David Susman

We All Have a Life That is Worth Living

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Chelise Stroud This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked writer, speaker and advocate Chelise Stroud about her journey and her current activities. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought help? CS: It is difficult to say when …

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10 Tips to Be a More Effective Public Speaker

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As a psychologist, college professor, and mental health advocate, I’ve given my fair share of speeches, lectures and presentations over the years, in schools, community settings and in professional meetings. I’ve also been in the audience for countless presentations as a student and adult learner. From these experiences, I’ve seen both outstanding, dynamic speakers and a few who were so dull and boring they immediately induced inattention and sedation! So I thought it might be fun to put together a …

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Never Stop Trying New Things

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Iris McAlpin This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked recovery coach and mental health advocate Iris McAlpin about her journey and her current endeavors. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? IM: My awareness came on …

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5 Ways to “Find” Better Mental Health

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My entire career as a clinical psychologist has been devoted to helping people find better mental health. I’ve tackled this issue in several different settings and in a number of different ways. While employed in a public psychiatric hospital for over 24 years, I worked directly with thousands of patients struggling with mental illnesses, offering therapies and coping strategies to relieve their distress and discomfort. As an educator in a large state university, I trained hundreds of future psychologists to …

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10 Tips for Talking with Legislators About Mental Health Issues

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Recently I was fortunate to participate in “Psychology Day” at our State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky. This annual event is organized so psychologists and psychology students can meet with our state legislators to help promote current bills related to mental health issues that are working their way through the state legislative process. In preparation for our visits with the legislators, we are briefed on the key bills that we will be talking about which have been endorsed as legislative priorities …

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My 24 Years in a Psychiatric Hospital (part 3: a new beginning)

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In two recent posts, I recounted much of my 24-year journey working as a clinical psychologist at Eastern State Hospital, a public psychiatric hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. To catch up, my early years are covered in part 1 and the development of the Recovery Mall program is detailed in part 2. Even as our recovery-based programming garnered broad positive feedback from staff, patients and external organizations, we still dealt with the physical limitations of being in an aging 185-year old …

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Everything Will Soon Be Bright and Beautiful

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Ari Snaevarsson This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked author and coach Ari Snaevarsson about his journey and his current activities. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought help? AS: It’s hard to pinpoint where my binge-eating …

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My 24 Years in a Psychiatric Hospital (part 2: the Recovery Mall)

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In a recent post, I chronicled the first half of my 24 years of employment as a clinical psychologist at Eastern State Hospital, a public psychiatric hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, which opened in 1824. If you would like to catch up and read part 1 first, it’s right here. In the early 2000’s, “recovery” entered the scene as a new way of thinking about treatment. The concept of recovery had primarily been used in reference to substance use concerns, but …

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