Neff Inspiration

335 Author Spotlight Depression Lied To Me : Julia Barton

The seeds of Julia’s life mission were planted when she earned her Reiki I certification at the age of 8. A born intuitive and empath, young Julia used reiki to feel safe and protected. Despite growing up in a holistic household, adulthood found Julia unsure of how to best use her gifts. Her isolating experience with post-partum depression cultivated a desire to support and nurture others. Julia became a post-partum doula and Reiki Master Teacher to guide new mothers to trust their intuition and find joy in their post-partum journey, and created Olive & Bloom Holistic Care and Healing to help women bloom into their fullest selves.

Learn more about Julia: www.oliveandbloom.net

Facebook and Instagram: @oandbloom

334 Ken Madimsky Middleton: Why the Alcohol Industry LOVES the Concept of Alcoholism

The alcohol industry currently makes 1.8 trillion dollars annually and is projected to hit around 2.3 trillion by 2025. What most people think is that much of this alcohol is purchased by individuals who would be labeled as an alcoholic or someone with a problem. 
What most don’t realize, however, is that this group is only a very small percentage (less than 2%) of the world population. Also, it’s this very thinking that protects the alcohol industry’s profit and prevents people from looking at the one thing that could put it at risk - their casual “normal” drinking.

Ken Makimsy Middleton is the founder of AINYF (Alcohol is NOT Your Friend), a Medium publication, dedicated to sharing science-based information to help individuals quit alcohol and begin building the very best version of themselves. He is also the author of the upcoming book, Bamboozled - How Alcohol Makes Fool of Us All: The Guide to Getting EVERYTHING You Want in Life By Giving Up Alcohol, which exposes the ways alcohol holds us back from achieving our goals and gives a playbook on how to not only give it up, but also how to create a thriving life of holistic wellness.  
    
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Educate yourself on what alcohol does to you physiologically and mentally.
2. Create a goal for your future self to accomplish that is SO BIG, you couldn’t allow alcohol to be in your life to achieve it. 
3. Never…ever…give up - every mistake is a lesson that will get you closer to the correct formula for you and ultimate success. 

Social media and contact info.
Bamboozled Book sign-up = kenmmiddleton.com/book
LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenmmiddleton/ 
Medium = @kenmiddleton
Instagram = @kenmmiddleton   
Twitter = @kenmmiddleton

333 Steve Feldman, CEO Feinberg Consulting: An Inspiring Story of Recovery

Steve's journey to recovery from addiction began in 1992 and has become the foundation of his life and work. He is Chief Executive Officer at Feinberg Consulting, a company that helps families manage addiction, mental health issues and family healthcare crises. Feinberg's reason for being is to help those in crisis get the right kind of help fast. Sadly, too many people go through the healthcare system over and over with little results. Feinberg’s goal is to give families and those in trouble the resources to get the right help fast and make it stick. 
In Steve's words:
I have over 40 years of experience as a business owner and entrepreneur. I’m a trained interventionist, and I work with hundreds of families, helping to create positive outcomes in addiction, mental health, family crisis interventions and healing.

I have made my passion my career, and I am proud to be part of Feinberg Consulting, a great group of people involved in personal growth, interventions, mental health, addiction recovery and self-care. I love what I do and am grateful for every part of my journey that has led me here. My philosophy is that balance, continual effort towards optimal self-care, and ongoing personal development are everything when it comes to being your best.      
    
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Don’t lose hope. Healing really is really possible even if you feel like you’ve tried everything.
2. If a loved one has an addiction or mental health challenge, you have the power to adjust your approach and attitude to dealing with it, and that can make all the difference.
3. An Intervention can combat the denial inherent in addiction and mental health challenges. If the person of concern seems blind or unresponsive to the ways their behavior is affecting their friends and loved ones, this process can do wonders in reframing the way they think about their behavior.

📣 Social media and contact info

steve@feinbergcare.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-feldman-1a501825/
https://www.instagram.com/feinbergcare/
https://www.facebook.com/FeinbergCare

332Anne Katona Linn: It is easier to raise strong children than to repair broken adults

Dr Anne Katona Linn is a passionate Educational Coach, Speaker, Author, Leader across the United States. She has dedicated her career to helping schools and communities develop safe, supportive and positive environments for all. Learning from her own personal experiences with childhood adversity and trauma, she is an outspoken advocate for holistic wellness and has developed a unique set of skills in systems change, special education, school mental health, trauma-informed/healing-centred practices that reflects her experiences with over 26 years in the field.
Her unique endeavours include a Think Tank with men serving life in prison and reform thought partners, and mentoring youth at a juvenile detention facility. 
Anne travelled the country and settled back in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband. She spends her time with family and at their camper near the Lehigh River where she and her husband enjoy whitewater stand up paddling.

Learn more about Anne: www.katonalinnconsulting.com

331 Darryl Rodgers: Give Your Child Their Best Opportunity at Recovery from Addiction!

You’ve recently discovered that your child has a drug problem?  What do you do?  You’ve tried to talk to them about it, but they don’t listen, and the more you talk, the more defensive they get.  Their grades are slipping, they’re angry and rebellious.  You found out they’ve lied to you and stolen from you to support their habit.  Who can you turn to for help?  Your child’s life is hanging in the balance.
Darryl Rodgers coaches the parents of children struggling with a substance use disorder.  Darryl’s oldest of two boys, Chase, died in a drug-impaired wreck in 2014 at the age of 20 after struggling with addiction for a year and a half.  Darryl wrote a book about Chase’s life that was published in 2015 and began speaking on drug prevention.  In 2018, Darryl began facilitating a peer support group for the parents of addicted children known as PAL (Parents of Addicted Loved Ones).  Darryl also serves on the state advisory board for NC Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  
3 top tips for my audience:
1. If you’re experiencing emotional pain, learn to see it as an opportunity for growth. 
2. Parents, be willing to change the one person in this equation you can – yourself. 
3. Learn to let go of control over your child’s life.  

Social media and contact info
Website:  TheFamilyRecoveryCoach.com 
Online Course: DarrylRodgers.com
TikTok: @thefamilyrecoverycoach
YouTube:  Darryl Rodgers
Facebook: DarrylRodgers.Author

#familyrecovery #familyrecoverycoach #recovery #addiction #addictionrecovery #substanceusedisorder #parenting #parentingtips #parentingteens

330 Taimi Allen : Fake News - How Personifying her Inner Critics helped Taimi deal with Depression

Taimi Allan is CEO of Changing Minds, a Charitable NGO governed and operated by people with lived experience of mental distress and addiction. As someone who identifies as having thrived because of, not despite, her own Lived Experience, Taimi champions Lived Experience Leadership and is known for leading with humility and compassion. Amongst other innovative programmes, Taimi envisioned Whakatau Mai, the world’s first peer-supported holistic, online and fully accessible wellbeing sessions, Rākau Roroa, New Zealand’s lived experience leadership initiative, and recoVRy, a Virtual Reality platform that allows the viewer to walk in the shoes of someone experiencing distress. 
Taimi works on mental health system transformation via various strategic governance positions including the Permanent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission and the Suicide Mortality Review Committee. Featured in M2 Woman Magazine as a global thought-leader, she was awarded a New Zealander of the year Local Hero Medal in 2021.
Taimi’s history in film, theatre and television, means she often uses the arts as a safe vehicle to help audiences understand and see value in challenging experiences. Her creative work includes the world’s first International Mental Health Arts Festival ‘The Big reTHiNK’ as featured in MiNDFOOD Magazine and collaborating on and the annual Atawhai festival.

Learn more about Taimi: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/taimi-allan

329 Julia Barton: Postpartum Depression - From Being Isolated to Helping Women Bloom

The seeds of Julia’s life mission were planted when she earned her Reiki I certification at the age of 8. A born intuitive and empath, young Julia used reiki to feel safe and protected. Despite growing up in a holistic household, adulthood found Julia unsure of how to best use her gifts. Her isolating experience with post-partum depression cultivated a desire to support and nurture others. Julia became a post-partum doula and Reiki Master Teacher to guide new mothers to trust their intuition and find joy in their post-partum journey, and created Olive & Bloom Holistic Care and Healing to help women bloom into their fullest selves.

Learn more about Julia: www.oliveandbloom.net

Facebook and Instagram: @oandbloom

328 Anissa Hudak: Your Issues are in Your Tissues. Let Your Soul Heal With Movement

As a Yoga Therapist and the founder of the Trauma Healing Yoga Therapy Program, Anissa works with women who have been sexually traumatized to help them heal their PTSD (and other trauma-related issues) with yoga therapy. As a 2x rape survivor, she intimately understands these women's needs and helps them navigate their healing journeys.
         
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Never Give Up
2. Find people or services to help you meet your needs on your healing journey
3. Try yoga - you might like it!

327 Nefertiti San Miguel: How to Live Your Life Authentically on Your Terms

Nefertiti San Miguel is the embodiment of passion, a vivid advocate for the arts, neuroscience and mental health. As an international mixed-media artist, Ikebanist, performer, speaker, entrepreneur, published author and trailblazer, she raises eyebrows across numerous industries. 
With a reputation for rocking her eclectic style, Nefertiti is the founder of Etnia Fusion, a Boston-based boutique enterprise dedicated to promoting and cultivating multiculturalism through educational programs, functional/wearable art, and dance. She’s been featured on radio and television programs, web series, YouTube Channels, newspapers and magazines across the nation, and in recent years, has been garnering attention abroad through podcasts from New Zealand, Canada and Australia. 
Since 2021, Nefertiti has been sharing her talents with AmorUmbrella, a Veterans Organization serving military women. Her current endeavours include: teaching her method of art installations NM3 (Narrative Multi-Sensory Mixed Media ) as therapeutic activity for stress management and 3D Vision Board for life achievers. She welcomes new connections and invites readers to email her.

Learn more about Nefertiti: www.etniafusion.com
Contact Nefertiti: Nefertiti.SanMiguel@gmail.com

326 Nicole Smith : Fighting for the Value of Humanity One Story at a Time

Nicole Smith, the founder of Dignity Defense Institute, is a communications expert who has spent the last decade of her career shining a light on the darkest parts of the human condition around the globe. And yet, it wasn't until 2020 that her mission was given flesh and bone. After giving birth to her daughter in distress, which resulted in the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy, Nicole has dedicated her life to advocating and shouting about the value of her little one ever since.

Armed with an education background in Law and Public Policy and an extensive career in Communications, Nicole Smith has led the charge in nearly a dozen international campaigns with a direct impact on the release of persecuted religious minorities around the globe - even amassing over one million petition signatures for one of those wrongfully imprisoned people overseas. She's raised millions in donor dollars for domestic and international causes, landed several books on the New York Times Bestseller's List - even up to #1 on that list - and partnered with countless other nonprofits to drive real and lasting results for people on the ground globally.      
        
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Balance between hope and hopelessness is paramount to the mobilization of an audience.
2. Scale your impact. Not everyone can afford to donate or show up personally, so create other paths to impact. 
3. The betterment of the lives of those you serve is your true north. You must always maintain a lazer focus on that true north. 

Social media and contact info. 
Facebook: @NicoleMYSmith
Twitter: @NicoleMYSmith
Instagram: @NicoleMYSmith
TikTok: NicoleMYSmith/
LinkedIn: NicoleMYSmith/

Pro Dignity, No Doubt Podcast
Dignity Defense Institutue Nonprofit