Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health

When Sabine Polak's daughter started high school, something shifted almost overnight. Her grades dropped, her mood changed, and her phone became the center of everything. Sabine turned that experience into the Phone Free Schools Movement. This week, Sabine joins host Frantzces Lys along with Dr. Gene Beresin of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital to unpack the dynamics of parenting children and teenagers in the age of social media. Dr. Beresin shares research on how social media hooks the developing brain, why secure attachment matters more than parental controls, and how families can start these conversations before a crisis hits.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Laura Mauldin fell in love in her twenties, and then watched that relationship change shape when her partner’s cancer returned. In this episode of Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health, host Frantzces Lys talks with Laura, now a sociologist and author of In Sickness and in Health. Laura shares her experience from the invisible slide into caregiving: the grief with no clear name, the hypervigilance, the trauma responses she didn't recognize until years later. Sociologist Dr. Sung Park adds research context, including how caregiving burdens fall unevenly across immigrant families, the "sandwich generation," and the long-term toll on caregivers' health, finances, and careers. Caregiving can't be sustained by love alone. It requires community, support, and permission to say the hard things out loud.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tina Walsh spent decades being the person everyone else counted on. But in her forties, she found herself in a therapist’s office for the first time. With a marriage under strain and a family history of "keeping it private,” those early conversations with a therapist kicked off decades of re-building the foundation of her mental health. This week, Frantzces talks with Tina about what it took to finally ask for help: the near-accidental start, the divorce she never planned for, the sudden loss of her husband, and the years of somatic therapy and yoga that helped her reconnect with herself. Then, geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Helen Kyomen, Medical Director of the Boston Medical Center–Brighton Geriatric Psychiatry Program, joins to unpack why so many older adults wait so long to seek care, what actually brings people through her door, and why it's never too late to ask for help.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After the loss of her husband, Cynthia Blanc Preiss MacLean (@therealmentorcynthia) spent years hiding the truth. She joins the show to talk about continuing to live after loss, the judgment widows face when they start dating again, and how she learned to frolic, even while grieving. Geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Nancy Donovan explains the science behind that story: why losing a spouse doesn't just break your heart, it can measurably affect your body and brain, including a heightened risk of cognitive decline. Together, they explore what grief actually asks of us, and how connection, even imperfect and long after loss, can help us heal.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's often a specific moment that pushes someone to finally ask for help. This season, host Frantzces Lys explores the turning points, the ones that lead people to make that first call, walk into a therapist's office, or admit they can't do it alone.From Tufts Health Plan, Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health dives into what keeps people going when life gets hard, what they learn about themselves in the process, and how healing rarely follows a straight line. Join us this season for honest conversations about mental health at every stage of life. Follow Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.