Creative Resilience
This podcast is meant to create a space for conversation, education, and connection around creative approaches to promoting mental health and well-being among youth, families, communities, and society. Specifically, we will hold space to honor the real-life stories of those impacted by trauma, stress, and adversity and discuss what goes into the creative process of developing and implementing interventions that promote healing and resilience. The podcast will highlight lived experience, research, lessons learned, and inspirations from academics, artists, and community leaders leading efforts to improve mental health and well-being within their communities through creative approaches that center partnership and community strengths to lead to sustainable change. Through sharing real-life stories, recent research evidence, concrete resources, and tangible examples of specific efforts, we hope to inspire and support creative action in more communities and serve as a space that promotes mental health and well-being through sharing, connecting, and getting creative.
About THRIVE Research Lab:
The THRIVE Research Lab is dedicated to community-centered, participatory research and action that promotes healing and resilience among youth, families, and communities experiencing trauma and chronic stress. We aim to promote healing and resilience through an innovative research program designed to partner with communities to develop and implement strength-based solutions grounded in cultural humility.
Creative Resilience
The Power of Lived Experience in Trauma-Informed Care and Reproductive Justice
In this episode of Creative Resilience, Dr. Briana interviews Nicole Sessions, a writer, reproductive justice advocate, and full-spectrum doula who is currently serving as a peer provider on I-HOPE, a multisite comparative effectiveness trial examining culturally responsive Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) versus brief screening for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in reducing PTSD symptoms during and after pregnancy. Nicole shares her journey into birth work, inspired by her empowering childbirth experience, and her path to joining the I-HOPE Study as a peer provider supporting Black birthing patients with trauma-informed care. Throughout the discussion, Nicole reflects on the challenges and rewards of facilitating culturally responsive PTSD interventions during the perinatal period, emphasizing the importance of empathy, validation, and authentic human connection. She highlights the role of storytelling, peer support, and creative approaches in advancing reproductive justice and improving Black maternal mental health.
