How Have You Grown This Year?

By Ellie Pike, Carrie Zhang, Eric Dorsa, Gloria, Jen Ponton & Shay

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The end of the calendar year packs a lot into a short amount of time and it can be easy to deprioritize your mental health in all that noise. One of the best ways to refocus on your values is to remember the ways you’ve grown this past year.

So to honor the journey of 2023, we created an audio mural using six short stories from listeners and past guests. Storytellers focus not only on specific challenges but also on how they have built resilience, fostered mental health, leaned on therapy, and tapped into community. Ultimately, these collective vignettes whisper a comforting reminder that we are not alone and that hope is stronger than defeat.

Presented by

Ellie Pike, MA, LPC

Ellie Pike is the Sr. Manager of Alumni/Family/Community Outreach at ERC & Pathlight Behavioral Health Centers. Over the years, she creatively combined her passions for clinical work with…
Presented by

Carrie Zhang

Carrie Zhang is the founder of Asian Mental Health Project Founded in 2019, the project currently uses social media, multimedia content creation and community events to de-stigmatize topics of mental…
Written by

Eric Dorsa

Eric Dorsa is an LGBTQ advocate, actor, comedian, and drag queen currently living in Chicago, Illinois. As an advocate for the LGBTQ community, Eric travels around the country sharing their…
Presented by

Gloria

Gloria wants to destigmatize mental health and share her journey. Pathlight provided her the tools, resources, and safety that she needed to build a foundation of lifelong tools she can always use to…
Presented by

Jen Ponton

Most known as the fiercely feminist fat activist 'Rubi' on AMC's critical darling DIETLAND, Jen is an award-winning actress and body liberation activist. With a television resume that includes 30…
Written by

Shay

Shay lives in Colorado with her family. An avid learner and science nerd, Shay loves to read about topics of interest and share them with her wife, who listens patiently. In her spare time, Shay likes…