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Megan

Megan Hilton has struggled with many mental health issues, including depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and PTSD since she was in middle school. Megan has had three suicide attempts in her life and eventually was able to get professional help through an inpatient treatment center. After returning to school, Megan has been focused on becoming a child and adolescent therapist.

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Natalie

Natalie Toom has been struggling with severe depression, social anxiety, and self harm that only started a few years ago. With DBT, she is now a suicidal ideation survivor. Through hard work and dedication, she is now living a very happy life. Her goal is to go to college and major in art. She wants to become an artist of any sort in animation films. She is now very open about mental health and wants to help others who went through the same thing as she did.

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Flora

Flora Medina has struggled with depression, anxiety, and self harm from a young age and is a survivor of suicidal ideation. With hard work and continued use of DBT she is now a college student studying fashion. She hopes to destigmatize mental illness and share what she has learned to help others.

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Abi

Abi Richards is a suicidal ideation survivor. She has struggled with issues like bipolar disorder & substance use. Through DBT, she has overcome & lives a life worth living today.

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Lily

Lily Cornell Silver has survived suicidal ideation and lived with generalized anxiety and panic disorder since she was a child. She lost her dad to suicide in 2017. She started a mental health focused interview series called Mind Wide Open that seeks to destigmatize topics such as suicide, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, OCD and more.

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Johnathan

Johnathan White-Cloud Courtney helps lead suicide prevention coordination in his community, is a public speaker, and an advocate of peer support. He is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and a military veteran. He has survived suicide attempts, PTSD, and alcohol problems. His wife Emily is his rock and he credits skills, like those presented on this website, with saving his life.

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Diana

Diana Cortez Yanez is an advocate, lived experience consultant and suicide attempt survivor. She has provided expertise to Facebook and the #ZeroSuicide health care movement.  She is a graduate of a comprehensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy program called ACES, developed by Dr. Kate Comtois . She is passionate about sharing her personal experience in hope of helping improve the interaction between healthcare providers and the individuals going through this traumatic experience.

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DeQuincy

DeQuincy Lezine, PhD, is a suicide attempt survivor who has been active in suicide prevention since 1996, including roles in the development of national and state suicide prevention plans. He serves as Chief Lived Experience Officer of NowMattersNow.org. He is also President & CEO of Prevention Communities, focusing on suicide prevention and mental health promotion.

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Rick

Rick Strait is a mental health professional who uses his lived experience to try and help others who are struggling and to provide education to professionals and the community to reduce the prejudice that exist around mental health and suicide.

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Iden

Iden was first diagnosed with depression in the third grade. He has lived with depression and suicidal thoughts for much of his life. Iden is a suicide attempt survivor and in 2011 lost his partner to suicide.

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Katie

Katie Witkiewitz is a psychologist and an addiction scientist with a specific focus on harm reduction and mindfulness-based treatments for alcohol and drug use disorders.  She has lived experience of depression and suicidal thoughts. Her personal mindfulness practice has given her the strength to sit with negative thoughts and the clarity to live in the precious now.

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Leah

@leahida

Leah Harris, M.A. is a mother, storyteller, and suicide attempt survivor who advocates for a paradigm shift in the way that we approach suicide prevention and care. She is passionate about “trauma-informed suicide prevention” and is a consultant and trainer in trauma-informed approaches to care across a variety of human service settings.

 

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Annie

Annie Ost is a suicide attempt and suicide loss survivor. She is also a direct descendant of a Spokane tribe member. She believes that through hope and love we can all survive and thrive.

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Ursula

Ursula Whiteside, Founder and CEO, is a suicide prevention researcher, co-developer of NowMattersNow.org, and one of the first psychologists to publicly disclose that she has experienced suicide ideation. She thinks that lots of people have suicidal thoughts and yet it does not define them – or limit what they can achieve #ZeroSuicide

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Julie

Julie Richards, Co-founder and Board Secretary, is a suicide prevention, alcohol, and public health scientist who lost her mom to suicide in 2010. She regularly uses Now Matters Now strategies to build resilience, practice being present, and participate in life as much as possible. #MeansMatter

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Sarah

Sarah Clingan, Co-founder and Board Treasurer, is a Third Grade teacher and has been with Now Matters Now since its early days. Due to her lived experience, she is passionate about raising awareness and decreasing stigma surrounding mental health and suicide.

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Greg

Greg Simon is a psychiatrist and suicide prevention researcher. He is too humble to tell most people that he has built the largest ever growing dataset on suicide and mental health treatment as leader of the Mental Health Research Network. Greg has a specific interest in activating consumers to expect and demand more effective mental health care. #MHRN #ZeroSuicide www.mhresearchnetwork.org

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Dave

luxtonlabs.com

David D. Luxton is a suicide prevention researcher, clinical psychologist, and Chief Science Officer at NowMattersNow.org.  He is a passionate advocate for people with mental health conditions and their family members.

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Marsha

Marsha Linehan is a psychologist and a suicide prevention scientist.  She is the creator of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and has lived experience with mental illness, which she has shared openly. #LifeWorthLiving

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Jaeden

Jaeden Siler is completing an undergraduate in criminal justice having survived homelessness and foster care growing up. Jaeden hopes to empower others and has experienced personally the harm done by a well-intending yet broken systems. #WayForward #LivedExp

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Charles

Charles Allen is a social worker, suicide attempt survivor, and a United States Veteran.  Charles has lost his sister and fellow Veterans to suicide. Charles is passionate about reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. #WayForward

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Melissa

Melissa Parson is a documentary filmmaker who filmed some and edited all of the videos for Now Matters Now. Melissa is an artist who has lived experience with depression. She is focused on reducing stigma and shame surrounding mental health issues so that people can reach out for help. #LivedExp

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Beth

Beth Kirlin is a public health researcher and Seattle Storm fan. She has had times in her life when she has felt like giving up. Sharing her experiences with others has made her realize: 1. these thoughts are common and 2. we can all benefit from sharing how we make it through.

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Joey

Joey Veltkamp is an artist and someone who has experienced depression and suicidal thoughts. He was skeptical at first that such simple things would have such profound results. Daily use of these skills slow let him slow his ‘monkey brain’ down and decide whether or not he wants to worry about things. joeyveltkamp.com

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Anna-Brown

Anna-Brown Griswold is a doctoral student in clinical psychology in Seattle. She uses an integrative approach to psychotherapy grounded in attachment theory, mindfulness, emotion research, feminist therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. She has training in therapies that work with the long-term effects of childhood abuse and trauma, including schema therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy.

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Andy

Andrew Paves is a doting fiance and dog dad, and MMA fighter (6 wins, 1 loss), and an almost psychologist whose research focuses on cultural and diversity factors in healthy behaviors. He implements practice of mindfulness and other strategies into his competition regimen, which he credits for much of his success.

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Michelle

Michelle Brown is a psychologist who practices along side her therapy dog, Lucille. She focuses on using DBT skills, especially mindfulness, to reduce the suffering related to chronic pain that she experiences.