09.09.20 – ABC News/The Boston Chronicle, Inside/Outside episode. Finding Peace in the Great Outdoors. I was interviewed by great team from the Boston Chronicle concerning my work with Walk and Talk Therapy. This was part of a longer story about how we are taking our work outside during the pandemic.
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💥THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.💥
IT WILL BE UPDATED WHEN THE NEXT DATE IS SET AND ALL IS WELL.
STAY SAFE AND WELL IN THESE NEXT FEW WEEKS!
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Is it a fantasy? Is it a dream? Who are we if we don’t think bigger, better, more expansively with each generation? I am honored to be invited to be a panelist on this critical topic, as we hasten slowly towards a new horizon for healthcare. Onward and Upward!
WHEN: Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 7 – 9 PM
WHERE: First Parish Church United, 48 Main Street, Westford, MA 01886
FEE: This is a free event, open to the public, but registration is required. Click HERE to register. [Clinicians can receive two CEUs for this event. Members of NASW can register HERE. ]
CONTENTS
I. Outstanding Media: Articles, Podcasts, and television/streaming offerings that are useful, inspiring, motivating and usually entertaining.
II. Accolades, Awards and Recent Articles.
III. Upcoming DBT workshops in Westford, MA.
IV. Quotes I am pondering
I. Outstanding Media
II. Accolades, Awards and Articles – Wessan in the News… March – June 2019
III. Upcoming Summer and Fall Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Group (DBT) in Westford, MA
IV. Quotes I am pondering…
Copyright © by Lisa Wessan 2019. All rights reserved.
www.LisaWessan.com
When I left my job at NBC as a Talk Show Producer, I knew that there was never going to be a time when fame, fortune, cash and prizes were going to make me happy. Not that I was ever famous, or super wealthy. But I had lived in that world, worked at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for over a decade amidst the affluence and glittery abundance of mid-town Manhattan. Working in the Entertainment Division at NBC was being at celebrity central, especially working on the talk shows.
What I learned, after a while, is that these things cannot sustain deep joy and wonder. Working in that world was not inspiring me, and I felt I was somehow skimming the surface of life. I knew at some point that I was going to move on…
Fast forward…Yes, moving from trauma to transformation is now the name of my game. As it is for most of my peers, we are mostly off the radar, not seeking the limelight and quite happy doing what we do in the privacy of our consulting rooms.
So imagine my surprise and delight when I learned I was going to be honored for my deep dive into psychospiritual matters! This was quite the shockeroo…
Who would have guessed that working with clients through their mysterious process of defrosting grief, recovering from illness, loss, abuse and neglect, teaching skills on emotion regulation, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, finding new purpose in life, and finally building new dreams would be honored? Not me.
Getting kudos for how we work through the muck of it all? Incredible! Clearly, there is no Red Carpet in therapy land! (Perhaps one day, however, when my book is out there, it will become a best seller, and then a blockbuster film…that would be fun and quite the wild ride. Being a bit conflicted about being on the big arena, I will need to continue to choose “Courage over comfort,” as Brené Brown says. Book tours, screenings, interviews, all positive and negative. “Courage over comfort” helps me to accept leaving my safe, small world and moving on!)
In the meantime, it’s wonderful to live in Massachusetts, one of the more enlightened states that takes the time to acknowledge our inner journey, and how important it is to use mental health resources when the going gets tough. Massachusetts is great at de-stigmatizing mental health issues. There is tremendous support here for everyone to get what they need and move on.
On March 6, 2019, there was a beautiful and moving ceremony at the State House in Boston to honor a few of us maverick social workers who are doing extraordinary things in our practice.
Several politicians gave speeches, Senator Ed Kennedy acknowledged us by name (see his Facebook post below) and there were lots of hugs and cheers throughout the event. In addition, our photos with brief bios were on display in the State House during National Social Work Month in March. (So fun and unexpected!)
Each of us that were honored that day has taken our original graduate training and morphed into providers who are doing unexpected works. We all went past graduate school and expanded into unpredictably useful areas (Click HERE for the original press release.)
My unusual areas of work involve Walk and Talk Therapy, Therapeutic Laughter Training and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. (You can learn more about these topics at my web site, www.lisawessan.com)
I appreciated Senator Ed Kennedy’s comments on Facebook and his ongoing support of our work (see below). It was a special day and fun to be with my magnificent peers.
Here are some photos from the day:
Thank you for sharing in the gratitude and excitement of this moment in my career! It was certainly one of the highlights of my time here in Massachusetts.
The journey continues — and this is truly a shameless plug — I’m an organically wired promoter, and cannot help sharing good science tested information or personal anecdotal results from the Lisa Laboratory of Life! So if you want to keep in touch, you can follow this blog, or send me a message at my web site to receive my periodic newsletter.
Stay tuned for more quality news as we journey together from Trauma to Transformation!
Onward and Upward,
Lisa Wessan
Copyright © by Lisa Wessan 2019. All rights reserved.
The Lighter Side of Transformation 