In honor of Mental Health Month, the Volume Up team is continuing our mental health series by talking about scars, both physical, and emotional. Scars can affect our mental health as a physical representation of our trauma but experts say that talking about scars openly can help others who may be struggling to work through their experiences.
Mederma, the No.1 doctor and pharmacist recommended scar treatment brand, is celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month by teaming up with This is My Brave, a nonprofit organization that uses the performing arts to end the stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction. Mederma is making a $25,000 donation to the charity to further its mission to empower individuals to share stories of their scar healing journeys.To celebrate this team up we talked with Mederma brand ambassador, Maria Sosa, and This is My Brave’s Director of Programming, Katie Grana.
Maria is a therapist based in Florida, serving Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding areas. She prioritizes assisting clients in discovering insights and tools which will allow them to view their problems through strength and solution-focused lens. Katie after many life events and seeing the work that This is My Brave can do for others joined the non-profit organization full time as their director of programming.
We talked with Katie and Maria about the partnership, mental health, the impact that scars have on individuals and more!
“As a mental health advocate, we know that scars have not only a physical component but also an emotional component. So this was a great campaign to look at the link between both of these things, understanding them from this perspective of ‘here is what it looks like and here is how we feel about it’.”
“When we get sponsorships from companies, organizations, things like that it really helps us to maintain and continue to grow our presence across the country. To date we’ve done almost 80 shows across the country and we have an alumni storyteller base of almost 1,000 individuals. So each year we’re able to grow on that.”
Listen to the full episode here or wherever you stream and head over to our Instagrams @Readthetease and @volumeupbythetease.
