KJ (00:02.431)
Hi everybody. Welcome to the Heart of the Matter. I am so excited about today's guest, one of my best new friends. Her name's Leah. You guys are gonna absolutely love her. So welcome to the Heart of the Matter. If you have not yet, please subscribe, like, share, and click below and share this podcast. So without further ado.

Here today is my best new friend, Leah. Leah, welcome to the podcast.

Lea Brainerd (00:33.986)
Thank you so much, KJ, for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to talk to you today.

KJ (00:39.947)
Well, we're so excited for you to be here. Now, previously, I have interviewed my motley crew, as I like to call them, but they have been other providers who have been therapists, such as LMFT, social workers, counselors, like LPCs or LCMHCs in other states. You know, we've been reclassified.

As that but you are a little bit different. You're my zebra in my crew So please tell us and tell the audience Leah. What do you do? What's your identifier?

Lea Brainerd (01:18.51)
Absolutely. So my identifier is I'm a physician assistant. So I work in mental health I guess you could refer to me as a psychiatric clinician. I Have been a PA for about two years. So what a PA is if people aren't aware We actually recently changed our name to physician associate Although I'm not really sure when we're supposed to be transitioning to that so PA is no works either way

KJ (01:30.857)
Yeah.

KJ (01:43.627)
Cool.

Lea Brainerd (01:46.89)
But we're very similar to nurse practitioners in that we diagnose, evaluate, prescribe medications. We do usually I say like 80% of what a doctor does. You know, there are some cases where we need to refer. But I've been working in this field for about two years. I worked in mental health and substance use. I did some inpatient work for about a year.

Last year, about a year and a half ago, I started working from home and worked for a company called Mind Bloom. And so what we do is prescribe integrated ketamine therapy for at-home use. Huge fan of ketamine for anxiety, depression, and a whole other slew of mental health disorders. Also started my own business, so.

working with a local therapist of mine and we're looking to eventually open an integrative medicine practice where we really treat the mind, body, soul, all together very holistic minded. So, yeah, mental health, PA, I also am a life coach. So I'm a professional certified life coach. I do some of that work as well.

KJ (03:06.395)
Well, that's awesome. So for the audience at home, can you tell us a little bit about what educational requirements there are for a PA?

Lea Brainerd (03:15.294)
Absolutely. So have to have a bachelor's degree. Really any degree is fine as long as you have the prerequisites for PA school like anatomy and physiology, you know biochemistry, certain different science classes, and then physician assistant degrees and master's degree. So I went to school for 29 months here in Memphis, Tennessee at Christian Brothers University.

And once we're trained really to be generalists, so like primary care type, but the cool thing about PAs versus nurse practitioners is we can jump specialties if we want to. So if I start working in mental health and decide that's not for me, I could go find a cardiologist to work under and do cardiology or you know work in the hospital or do surgery. So yeah, it's a two-year master's degree.

KJ (04:10.091)
Well, that's awesome. Well, how cool is that? I love it. So mental health has kind of been your niche then.

Lea Brainerd (04:18.834)
Absolutely. I knew for a long time that I wanted to work in mental health. Psychology really interests me. So I majored in psychology and biology and undergrad. And then I actually did a year of my LPC school before I went to PA school. I decided to go a bit of a different route. You know, I got all these student loans, so I needed to kind of choose one path and.

I figured I can do some counseling, you know, along with my PA work as well. But really my own mental health journey and my own experiences with family and things like that really got me interested. And as I've been really working on my own mental health, I think that's so important. It really helped me help my patients so much more because...

I've been where they are, you know, and I am where they are a lot of times. And, and having somebody, especially like a doctor, you know, or provider, um, who typically is very, uh, emotionally distant, you know, we're, we're kind of taught that way in a way. So, um, I have a little bit of a different approach to that. Whenever I self-disloyalize, uh, to someone that I meet that, but also struggle with anxiety and depression. I just see their, their affect, you know,

Thank you, thank God. I can actually be myself and tell her what's really going on and she understands and has been through the same thing. Yeah.

KJ (05:48.463)
Yeah, I like that. Well, I want to ask you, because I want to follow some of the same questions that I've asked the other folks that have been with me. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing folks that are in your same professional track that you are? Do you think that there are challenges?

Lea Brainerd (06:10.086)
Oh.

Lea Brainerd (06:13.258)
I do think there are challenges. In my same professional track, whether it be PA, NPMD, doctors, providers in general, the way that we're educated, I think sets up our own mental health to be poor. The way that we're very much pushed in school, the way...

in the workplace where you work hours upon hours and it doesn't matter how you feel or what's going on with you. Nobody really cares about that as long as you take care of the patients, make the money and go home. That's really what the bosses care about. So I think that presents a lot of challenges not only for our own mental and physical health but also the care of the patient.

So if, you know, I'm always about putting your mask on first before you put it on the baby, right? So you got to put your own mask on first. And I feel like that culture is very much reinforced. Now, I think it has started to improve as we learn more about mental health and more people are realizing how important that is. But I think that does present the challenges, the work hours, the extremely high expectations.

KJ (07:20.541)
Right.

Lea Brainerd (07:42.978)
And the approach to treating patients, I think, is difficult because if you're even, if you're primary care, you're really trying to like encompass the whole patient, but it's all about pushing out the meds, right? Not much time for education, you know? They want people in and out to make the money. And so to really, truly educate people on what they need, the most important things mostly are nutrition, exercise, you know, managing your stress.

KJ (07:56.618)
Right.

Lea Brainerd (08:12.598)
So that's basically what people will say, make sure you're exercising, eating right, managing your stress, nobody knows how to really do that. So I think that presents a lot of different challenges. And then also too, if you're in a specialty, you can only look at certain organs, you're only treating this certain part of the body when everything works together. And so it really can...

present a narrow mindset and then the communication between specialists and doctors is not great and we don't have a really good system for that. Getting a hold of providers is really hard. So those are some of the challenges that I would say are pretty big for us in my, you know, lens.

KJ (08:54.415)
Yeah, do you think that there, and I don't know if I'm going to ask this question the right way. And the only way I can say it is maybe using myself as the example. So I see like older clinicians or people who have been in my particular arena longer than me and the way they practice versus the way I see younger clinicians because I'm a supervisor.

And then the way I practice, which, you know, I'm a weirdo, so I'm like, whoo, I'm out on my own anyway. But I see some of the dynamic changes between that to like those two perspectives. And so, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm like caught in this kind of weird space. Sometimes like even within my lifetime, the DSMB has been like rewritten or like redone twice, right?

because I have a new student right now, she's gonna graduate in December, and I'll say things and she's like, oh, that's not in the DSM, and I'm like, well hell, it was in there like five years ago, and I'll go and I'll be like, oh, she's right, they took it out, or they renamed it, right? And so, you know, it's just not that, it's just kind of even the, you know, talk about Axis Five, you know, they got rid of that, you know, no, there are no Axis Fives, and you're like, well, I like that, but you know, okay, I get that, and I even noticed that when I was kinda.

Lea Brainerd (10:06.645)
Mm-hmm.

KJ (10:22.111)
teaching her the other day. And I went back to that model because it makes sense to me. And you can kind of parse it out a little bit better when you're talking about how to diagnose. So I see just this change in the way they're teaching now. I don't know if I like it all because sometimes I don't think it makes sense. And you're like, quit being all this social justice crap and just take care of people. Like stop some of this.

And some of the older people, I don't even know what the hell they're doing. I, they're just out grazing. So do you see, I know it's crazy. I sound crazy when I say that, but see, you're laughing. You know what I'm talking about. It's just like they're the young ones. I, they're doing weird shit. And the old ones there, they also are. And I'm standing here going, having whiplash. So for you and your, in your sphere.

Lea Brainerd (11:01.735)
I did it. I do.

KJ (11:17.151)
Do you see similar things or am I the only crazy one?

Lea Brainerd (11:21.438)
No, you're not the only crazy one. I do see similar things, and I'll use myself as an example as well. Since I'm in a very niche practice with Mind Bloom with the ketamine therapy, there are a lot of times where we need medical approval, so like kind of approval from a certain doctor, depending on what people present with.

KJ (11:23.005)
Okay, good.

KJ (11:27.804)
Okay, good.

Lea Brainerd (11:47.158)
and even working with therapists. We always ask if somebody has a therapist and you know, if you're on medications, you need to let those other providers know that you're doing the ketamine treatments and so some people will say, well, my doctor, you know, is really old school. So I already know that they're not a fan of it, you know.

KJ (12:06.164)
they know.

Lea Brainerd (12:07.89)
Um, so, and if you look at the research on ketamine, I mean, there's no denying that it works tremendously better than any of the antidepressants that we have out there now. Um, but that limited mindset, you know, it's easy to get set in your ways. And as we know, as we get older, that there's a reason for that, you know, there's parts of our brain that, that just really like.

routine and it's sometimes difficult to learn new things and you can get very rigid in your worldview and Being malleable to change and understanding that change is a constant and we are always going to be evolving and growing and There's no absolute right way to do anything So yeah, I would I would definitely say

notice the difference between the older providers and the younger providers. We're a lot more cognizant of prescribing medication, especially controlled substances. I'll see a client who's on a bunch of different meds that shouldn't be used together and a lot of times it's an older physician that is doing that. So absolutely, I would say it's very much similar in that regard.

KJ (13:24.339)
Yeah, I didn't know because I see that a lot and I'm like, I get that we probably need parameters somewhere, but it's like, whoa, there's like this inconsistency and it drives me crazy sometimes. So I just didn't know if it worked. It was just me, my world, and visitors too. Okay. Well, my next question for you is what does mental wellness mean to you?

Lea Brainerd (13:42.958)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Lea Brainerd (13:54.622)
Mental wellness to me, loaded question, but I would say what's so important about finding your own mental wellness is finding the tools that work for you. Finding your tools that make you feel mentally well. So we're not always going to have good days. Like you and I were talking earlier how we're both having a bit of a hard time.

frustrating days but mental wellness to me is like a sacred safe space that you have found within yourself when the emotions are hard, when the feelings are hard. You have that safe space within yourself that has those tools that work for you. And not everybody's different. And we are all unique. We're all connected but we're all unique in that way. Where

you go to your coping skills, right? Your ways of grounding, your ways of releasing, whether it be exercise, yoga, meditation, just taking a break, taking a walk outside, making sure you're taking care of your all around health, right, your physical health, your mental health. I think mental wellness really encompasses all of

those aspects of health, you know, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and being able to have that safe space, which can take a long time to figure out, right? And you have to practice and try different things because, you know, one thing works for one person and it doesn't for the other. So, yeah, that would be my definition of mental wellness.

KJ (15:45.707)
Okay, and so my next question then is what habits do you use to kind of strengthen that safe space within you or around you for your mental health?

Lea Brainerd (15:57.25)
Me personally? Oh, well, of course, I personally started the ketamine treatments in January. That opened up a whole new world for me because I had a lot of blocks. I knew all of the things to do. I've done them here and there, but the consistency was not there. So medication, right?

therapy, I also started therapy around the time that I started the ketamine treatment. So having that person that is not your best friend that you bombard, you know, and kind of emotionally vomit on, I think is so important. I mean, most everybody in this world.

could benefit from a therapist and having that place where you know that you're going to be able to work through some of this harder things that are going on in life. Finding space every day for those mental wellness activities. Routine I think is really important. Just some kind of routine that you can take anywhere with you. Not just in your house but that you can take with you. So for me that has been meditation.

at some point every day, which I could for the life of me not meditate prior to the ketamine treatments. So I feel like that's one thing that has really helped open that world up. You know exercising. I'm coming to realize that my goal eventually will be to exercise at some point every day. That's so important for me personally with especially people with anxiety and a lot of body anxiety. It gets a whole lot of that energy out.

because anxiety is just energy that doesn't know where to go and it needs to be directed. So, you know, meditation, exercise, and finding my own spiritual practice as well. You know, mental health and spirituality to me are so linked and so important. So, you know, whether it be, you know, going to church or...

Lea Brainerd (18:03.854)
Christianity or Buddhism or whatever, you know, or just spiritual practice in general, not necessarily any kind of domination, but having that relationship with the universe and that understanding has really helped find that sacred space within myself. You know, I've also gotten into like breathwork, so going to like breathwork classes and trying new things and being scared even to try.

new things. So yeah, those are those are a few of the practices that have really been helpful for me. Well, eating right as well. I think it also I've realized like how much food impacts my mood. Food absolutely impacts people's moods. And I feel like that is not stressed enough. So yeah.

KJ (18:54.244)
again.

Yeah, I was working actually on a window of tolerance video for the podcast. And, you know, I think what a lot of people don't realize is that, you know, we have multiple windows of tolerance within us based on the situation. You know, I love conflict. If it's interpersonal, it's like, man, come at me because I want to fight. Let's do it. It's horrible.

You know, I'm the person who orders the food at the restaurant. It's like, it comes to me. I'm like, Oh no, this is not what I ordered. Please send it back. And you know, if that's shaped by my history of being a poor white kid in the trailer park, it's like, Oh, uh, this is not what I wanted. This is not what I paid for. And my husband, although raised poor too, his whole thing is like, you know,

don't pitch a fit, like just eat it, like just be thankful. Like you got it, like shut your mouth, right? And he will avoid it at all cost. But he's also the guy for 35 years that like went to war and shot you in the face for a paycheck, right? So it's like, and I wouldn't do that, although I don't have good gun skills, but I might later on, but you see what I'm saying.

Lea Brainerd (20:13.395)
Right.

Lea Brainerd (20:23.562)
Yeah, absolutely.

KJ (20:24.643)
So it's like you yeah, but you see these different interpersonal windows that you have or I should say different windows of tolerance within yourself Like I would never think that I could go to another country and take it over and shoot people in the face Right. He has no problem But like take me to Rafferty's and cook my steak wrong and oh bro everybody in the place And he would never say a word right so it's really funny how within us

we have all these different little windows of tolerance, right? It's yeah. Yeah, based on them all. So I think even when we're in relationship with other people, we have to be really cognizant of their perspectives too in these different nuanced things because it impacts us greatly and we react to it.

Lea Brainerd (20:58.41)
Absolutely. Based on our experiences, because it shapes us. Yeah.

KJ (21:18.619)
And it's, you know, it's really interesting when you start thinking about it. And just this very morning, he ran out of beard oil and put a different one in. And he went, and I saw just this kind of visceral reaction. I was like, what's wrong? And he's like, I ran out of beard oil and I had to put this old wax in and I smelled it. And it made me think of, you know, this old job I had. And he's like, am I gut hurt?

And he's like, I'm gonna not use this anymore. I'm gonna find the old one. And he's like, oh, the body's keeping score, you know? And I went on this big thing and he was like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm just throwing this away and I'm getting a new one. But like that was a keen example, right? It really was. The smell was tagged to a job, right? His last job that he had. And he didn't wanna like remember it.

Lea Brainerd (22:03.262)
trigger it's a trigger yeah

KJ (22:14.971)
And like, you have a stomach ache and he's like a tough guy.

But he didn't tie it all together, right? That's funny, right? Well, yeah, it's my job. Don't there applies to me.

Lea Brainerd (22:21.046)
Yeah, he is. Right, right. You did though.

Ah ha

Lea Brainerd (22:36.61)
But I think it's important to learn how to do that ourselves. And I will say that's one thing that ketamine has really helped me personally with, and a lot of my clients is making those connections. Because we get triggered all day, every day, and if you're walking through it blind, and you have no idea, all of a sudden you just put beard oil on, and your stomach hurts, and you feel really anxious, and not good. That can really leave you feeling not really out of control.

And so I think the triggers, recognizing them, because we're all gonna get triggered, they're never gonna go away, we just have to learn from them.

KJ (23:14.887)
So, Leah, will you do my audience a little bit of some psycho-ed and kind of explain the differences between SSRIs and the norepinephrine kind of things and ketamine. So they just have a general idea of the typical medications that providers prescribe and ketamine, which by the way, I'm on the ketamine bus, so I love it. So go ahead.

Lea Brainerd (23:44.566)
So you may just talk about ketamine or the other medications as well.

KJ (23:48.059)
Well, just if you could give a little information about the others just so that, because I think that's for the listening audience, that's pretty much the standard that they're used to hearing about.

Lea Brainerd (24:01.626)
Absolutely. So if we're just talking mainly anxiety and depression and a few of the other major mental health problems, of course the medications we have to treat right now are the antidepressants. So that's going to include SSRIs, so serotonin that works on serotonin. We have SNRIs which works on serotonin and norepinephrine. Those are the two main classes that are used right now. There are some others that aren't used as much. So like...

tricyclic antidepressants, those are an older class. And so those are the main ones I would say we have also mood stabilizers as well and antipsychotics that can oftentimes be used for an adjunct for anxiety or depression. Anxiolytics, so that would include like the benzodiazepine class, so you know, Xanax, Valium, Advand.

And then you have some off ones like BUSPAR for anxiety, have hydroxazine, just kind of like a hyped up Benadryl, that can be helpful for anxiety as well. Now, we'll just kind of focus on the two major antidepressant medications. So serotonin nor epinephrine are the two that they really work on. They also work on dopamine and less of a direct

way. With ketamine, ketamine has about five mechanisms of action that it works in the brain. And it targets it in a completely different way. So it works on NMDA receptors, which are very much linked to neuroplasticity in the brain, which is your ability of your brain to grow new pathways. It also works on the glutamate receptors, which are very much linked to anxiety and depression.

symptoms and trauma, of course. It has about three others that are kind of similar in terms of what it's working on. But it completely, it also helps with inflammation, let me just say that. But it really helps to reset the whole neural pathways of the brain, specifically in the parts of the brain like the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the parts of the brain that are associated with a lot of the mental...

Lea Brainerd (26:23.466)
illness that we experience. And, you know, with let's just focus on the outcomes, right? So with ketamine and one of the biggest studies on ketamine done, about 89% of people had a reduction in their anxiety and depression symptoms after four ketamine treatments. Let's compare that to, you know, studies done on antidepressants where that's about 50% and that's not for treatments. That's after, you know, probably a month or two.

on antidepressants. So, you know, it's a completely different approach to treating mental illness. The studies really speak for themselves. And I think what's most important is the reset of the brain chemistry and the neuro pathways. Not only that, but it's really teaching you how to meditate, how to get out of your own head for about now.

long and learning those skills that you need to sustain this progress. Ketamine can work just wonderfully for somebody that wants to go get an IV treatment and not have any integration, any therapy that has rapid-acting antidepressant and anxiety effects but those are eventually going to wane off. And I had a client who really explained it well is that

it's kind of like a tree branch, right? So the ketamine helps start to grow those new branches. But if you don't integrate the necessary changes into your life, just all about self care, really, they're gonna prune up eventually. So you'll oftentimes see people that are helped by the ketamine. And about a month after they're done, they're kind of back to where they were. But then you look at their lifestyle and, okay, what changes have you made?

etc. You know that really speaks for itself on how important it is. I think too we're really trying to emphasize the importance of integration because in a normal psychiatry office, right, you're gonna go talk to the person for longer for the first time. They're not gonna have much to say and your follow-up visits are gonna be about five minutes.

Lea Brainerd (28:46.918)
and you're just gonna keep getting refills of your meds. There's no requirement of therapy a lot of times. Some people will require it, but you're just taking these meds for years and years and years and still struggling. And I think you have to look at the side effects of the medicine, taking it for so long and you're oftentimes told you're gonna have to be on medicine forever.

And I just don't believe that that's the case. I think mental illness is like a physical illness. Sometimes they're chronic and sometimes they're transient. And I think that the just handing out drugs is a part of it, but I think also too just how the medications are working in the brain. You know, with the SSRIs and SNRIs, you're really only targeting certain

KJ (29:21.616)
Mm-hmm.

Lea Brainerd (29:38.498)
specific receptors in the brain. Whereas versus something like ketamine or even non-drug treatments like neurofeedback and biofeedback and hypnotherapy. Even brushing your teeth with your left hand if you're right-handed that increases your neuroplasticity. Meditation increases your neuroplasticity. So I think it's all about the approach to the brain.

and how what you're doing to treat it, right? Are we just gonna target these chemicals that may or may not be involved in what is going on? Or are we gonna kind of do like a global reset, right? And really work on the habits and the different things that we need to do for our own wellness. So someone could benefit or need, you know, pedamine with neurofeedback and maybe some EMDR.

therapy and also they need to refrain from gluten and they may need some supplements as well like you really have to take from a bunch of different places in order to treat it and not just prescribe some Prozac and Xanax. I just think that's not good practice and you know that maybe offend some people because that's what they do all day every day but I mean why are we the only specialty that doesn't look at the organ that they're treating?

Dr. Daniel Amen, I don't know if you've heard of him, KJ, but yeah, I mean what he does is so ideal and that is something very similar that I want to do. He does spec scans on the brain so he can look at the brain and see exactly what type of ADHD you have. Or if you have trauma.

KJ (31:00.135)
Okay.

KJ (31:09.235)
He did.

Lea Brainerd (31:18.838)
have, you know, they do all kind of testing on food allergies and sensitivity. I mean, they really take into account the whole person and they actually look at the organ that they're treating. They can very much specify treatments for each person because one type of ADHD may be helped by a stimulant and another type, it could make it a whole lot worse if you give them the stimulant. Right. So, um, that whole model to me is so ideal and what I hope that we can get to one day.

KJ (31:37.439)
works.

KJ (31:47.879)
Well, I mean, you know, not that you want me to get on my soapbox, but I will since you brought it up. It's because it's not paid for by insurance. That's why. So let me just drop that little nugget. That's why, because those scans aren't paid for and neither are 95% of the other tests that he runs.

Lea Brainerd (31:53.742)
I'm sorry.

Lea Brainerd (31:57.418)
Ah.

Lea Brainerd (32:04.058)
Mm. It is fine.

Lea Brainerd (32:13.426)
Right. And who can afford that? Not the normal person.

KJ (32:15.595)
Nobody. I mean, I mean, what you do isn't covered by insurance. It's out of pocket. So it's kind of out of reach for most people. So I hate to say that it's really hard for most people to venture out, especially like right now the economy sucks and inflation is high. And it's just one of those things. So people are going to go for the what's covered. What can I get?

Lea Brainerd (32:21.206)
and does not.

KJ (32:46.195)
You know, and I hear it in my arena where a lot of times therapy is covered, but people pick entrance with such high deductibles so they can afford it. Then they can't afford the deductible so they can come. So I get that a lot lately.

Lea Brainerd (33:04.202)
That's a big issue. That is, I could go on my own set box with that. It seems like insurance and even clinical studies and they're can be very constrictive and they're very much behind, at least five years behind what is really helpful.

KJ (33:28.571)
At least. Not more. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again.

Lea Brainerd (33:32.554)
Yeah, it's not more. Absolutely. Yeah.

KJ (33:33.639)
Yeah, it's not more. I mean, when I read research that says like, you know, our brain is really in our gut and you're telling me you're feeding school children the crappiest lunch there is and you know, it's not organic, it's all processed, it's a slab of pizza that doesn't even look like it's pizza, you know?

We got a problem here. And then, you know, we got kids with ADHD and high rates of autism and high rates of suicide and mental health. And you want to tell me why? Well, should we start at school lunch? I don't know. Most kids are in school. Seems like a place to start.

Lea Brainerd (34:20.546)
Absolutely and that we have to research on that on what these types of foods do but we're still not you're still not changing it so even when it's there it's still not being changed right so what does that mean that really I think a lot of people are understanding like

KJ (34:23.791)
Yeah, I know.

KJ (34:30.335)
They don't do anything.

Lea Brainerd (34:40.866)
People in charge aren't necessarily telling us or providing the things that are going to be helpful. Why is that?

KJ (34:50.815)
Well, I can only draw a couple conclusions. My first conclusion is, hmm, it's just gonna cost too much money to make people well. So damn, let's just keep those dollars in our pocket. Number two, hmm, somebody could be benefiting from all these sick people. Hmm, who could that be? Can't be the farmers, because we don't have those anymore.

Lea Brainerd (35:14.216)
Hmm.

KJ (35:20.799)
Well, that leaves a couple people. It's not me, because I can promise you, reimbursement really sucks. And I'm not making it, so I'm not getting the money. I don't hear you're getting the money. Who's getting it? Could it be the people who are giving the little pills out? Could be. Could it be the people who are making the pizza slices, what not look like pizza?

Lea Brainerd (35:25.719)
It does.

Lea Brainerd (35:30.486)
Yes.

KJ (35:50.155)
Could be those people believe it's a contract with the government. Could it be those? Hmm, could be. I could go on down my list, but man, I could start sounding like one of those people. Conspiracy theorist, and I wouldn't want to sound like that. So I'll just stay.

Lea Brainerd (36:09.23)
I know, I was thinking the word conspiracy as far as my beliefs. But I will tell you, KJ, working in this system and being aware of these problems, I really felt it whenever I was treating addiction patients trying to prescribe Suboxone and how hard it was to work with some pharmacists.

certain parts of Tennessee and how they would tell me lies about laws that did not exist and it really started to open my eyes and I'll say this and we can stop because I'm sure we could go on a conspiracy for forever but it's really frustrating to work in a system that I believe is America's biggest cash cow. If we're all well

and healthy and have access to all the things that make us well and healthy. That really puts a lot of people out of business. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, probably a whole slew of doctors and specialties and the government. I mean, like that, that just impacts everything. And if you really think about that, it's disturbing. It's disturbing. And I guess my biggest question is how what do we do? How?

How do we go about trying to change this in a way that it will actually work?

l.

Lea Brainerd (43:22.478)
I had it once for my first job, but guess what? I hardly used it because I was working 80 plus hours a week on call every three weeks and could barely take care of myself. And I think you bring up a good point and a really good potential plan with that because we have to, because the other option is what, to overthrow these people, what are you gonna do? Have a revolt. I mean, that, I mean, how...

KJ (43:27.403)
every day.

KJ (43:48.991)
We can't. We have to have people like me and you who are smart on policy, who can come together, who can be on a task force, who are not gonna sit around and bullshit all day, but understand policy, understand code for each one of them who can come together and say, hey, state of Tennessee, hey state of North Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado, Florida, all the states I'm licensed in by the way, this doesn't make sense. Oh, by the way.

Lea Brainerd (43:52.901)
talent.

KJ (44:18.203)
I think we would have another, I have another idea, I'll throw this at you, but also within that, another thing that offers us the benefit of like an HSA card. You can see any provider that's us for free. That can have, you can get ketamine, you can get all these things that nobody, you couldn't get, but now you get because you're part of this big group and we pay for that because we take care of our

Oh.

Lea Brainerd (44:49.64)
So it's kind of like our own insurance company.

KJ (44:51.979)
Kind of sorta, yeah. So you get EAP care, you get this extra stuff like this. Right? Like, doesn't that make sense? I take care of my own. Like, I got five clinicians right now. Why not? But then, think about this. We get also, one of the things I've always had a problem with is like, we need emergent mental health care. We don't have it anywhere.

Lea Brainerd (44:54.178)
Yeah.

Lea Brainerd (45:08.139)
Right.

KJ (45:19.571)
So we could even volunteer, we could stand up like telehealth, emergent care, and people could sign on. We could volunteer for that and fill slots and just be available. I mean, we could fix the problem that the government cannot fix in this country and address these issues from the bottom up because the top down sure as fuck can't do it. But we can, we can.

Lea Brainerd (45:46.626)

Lea Brainerd (48:04.159)
I'm done with them.

KJ (48:18.707)
gotta move away. Yeah, sorry I got all on my soapbox but I'm like

Lea Brainerd (48:18.834)
Absolutely. Love that idea.

Lea Brainerd (48:25.504)
It's important. It's a very important piece of this.

KJ (48:29.563)
It is, I mean, I don't wanna be the 70 year old person without any benefits. And like I said, I've got students now and I look at them and I'm like, y'all aren't gonna have anything unless you go work for the government or a hospital. And even then, like that's no fun. I mean, we do what we do cause we love what we do in the way that we do it. There's a freedom and a joy.

Lea Brainerd (48:57.058)
There is. I get told by my grandparents all the time, I wish you would just go work for somebody where you could get insurance and all the benefits and all that. And I was like, I did do that. I was miserable. And I know I'm taking the road less traveled here and I'm doing things differently, but that's because if I was at another organization that was not aligned with my values.

I would be miserable. That is not what I want. So I'm gonna forge a different path. I've been waiting, you know, I've been really just making sure my feet are grounded in myself and my life and my own mental and physical health. And now that I really feel like I'm getting there, I know a big piece of what I'm meant to do is to collaborate and to help advocate for change because you can only...

live in the BS for so long until you do something about it and I think this could be a way so you're going to let me know how that conversation goes. Yeah.

KJ (50:04.899)
Yeah, I'm very excited about it. Like when it clicked to me, I was like, we don't have to live this way. We don't mean this.

Lea Brainerd (50:12.459)
Right?

And our patients don't either. Our clients don't either. They need better options. And if we show a different option for insurance, right, that is not so strict that you can go to get ketamine, get neurofeedback, you can get functional medicine care and preventative care and not pay out of pocket for that. That must be an option. It has to be an option.

KJ (50:31.483)
Yes.

KJ (50:36.476)
Yes.

KJ (50:42.595)
Yeah, and I mean, I look at even the functional medicine people, their stuff is not covered. So they have to feel very similarly to us.

Lea Brainerd (50:53.206)
They do because that's what we want to do. I mean, I, you know, my business partner, she's a therapist and, and so she takes some insurance and does some self-pay. And when we get a brick and mortar, I know she's going to want to do it. And I did a little prickly. I'm like, really? Like for the patients. Yeah. You know, like, I'm sure we will, but she was even talking about her negotiating her blue cost blue shield contract and how, you know, what she normally would pay.

and just having a fight for those dollars that you're worth. You guys do hard work. You guys are... I mean, that is a lot on a therapist to hear people's traumas all day, every day and actively helping them get through it. You guys deserve a lot more than what a lot of these people are paying out. And it's just... it's not right. It's not right. That's one reason why I changed to PA because I knew I could make more money.

Um, versus, you know, I would love to really get dig deep in with these, with these clients and do more of the therapy work. And that's unfortunate that I made that choice because of money. You know, it's not right. Yeah.

KJ (52:03.739)
Yeah, but it's reasonable. I mean, it's absolutely reasonable. You know, I know that my business partner, she was negotiating, I don't think it was Blue Cross Blue Shield. I don't, can't remember which one it was, but maybe Aetna, I think. I'd have to check, but it was like 70, 69, maybe an hour, you know, and after the split, it's like 60% of that for a lot of the clinicians.

Lea Brainerd (52:09.516)
Yeah.

Lea Brainerd (52:25.07)
Mm-hmm.

KJ (52:32.363)
It's nothing after you've gotten a master's and done 3,000 hours post-graduate. I'm like...

Lea Brainerd (53:25.504)
one day.

Lea Brainerd (53:29.994)
We can. Yeah.

Lea Brainerd (53:34.638)
There really is. Yep.

Lea Brainerd (53:43.03) One, can you share like what have been, if any, cause you're perfect, but if you weren't, I can't believe it you're not cause you are. Have you had a failure?

Lea Brainerd (54:01.558)
Oh gosh.

KJ (54:25.131)
that you're like, oh, this failure was horrible. But as it's passed, you're like, that taught me something. Anything like that for you? Okay, anything to share?

Lea Brainerd (54:32.894)
Oh my God, absolutely, absolutely I have. Yeah, absolutely. So when my mom, so my mom had breast cancer and she passed away in 2011. So that was when I was in college, in undergrad. At the time I was president of my sorority, really highly involved. And up until that point, you know, I would say I was very high functional and...

didn't have much issue with mental health, maybe some anxiety and stuff. But after she passed away, one of the things that really gets me was just like mental health. I went to my primary care doctor and told him I was not feeling good, feeling kind of depressed. Three months ago, my mom died. So I get a prescription of Prozac and Xanax and no referral to therapy. So if you can imagine the kind of downward spiral

happening over that next year. I just did not know how to grieve. I did not know how to deal with my emotions. I was not taught any of that. You know, parents love them. They did the best they could, but the emotional intelligence and things. You know, my mom also had bipolar disorder, so that had affected me a lot more than I realized. So I started filling classes, started making just like poor decisions, got really depressed, got really anxious. I ended up taking some time off of school.

Um, just to kind of reset. And so during that time, you know, I made a lot of mistakes and I think the shame around it and the judgment of other people, like really got to me because you go from being kind of on top, I guess, to, to falling all the way down. Um, and so over time, you know, I, I really learned to.

let go of the shame around that. And I learned so much during that time period. I think that was really part of an awakening time for me because I learned how important it is to take care of my mental health, my physical health, even though my mom didn't do it very well for herself. That's not my story, you know? And so it's been a definite uphill battle from there, but I've made a lot of mistakes during.

KJ (56:50.525)
Right.

Lea Brainerd (56:59.202)
during that time that I used to regret and I don't regret anymore because it's all part of my story. It helps me figure out who I am. And yeah, so that really just rings true to me as far as mistakes and moving through it.

KJ (57:20.151)
Yeah, I like that story of resiliency. We find it in some different places, don't we? Yeah. So my last thing I'd like to ask is, if you had a couple minutes, ever how long you really want, to share your pearls of wisdom, what would you share with anybody out there?

Lea Brainerd (57:26.533)
Absolutely.

Lea Brainerd (57:44.911)
Pearls of wisdom. I would say learn how to be present. I had this rock that I made back in 2013. I didn't even know how important it would be when it says be present. I painted this rock. And that's a thing that I feel like has come out of a lot of my clients as well that are who are doing the ketamine treatments.

KJ (58:02.064)
Ooh, I like it.

Lea Brainerd (58:12.158)
They are learning how important it is to be present because when you're present, you can't have anxiety or depression because anxiety is fear of the future and depression is shame or fear of the past, ruminating on the past. Even people with ADHD, if you're inattentive and all that, you're not being present. If you're obsessed having obsessive thoughts like that, you're not being present.

Whatever that means to you and whatever ways that you can find to be present, I think is so, so important. Number two would be kind of alongside of that is like finding the tools that work for you. Whether it be therapy, medication, yoga, going to some social club, being involved in that.

different grounding techniques, coping skills that when you do get stressed out and you do get triggered, you have your toolbox of things and it may be changing. It may change all the time. It's going to be constantly evolving and so being adaptable to change and knowing that change is so important. Number three is emotions are not meant to last. So emotions are different than feelings, right? I know you know this KJ. So emotions are...

like a chemical brain response and the feelings are what our mind continues to build off of those emotions that are felt because they only last 90 seconds emotions only last 90 seconds and they turn into feelings whenever our mind and our body are holding on to them so whatever ways you can find to move through your emotions and feel them and they're not permanent they're only temporary so really trying to learn those brain hacks

because we're like a computer, we really are a computer and so you have to figure out how to work this computer and maneuver it to work in the best way possible for you. So yeah, I would say those are some of my pearls. One thing I have done for myself that I think works really well, you know, I'll have all my tools that I'll do no matter what and then of course I'll have some if I'm feeling wonky.

Lea Brainerd (01:00:34.282)
And then sometimes you just have a day where you're just depressed and you're mad at the world and you don't want to do anything and you just want to lay in bed and watch TV. Okay, let's do that for 24 hours. 24 hours to be annoyed with life and to be frustrated and to hate everything and hate everyone and be sad and you know, kind of be in that yucky part. But after that, you got to do something to get out of it.

KJ (01:00:57.519)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Lea Brainerd (01:01:00.77)
So putting that time limit on it has been a game changer for me. And it really helps that, you know, the episodes can't last any longer than that. Because I'm trying myself to do that. But you also have to give yourself the space to feel yucky sometimes. Right. And depression, I think to me a lot of times is your body screaming, I need rest, I need a break, I need a break from this environment. This is something and this is not working for me. I need time.

You know, so listening to your body and giving yourself that space has, I know for me, been extremely life-changing.

KJ (01:01:40.363)
Those are all wonderful things and I think if anybody were to do a combination of those things or just a few, they would definitely have and build more resiliency to handle the day to day struggle.

Lea Brainerd (01:01:55.434)
And we can't do it by ourselves. We can't. We are social creatures. So, you know, finding your tribe, creating your own family, just because you were born into a family doesn't mean that's who you're, has to be your family forever. So, you know, just finding those people that are your people. I mean, I think that's another component that is left out a lot and is extremely important for mental wellness.

KJ (01:02:21.275)
Yeah, I totally agree with that. And you know who your people are. You know.

Lea Brainerd (01:02:28.45)
And if you don't have them yet, you'll find them. You have to be open.

KJ (01:02:30.887)
you

KJ (01:02:35.023)
Well, thank you so much for being with us today and teaching people about what you do in your world and helping us understand how the brain works and medications work on your brain and sharing what you do and your passion with us. It's important.

Lea Brainerd (01:02:38.274)
You're welcome.

Lea Brainerd (01:02:51.638)
Well, I appreciate you having me. Thank you so much. And yeah, I'm really honored to be a part of this. I can't wait to see what it turns into.

KJ (01:03:02.691)
Well, I know that you have a lot more to share and I know our audience is very excited for all the things you're going to teach them in the future. So everybody, that's like your little teaser. Leah's going to be back to share more of her knowledge later on and you guys will be able to find everything.

on the website. So thanks again for joining us and again, if you haven't already, please like, click, subscribe, and share this podcast. And remember, wherever you're at in the world, you found your home. Welcome to the heart of the matter. Bye.