Hosted by The Flourishing Center’s own Louis Alloro, facilitator of CAPP Philadelphia, the Mental Health Awareness Series explores the journeys of CAPP Alumni as they apply Positive Psychology to their work in the field of mental health and wellness.
Olga Iof of CAPP 1, Part 1 of 2
Olga works in school based services for a nonprofit mental health agency. “I use positive psychology for 1) my self care to help deal with the stress and prevent burn out. 2) in my work with kids. Some interventions are easier to use with kids than others. For example, I do intentional activities and offer kids to fill in person-activity test. It opens up a conversation about million things. Sometimes quite unexpected ones. I found 3 good things exercise useful with teens also. With little ones I am using some games, which are not strictly PP, but up there: 7 habits of happy kids and positive behavior game (both board games). I use strengths checklists, with kids and parents. I love helping people build social and emotional intelligence.”
Click to see Part Two of Olga’s Interview!
Andria Cometa of CAPP 2, Part 1 of 1
Andria is a transformation facilitator and change-agent who offers individual and group sessions to women pursuing personal discovery, growth and fulfillment. Her company is called BE. Sessions are therapeutic experiences with practical and real-life solutions in a safe, comfortable and confidential environment. Andria hopes for BE to “be a place that really helps to empower, enrich and expand women’s lives and experiences so they can find true fulfillment in all that they do.” She says that in flipping from the disease to wellness paradigm in her work, patterns in peoples’ behaviors—why things are the way they are—she now focuses on helping people build healthy habits—how things can and will be with her help!
Lisa Lapidus of CAPP 5, Part 1 of 2
Lisa is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and co-owner of Empower Behavioral Health.“I have a tremendous amount of respect for those who have the wisdom and courage to seek support in their endeavor to create the life they want to live. I am passionate about helping others live up to their fullest potential and reach the goals they set for themselves. I find the most reward in helping my clients to replace self-loathing with self-love and to move from “I can’t” to “I can.” I emphasize a family systems approach, and I believe that we are all connected, and what happens to one individual in a family or a community affects us all. I believe we are all one in the universe. I’m here to hold you accountable and to provide tools for positive growth.”
Click here to see Part Two of Lisa’s Interview!
Emily Wyner of CAPP 6, Part 1 of 2
Emily Wyner is a thinker, collaborator, and advocate. She works at PersonLink, a program of Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) in Philadelphia that supports individuals with intellectual disabilities. Emily has become a key team member of a PHMC-wide workplace wellness initiative. She says, “In the past year, I have seen numerous doctors and health professionals regarding a variety of physical and emotional symptoms that may, in fact, be expressions of chronic Lyme disease. It has been a year of many questions and few answers, momentary confidence and looming selfdoubt, immense gratitude and unbearable loneliness. With illness experiences, it can be so easy to suffer in silence and let uncertainty swallow you. CAPP has taught me how to cut these loops short, forge a path toward a healthier mindset, set and achieve goals, heighten my levels of resilience and hope, and so much more. I learned how to ask for room to be vulnerable. I learned how to tell my parents that I needed them to listen and not judge. I learned how to develop healthier habits. Ultimately, I learned how to be well while being ill by directing my own healthcare (which includes selfcare!), and I want others to be able to do so, too.”