental health professional and I know that there's a lot of other red tape with this about how accessible it is to you or how affordable it is to you.
Speaker 2:I'm a big proponent for health insurance reform. There needs to be some things happening there, because it is expensive for the consumer and not as advantageous for the provider as people think on the other side too. But if you can talk to a mental health professional, because they are to guide you, they're there with the knowledge and with the education and the professional license to help you tackle some of these huge things. But if you do want to do some work on your own too, definitely finding out or identifying what your limiting beliefs are that you think you have about yourself, and also having compassion for yourself and having some grace for yourself, because we have been through a lot and we haven't always had the support or the resources that we need, and so you have to have some compassion for yourself. I'm a big proponent of that as well. I'm trying to have some self kindness, and then I think to a lot of the times people jump. You see this huge pool of positive psychology and I think that's great and I think it's uplifting. There's a lot of cute artwork you can see on social media and stuff like that too.
Speaker 2:But before you practice gratitude, I think you have to practice validation for your own feelings. If you've ever been upset and somebody said to you oh, look at the bright side, or at least you have arms and legs, or whatever it is that people say, sometimes that can also be extremely invalidating and insensitive to somebody who's going through something. You would never say to your friend who's upset oh, just get over it. Or oh, just stop crying. So you can't do that to yourself either.
Speaker 2:So I think, for sure, having space for your feelings and validating your feelings before you practice any sort of gratitude, and, yeah, I also think trying to frame something that's the opposite of your limiting belief. And I say that a little hesitatingly because if we take a limiting belief for you that we talked about, I'm not worthy. If we take the exact opposite and say I am worthy, sometimes that doesn't resonate with you because it feels too far off from where you are in your journey. But if you can say something like I'm capable, it's a little bit closer to where you feel right now and it can shift your mind frame a little bit to look at okay, what are all the things that I did? Or what are all the things that I accomplished day, even if they're small things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's interesting that you say that, because I have pretty much done the thing where I just go. When I have those moments, I go well, how do I make it not true? What are the little things that I can do? Right now that can prove to not be true and I feel like a lot of it is just doing those little things and also going back because it's so fast for us. We do something great and we're like, yay, this is so great and it could be a thousand people telling us that we're doing such a great job but, it only takes that one negative.
Speaker 1:It could be on like social media you get a lot of positive comments and then there's this one person just for no reason, just says something mean, and I feel like for a lot of people it gets to them Absolutely yeah, and it just shows that, like all the positive stuff, but what do you do in that moment?
Speaker 1:Honestly, I feel so great about where I'm at that. For me it's like when people do that kind of thing, for me it's more of who hurt you, because I feel like when someone stems from a place of negativity or they're just out of nowhere, just want to just have something to say, that's just not nice. I feel like it's something that either they're projecting or something that they wish they could do or wish they could be. And I don't mean like people want to be me, but like maybe my expression of how I feel and how I live life is just a lot more open than it used to be and maybe somebody wants to do that. But instead of doing that, they put on that protection and they're like oh, that's silly or that's stupid, or.
Speaker 1:But for me it's. I usually just respond back with whatever it is. I'm sorry you feel that way. Whatever it is that you're going through, I hope you feel better and for the most part a lot of people just leave it at that. But I don't ever attack it with anything negative, because I feel like two negatives don't make a positive, even though in math, for some reason it does.
Speaker 2:So you're just like what?
Speaker 1:but in real life it doesn't really happen. Two negatives do not make a positive. Guys, I never thought about it that way?
Speaker 2:I was right in math, I suppose it does. Yeah, but where did you get that confidence from to say this isn't about me, this is about somebody else?
Speaker 1:It's a lot of times where I just, I think I just realized with myself that I catch myself in those things. And it could be something so simple, as in people are going on vacation and sometimes you're. Then you look and you're like, oh, wow, must be nice. But I'm like, why am I being like this, like, why am I feeling some type of way? It's oh, I'm envious because this person's able to go on all these vacations and do x, y and z. I should be happy for them and I should strive myself to make more time for myself. But what?
Speaker 2:you did right there, though. You listened in to yourself before you reacted. You said why do I feel this way? And you recognize that you were feeling envious, and you validated that feeling for yourself before you turned it around. Easy, you did it. That's so cool, but that's good though. That's what you should do, you know give yourself the space to feel those feelings and then really listen to yourself. What do I need in this moment? Do I need a hug? Do I need to make more time for myself, like you said yeah wow.
Speaker 1:But you hit it on the nail and I think, like a lot of the times with like empathetic people like us, we go too far off on the other end, where we validate everybody else's feelings too. And I think that once we find that balance like you said, invalidating our own feelings like the magic starts to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, listening to yourself is important, but it's hard. It's definitely hard. That could be a different topic, because there's a lot to go in with that. Oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:I always say it's you know your spidey senses. They're there for a reason. You know what I mean and I feel like you know. It's like our body telling us hey, it's relaxed, it's good, you're good, or it's hey, don't do that, because I don't know. I don't know where I was going with this, but but trust yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, trust yourself.
Speaker 1:That's another thing we'll work on, but yeah, Now I really think that I love this and I think that people out there are going to definitely enjoy and be able to resonate with it better, because what you just did earlier like when you just made that connection for me, that I didn't even realize that I was doing it that's crazy. It has been incredible. I love it.
Speaker 1:I also wanted to take the time to bring up a project that you've been working on and also a nonprofit organization that I'll let you tell me the details because I don't want to, like, say something that's not right, but Sola Amari is a nonprofit organization that helps with people who don't have the money to get the care that they need for mentally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Sola Amari is an endowment fund that we created under the nonprofit called Empower East, and Sola Amari's goal is to help children and families who face both mental health challenges and financial challenges as well. They we currently connect with the children and families through service providers in the area predominantly Eastern North Carolina, but we're all over in Wake County, pitt County, cumberland County, wilson County, johnston County and they go to some of the mental health providers there. But it's hard because when we talked earlier about some generational traumas, and sometimes you have just one piece and sometimes you have 10 pieces, and so it can be very hard, of course, when you're thinking about oh, if I take one challenge head on versus 10 at the same time. So Sola Amari Endowment is meant to provide some of that relief. So we help with rent or utility supplements, clothing, bedding, school supplies.
Speaker 2:Our biggest effort is actually coming up for the holiday season. The kids will submit wish list items, and so we'll do some of that and some clothing items as well for them. And then Pippin Mintley is something separate. I didn't want to confuse anybody because Sola Amari is 100%. All the proceeds, everything goes to the kids and the families. Pippin Mintley is just some positive mental health merch that I was playing around with.
Speaker 1:So there's some mental health forward, final stickers and healing hoodies right now, but yeah definitely, I love that and I, if you guys, have got to check it out, so I will definitely include the Instagram and the link to it in the podcast description. But, yeah, no, definitely I need to go get one of those hoodies and those stickers are just super cute, they make me laugh and they make me so happy. But, yeah, no, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And do you guys have like a donations or people could reach out to you guys and yeah, so if you go to the website and I can provide it for you to see you can link that there's a page that's all about us. So if you need help, there's a benevolence fund request on there, and then if you'd like to donate, there's also a donation link as well.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, no, thank you for that. I would love to definitely be involved. When you guys start doing some of the stuff, you let me know what you need for me, because that would be a fun thing to do. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, wow, we did it.
Speaker 2:How do you?
Speaker 1:feel. I feel good. It was easier once we got started talking. It's the microphones and the headphones definitely help. But yeah, guys, this is Stephanie's first time on a podcast and I think she did phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:No for sure, and I hope that there are other ones that we could do too together, because you just have this beautiful energy about you and ever since I met you, you've just been a very soothing person and just such a kind soul, and I just want to say thank you for always making me feel welcome and loved. Thank you, that makes my heart happy. I love that. Yeah, all right, guys. This is it for anybody out there who is struggling with whatever it is trauma, mental health issues I hope that you can gather a special message or something from this episode that Stephanie and I have shared and be able to implement that in your life or share it with a friend. The more the merrier. But thank you for tuning in, guys, and we love you, guys, and we will see you again at some point. Yeah, all right, bye.