As part of the National Eating Disorders Awareness week (February 24-March 2), Stacee and Doug interview Rebel Buersmeyer, LMFT, therapist and current President of the Oklahoma Eating Disorders Association.

Eating Disorders are complex illnesses impacting over 28 million Americans and their families during the course of their lifetime. Eating disorders have the 2nd highest mortality rate of mental health conditions and affect people regardless of gender, race, body-style, age, or socio-economic background.

In this personal and vulnerable conversation, Rebel shares information, insights and guidance for those struggling or wondering if they are struggling with an eating disorder. For those battling eating disorders and/or disordered eating, Rebel's knowledge and insights provide both help and hope that recovery is possible!

Stacee transparently shares from her personal and ongoing anorexia recovery journey, connecting with listeners in the struggle and sharing about the hard and authentic work that can strengthen recovery.

Doug is also able to share some hard-learned lessons as the spouse of someone diagnosed with an eating disorder - if you love someone struggling with an eating disorder, this episode is an opportunity to grow your understanding, empathy and support for your loved one's battle.

Speak Out Loud exists to share hope and encouragement for those struggling with mental illness and for those who love and support them. There is hope for the eating disorder journey - we invite you to listen and join us in experiencing hope together!

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

• To access the Eating Disorder screening tool which Rebel mentions in this episode, please visit: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/screening-tool/

• To learn more about Eating Disorders and resources for finding help in Oklahoma, please visit the Oklahoma Eating Disorders Association website at https://www.okeatingdisorders.org/

• To learn more about or to contact Rebel and her practice, Family Solutions Counseling, located in Central Oklahoma please visit https://familysolutionsok.com/about/rebel-buersmeyer/

Resources from Speak Out Loud:

• You can learn more about Stacee and Doug and Speak Out Loud at www.speakoutloud.me

• Follow Stacee and Speak Out Loud on Instagram and Facebook @speakoutloud.me

• Order Stacee's latest book, The Boat That Wouldn't Sink on Amazon: https://a.co/d/cdhvMb6

• You can access Stacee and Doug's free 5-day devotional resource, "Hope for those Struggling with Mental Health," on the YouVersion Bible App at http://bible.com/r/AC8

Borderline Personality Disorder - a painful and often misunderstood diagnosis. Often born out of intense and/or lengthy experiences of trauma and lack of secure attachment, for those who suffer, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can be a source of great pain, fear, and mental and emotional instability.

For those who love someone struggling with BPD, it can feel like there's a "hole in the bucket," draining away the energy, trust and love they've poured into their relationship with the one they love.

In this encore presentation of one of Speak Out Loud's most powerful episodes, frequent guest and friend, Phoebe Barron (LPC) interviews Stacee about her diagnosis and struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder and the daily mental and emotional turmoil, exhaustion, and loneliness it creates. Doug provides some lessons learned through the years of Stacee and their family living with this diagnosis along with professional information and insights from Phoebe's perspective as a LPC.

There's no one we'd trust to help guide this deeply vulnerable conversation than Phoebe. For those walking a journey with BPD and for those who love them, you will connect with this conversation and Stacee's experience, you will grow in empathy and compassion for those who suffer, and you'll hear from Stacee and Phoebe how there is hope, hope even in spite of the pain and struggle Borderline Personality Disorder creates.

Phoebe Barron is a LPC and a practicing therapist in greater Oklahoma City - you can find her online at phoebebarron.com and on Instagram @phoebekate.

Learn more about Stacee and Doug and all things Speak Out Loud at www.speakoutloud.me. You can follow Stacee on Instagram and Facebook @speakoutloud.me. Stacee's latest book, The Boat That Wouldn't Sink: A Memoir, is now available on Amazon.

What do you do when you come to the end of your rope - when you come to end of your own capacity to make life work apart from God?

In this encore presentation, a shared experience and connection bring Doug and special guest, Morgan Snyder of Become Good Soil and author of Becoming a King, together for a conversation about carrying hope for a spouse in a mental health crisis.

Doug and Morgan's conversation focuses on how the most difficult experiences can reveal our broken places and open a doorway for God to begin to heal and grow us into men better equipped to love and strive for those God has entrusted to our care.

For those who struggle with mental health and for those who love and support them, there's something for everyone in this episode. Special thanks to Morgan for so freely giving of his time, experience, wisdom and love for God and others in this episode!

Morgan Snyder is a grateful husband of over 20 years and a proud father of a wildly creative and witty daughter and a joyful and passionate son. He serves as a strategist, entrepreneur, teacher, writer, and speaker. His passion is to both be shaped by and shape the men and women who are shaping the kingdom of God.

In 2010, he established ⁠BecomeGoodSoil⁠, a fellowship of leaders whose global reach offers guidance for the narrow road of becoming the kind of person to whom God can confidently entrust the care of his kingdom. Morgan formerly served on the executive leadership team at Wild at Heart and has contended for the wholeheartedness of men and women alongside John and Stasi Eldredge for more than two decades.

He has led over a decade of Become Good Soil Intensives and sold out Wild at Heart men’s events across the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia. Morgan goes off the grid every chance he gets, whether bowhunting in the Colorado wilderness or choosing the adventurous life with his greatest treasures: his wife, Cherie; his son, Joshua; and his daughter, Abigail.

You can learn more about Morgan, the Become Good Soil podcast, and the resources he offers at becomegoodsoil.com. His book, Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man, was published in 2020 and can be found most places books are sold. As Morgan mentions in this episode, you can access resources for the Becoming a King retreat at becomingakingretreat.com.

You can learn more about Doug and Stacee Goetzinger and their mental illness recovery journey at their website, speakoutloud.me, including information on Stacee's two books The Boat that Wouldn't Sink & You Are Worth Saving, speaking resources, and access to all episodes of The Speak Out Loud podcast. The Speak Out Loud podcast is sharing hope and encouragement for those who struggle with mental illness and for those who love and support them.

Let's experience hope together!

Today's release is an encore presentation of one the most difficult episodes and topics to record for Stacee and Doug. For Stacee, this topic and story is deeply vulnerable, personal, painful and still tough to talk about.

The topic of self-harm continues to be a struggle for many, and the content is this episode is relevant for those who may struggle and for those who love and support them.

In this episode Doug interviews both Stacee and friend and LPC Deanna James on the topic of cutting and self-harm. Stacee has written a chapter in her book, You Are Worth Saving, on cutting, but this hour+ episode is the most in depth she has publicly spoken about her personal struggle with cutting and self-harm.

Along with Stacee's personal experience and insight, LPC Deanna James brings professional knowledge, insight and guidance for those who may struggle with self-harm and for parents, loved ones and friends of someone who struggles.

In this episode, Stacee and Deanna help to bring light to the following topics and questions:

*Is there a connection between self-harm and suicide?

*Signs to look for that may indicate a loved one or friend is struggling with cutting or other forms of self-harm

*How to start a conversation with someone you care about who may be struggling with self-harm

*Why some turn to self-harm as part of their mental illness journey

*Creating boundaries and safe-guards for a child or loved-one who struggles with cutting or other forms of self-harm

*How someone struggling with hurting themselves can begin to find help and some steps they can begin to take even before meeting with a therapist

*Hope and encouragement for those facing this battle and for those who love them

We recognize this conversation and topic can be triggering for individuals struggling with self-harm, Stacee and Deanna navigate their personal and professional experience with this struggle with honest and vulnerable conversation without providing graphic descriptions of self-harm behaviors.

Self-harm thrives in secrecy and shame, and its power is greatly weakened once it's brought into the light. Hope and help are available and possible for those struggling with self-harm.

**For anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts or experiencing a mental health crisis, call 988 for immediate help.

To learn more about Deanna and her practice, visit DeannaJamescounseling.com.

You can connect with Stacee and Doug and learn more their mental illness and recovery journey and their mission to bring hope to those struggling with mental health and to those who love and support them by following on social media channels @speakoutloud.me and at their websited www.speakoutloud.me.

Can joy and peace be experienced while battling depression and anxiety? Can we know God loves us even as we suffer? Has God abandoned or rejected me because I struggle with mental illness?

In this encore presentation, Stacee and Doug dive into these questions and more as they share a vulnerable and authentic conversation about following Jesus while living with mental illness.

God knows your mind and heart intimately - all of the good, the whole and the broken parts. He loves you with all of your pain and struggle, not just in spite of it. Stacee shares about the challenge of overcoming her past, her pain, and the ongoing impacts of mental illness to know and believe God truly loves her - even on the dark, fearful, and overwhelmingly anxious days.

God's love, joy, peace and hope are not only reserved for when your recovery is finished but are gifts of God to be experienced on the journey. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

In today's encore presentation of the Speak Out Loud podcast, Stacee and Doug share an interview with friend and LPC Phoebe Barron on the impacts and pain of trauma, felt even many years after its original source and cause.

Trauma.... it sounds so extreme. And to those who experience trauma's pain and power, it can be just that daunting. Through this interview with LPC and trauma specialist Phoebe Barron, Stacee and Doug hope to start the conversation to begin the healing process. Getting help and finding hope are possible for the impacts of trauma in your life or the life of a loved one or friend!

Trauma can be experienced in an instant or be the result of long periods of hurt or neglect. It can be recent, or it can be buried in your past. Overcoming trauma's impact and influence almost always requires walking the recovery journey with someone else - to bring it into the light and remove its power from your life.

As you listen to today's episode, we believe you'll hear both information and resources on dealing with your or a loved one's trauma, and you'll be encouraged in knowing you are not walking this journey alone.

You can find and follow today's guest, Phoebe Barron, on Instagram @phoebekatebarron. Her private counseling practice is located in Bethany, OK.

You can follow Speak Out Loud on both Instagram and Facebook @speakoutloud.me or visit our website at speakoutloud.me.

For the next several weeks we are pleased to present several "Encore" presentations of past Speak Out Loud episodes! This week, we are going back to the early releases of Speak Out Loud with a re-release of episode 4, "Finding Hope in the Darkness of Depression."

"Depression can feel like you are swimming with all your clothes on- like you are being overwhelmed and drug under and that it's impossible to get back to the surface" (Stacee).

In this episode, Stacee and Doug talk candidly about the overwhelming power of depression and its impact on their life, marriage and family. The battle with depression is an ongoing medical challenge, but Stacee and Doug help to bring deeper understanding out of their experience of this illness and talk about finding help and hope in the darkest of days.

If you struggle with depression, you'll connect with Stacee's story. For those who love someone battling this disease, Doug's lessons learned the hard way help to bring a deeper compassion for your loved one or friend. There is hope to be found in the dark tunnel of depression!

Together we can build a community of hope and encouragement for those who battle depression and struggle with mental health and for those who love and support them.

In this episode, Stacee and Doug dive into some of the topics and themes in Stacee's new book, The Boat That Wouldn't Sink. Forgiveness, loss, recovery and the impact of breaking cycles of brokenness and abuse are covered in this book as they form the story of Stacee's ongoing mental illness recovery journey and this memoir.

As Stacee shares her story from the messy middle of her life and story, you too can find the courage and strength to break generational hurts and experience the hope of planting a new seed for your children and family to come.

We invite you to listen and get your copy of The Boat That Wouldn't Sink on Amazon. Also follow Speak Out Loud on both Instagram and Facebook @speakoutloud.me

The mission of Speak Out Loud is to share hope and encouragement for those who struggle with mental health and with those who love and support them.

You can learn more and connect with Stacee and Doug at speakoutloud.me

You can order The Boat That Wouldn't Sink @ https://a.co/d/39PzZdV