awareness
mindfulness
peace with oneself
reflection
Full Video Replay
Snapshots
9/20/20 Loving Our Minds Symposium: The Power of Shared Storytelling
Storyburgh was invited to present our work The Power of Shared Storytelling at the Loving Our Minds symposium held on 9/20/2022 in Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA. In this presentation, we encourage those who are experiencing mental health condition(s) to share their stories as one of the paths to recovery.
Speakers:
- Will Halim
- Mary Beth Spang
10/5/21 Mental Health Event: Discussing Challenges and Overcoming Stigmas
This community storytelling event is a collaboration between Soul Pitt Media, Storyburgh, and Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, as we work together to reduce the stigma of mental health conditions and trauma by providing a platform for the participants to share their experiences of living with a wide spectrum of mental health issues, which will inspire others while creating a broader platform to service underrepresented populations in our communities.
Storytellers:
- Kay Bey
- Mary Beth Spang
- Prof. Robert McInerney
Storytellers:
- DeAuntae Clark
- Chelsea Chase
- Sherris Richards
- Miracle Jones
Production Team:
MC: Marcia Liggett
Coach: Pamela Monk
Event Assistants: Alyse Horn & Jennifer Jordan
Executive Producer: Donna Baxter & Will Halim
30 Days of Personal Reflection (Audio & Text)
Recorded Story Clips
Despite vaccine roll-out in the US starting on 12/14/2020, COVID-19 and its imminent aftermath will continue to wreck havoc in many families and communities in the US and the world. Our daily struggle to balance physical and mental health needs may challenge us even more. With the introduction of #BridgingYourMind “StoryPage”, it is our privilege to welcome and introduce Mary Beth Spang into Storyburgh community to help us all navigate the treacherous life journey ahead. As an educated and trained professional in the mental health therapy as well as being someone living with the illness, we believe that she is more equipped than the rest of us (journalists and techies) to write such stories and to manage any related ideas and submissions. Thank you.
I write stories from the perspective of someone living with and managing mental illness and as a professional therapist who supports other people living with and managing mental illness. My goal is to educate and connect people who may feel isolated, confused, or overwhelmed by their experience.
-Mary Beth Spang
Editor's Poems
Awareness
May your strengths be noticed and known by someone— including and especially yourself.
May your voice and your values remain louder than any barriers evoked by disability or grief.
May your imperfections be celebrated when you need them to be,
And may your resilience inspire you regularly.
Rainbow
The thing about uncertainty
Is that there is no right or wrong
But what if it isn’t sustainable
Not knowing where you belong?
Noticing the black and white
Could be your very first step
Toward a limitless spectrum of gray
Heretofore you’ve been bereft
Tolerating your discomfort
Grieving what may have been
Are each steps toward blending
The varying colors contained within
Right or wrong is a deceitful dichotomy
Not always, but some of the time
Belonging may be unknowable
Discovering a rainbow is sublime
Decompensation
(click to watch the video poem)
I wanted to demonstrate the progression of how depression can sometimes lead to apathy, anhedonia, and ultimately, suicide ideation. In other words, I wanted to write about what it’s like to mentally or clinically “decompensate,” the process of going from wellness to illness or from varying degrees of illness to worsening degrees of illness.
This is often the time when we need a higher level of care— either more frequent therapy, a medication change, or perhaps psychiatric hospitalization. Therefore, the transition from feeling sadness to feeling apathy is a crucial one to notice.
I hope this space helps others who suffer to notice when this feelings shift happens, and furthermore encourages them to get the help they need when it does. There is no shame for getting help if and when decompensation occurs; I believe it is the bravest step we can take.
Report, Poem, Essay, 1st person
Like many people in 2020, Carla B. got on Zoom for the first time. She's a resident of the...
"When the COVID-19 pandemic transpired, some sufferers’ symptoms emerged for the first time, while others’ reappeared." The National Institute...
This story contains sensitive content regarding alcoholism, addiction, abuse, and suicide. I’m Jason; I was born in Germany to...
"As of August 2020, I am proud to be one year self-harm free. I look forward to counting the...
It took me a while to understand That I can hold my own hand And show that I’ll withstand...
The school year is just beginning as Susanna and George spend a late-summer afternoon with their caseworker Shacoya Bates...
To say the least, Tracy has a lot going. When Shacoya Bates from Every Child, Inc. arrives for a...
Mary Beth Spang is a PsyD student in Pittsburgh, PA. She has worked in mental health since graduating with her master’s degree in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2019). She is also a proud Penn State graduate (2015). Diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, she writes about her personal experience living with and managing mental illness. Her writing has appeared in The Mighty, Disability Disclosed, and Germ Magazine.
