Greetings from WisdomWithin!

Who the heck do I think I am, starting a little blog with such a potentially pretentious plaquard as “WisdomWithin”? It’s been a long road, culminating in this last year.

In 2016, I became a New York Certified Peer Specialist in Mental Health, with a goal toward encouraging mental health awareness, promoting self-advocacy and wellness; even more idealistically, reducing stigma and improving quality of life for our demographic.

Understand, that 20- 25% of the population will live with a mental health condition during their life time. That’s 1 in 4-5 people. Everyone knows someone living with a mental health condition. We are actually a very large group. Most of us are completely harmless, and … surprise… we are very much able to recover!

That NYCPS certification, is a fancy way to say I have lived mental health experience, lived mental health SYSTEM experience, follow a strict code of ethics, am willing to disclose and share my journey in an effort to be of help to others like me, and those who know and love us. This certification requires a level of ongoing education and work in the field, either directly with peers, or in contribution to the overall mental health awareness, advocacy and wellness community.

My work to date in this field has been voluntary, and in attempting to help organizations develop mental health awareness and peer support programs. “There come a time”, though, dear readers, when DOING it, has to take place of just talking about it. Hence, WisdomWithin. Self-taught, unfunded, but dedicated, studied and on a mission. Your interest, commentary and support are invited. This is intended as a safe space & a judgement free zone.

Welcome to Wisdom Within!