This is a unique and interesting podcast episode. We planned to have this episode with the mayor of Medicine Hat Alberta Canada, the city in which Trent, Jeremy and Amy reside. Mayor Linnsie Clark was having some technical difficulties and we weren't sure why she was not joining us at the designated time. So Trent and I began a conversation about something that had been on our minds in terms of understanding trauma as an injury and not an illness. The first part of the podcast explores this idea then our mayor connected with us within the middle of the podcast and we transition from there into talking about Community recovery and how connection and Community is Central to our Wellness as humans

Mayor Clark first took office in 2021 as covid restrictions began to lift and has guided our community through a broader social recovery from the mental health effects of the pandemic.

Resources mentioned:

PTSD coach is an app you can get from the Apple app store or from Google play.

The booked re: understanding Trauma and recovery: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

In this episode Trent and Jeremy continue the conversation with author, professor and accomplished musician Dr Earnestine Whitman. She recently published the Book “Counter Melodies A Memoir in Sonata Form” that details her story of trauma recovery:

Jealous of her brilliant older sister, Ernestine longs for her father’s approval as a little girl but is never good enough. When she discovers a talent for the flute, she meets a charismatic teacher who gives her the encouragement she craves and becomes her surrogate father. After winning several competitions, she dreams of being a professional musician, but her stern father ridicules the idea and forces her to attend Emory University as a math major like her sister.

Ernestine doesn’t give up on her musical dreams, however, and halfway through college she wins the second flute chair in the Atlanta Symphony. There, she sits beside her former teacher, the principal flute. At first, she loves working with him, but after one successful season he turns on her and does everything in his power to get her fired. Devastated by her idol’s merciless harassment, she’s driven into a spiral of suicidal depression. As she tries to recover, her vulnerability is exploited, again and again, by the very men she turns to for help.

A harrowing account of one woman’s battle with twentieth-century misogyny, Countermelodies follows Ernestine as, through the darkness, she clings to her love for the flute and her unshakable dream of making it in the cutthroat world of classical music.

More information at:

https://ernestinewhitman.ag-sites.net/index.htm

You can buy the book from Amazon:

⁠https://www.amazon.ca/Countermelodies-Memoir-Sonata-Ernestine-Whitman/dp/1647427320⁠

Or at Simon and Schuster

⁠https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Countermelodies/Ernestine-Whitman/9781647427320⁠

We are joined by Jonathan McClung Chartered Professional Accountant. We discuss how money relates to our mental health.

Looking to connect with Jonathan for accounting services:

http://www.nowcpa.ca/

Articles referenced in the show

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/archive/releases/2018/Q1/money-only-buys-happiness-for-a-certain-amount.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/science-research-data/mental-health-inequalities-income-canada.html

Budgeting App

https://www.ynab.com/