The Practice of Therapy

Gordon Brewer: Well, hello everyone. And welcome again to the podcast. And I'm really happy for you to get to know in this episode, Crystal Adam Scott. Welcome Crystal.
Crystal Adams-Scott: Thank you, Gordon, for having me on the show.
Gordon Brewer: Well, I'm, I'm excited about our conversation. We were chatting a good bit before we started recording and Crystal's doing some stuff that I think we're all.
pretty passionate about, and that is suicide prevention awareness. And I'm excited for you to learn about her organization, hopeunite. org, but Crystal, as I start with everyone, why don't you tell folks a little more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed?
Crystal Adams-Scott: Thanks, Gordon. Well in, in 2017, we lost my husband to suicide.
He left a son behind who was two at the time, and I really didn't understand what he was going through until around 2020 when every, the whole world stopped, as we all know. Mm-Hmm. .
Gordon Brewer: Mm-Hmm. .
Crystal Adams-Scott: And I started to process my feelings and really realized what he was feeling like because I, I didn't wanna be there.
At the moment, I felt those feelings of not wanting to have to wake up and do it again. But I had my Children. Therefore, I felt like I had to. But at that moment, there was such a deep empathy for the pain that he was in that I just had this thought. I'm like, so many other people are going through this.
Is there anything that we can do to help? So we, my son and I, he was four or five at the time, got these positive affirmation cards and started going around our community, passing out these cards to people and it was creating this connection that was beautiful and it was healing on both ways. So it would connect to the person's heart, but it also was helping us heal because we were able to do something with the pain and create a purpose from it.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, that's, that's wonderful. And it's just such a Crystal was sharing with me before we started just the card. And for those that might be seeing the video, I'm sure she'll share it with us, but it's just a simple, simple card that says you matter. And then on the other side, it's got information for suicide prevention, the suicide prevention hotline and that sort of thing.
But yeah, One of the things you were saying, Crystal, is you're building more of a network and also providing actual support through a call center.
Crystal Adams-Scott: Correct. So through that, that act of kindness that we started doing, my son and I I thought, how can we get more people involved in this? And so that's where Hope Unite began.
And we have these very simple cards. It's got a purple rose on it, that my daughter actually drew this, as part of her healing process. And the message is, you matter. Because it's the message that I really believe that if my husband would have received on the day that he took his life. He may really still be here because that's the lie that we, that, that you think in your head is that, Oh, life would be better off without me or my life doesn't really matter.
You know, my trauma is so bad. I just can't get through it. And I'm saying this because I felt all of those feelings. But the truth is, is that you do matter. So we started passing these cards out and then on the back of the card, it invites the receiver to either join us and spread the message with other people.
We call it the rose that never dies. My son made that up actually. So he goes up to people and he'll say, can I give you a rose? That's his icebreaker phrase. And everyone says yes. And he goes, it's the rose that never dies to remind you that you're special. So that's kind of what we share with our volunteers, who are our boots on the ground workers that are giving these out every day all over the United States.
And even in, and it's reached 16 countries, I want to say, if I'm not mistaken, so either 13 or 16. So on the back of the cards, If the person's in crisis, we send them to 988, which is the National Suicide Prevention hotline. But then there's the question. Are you in need of support? Because if you're in need of support, reach out to us and we're gonna help you find it.
So what these cards are, is there a kind connection tool, but also a resource for someone who's silently suffering? To have them reach out to us. So as the organization has grown and it is it's Hope Unite International at the website is hopeunite. org, where you can go find out more ways to get involved.
As we continue to grow, we were getting a lot of support requests. So we actually have now a call center for people to call. that are in need of help. And we have volunteers care coordinators that go out into the community and find the support that's available for them that they don't know about. So we cut out the minutia because when you're in a traumatic mindset, a lot of times you're not looking for support.
Many times it needs to come find you. And so that's what these cards are about. So we have people reach out to us all the time. We go out into the community, we find them the support and then we do the connecting. So it's It takes out the stress. Of finding support or being put on hold or sent to another organization or just being handed a list of resources It's going to take you four hours to go through and call we do that for you So what we're doing is we're building a network of support for anybody who is in the mind body spirit health space We're looking for people who are passionate about helping others Passionate about their lives, making a difference and other people's lives that are passionate about service to the community.
And we're asking them to join our network. So we've been building this network for a while now. We have therapists. We have holistic healers. We have spas. We even have people that are willing, like elder support. But we're building This network so that when people call in we have already vetted the really good Organizations and businesses that are there to help the community and we can just make the connection a little bit easier
Gordon Brewer: Yes, that's great.
That's great. So with with your call center, how does that how does that work? You just is it volunteer volunteers that just are on call for the call center
Crystal Adams-Scott: Yes, so we we actually reached out to retired veterans or retired. Police officers, anybody who has been in the space of service to the community, and we asked them if they would like to volunteer, and many of them have come up and said, yes, I would like to be somebody who answers their support calls.
So we're building that also. So if you're someone who is interested in helping Answer support calls. We would love for you to volunteer with us, especially if you are in that space in your life. If you've ever been, you know, a veteran, we have a lot of retired veterans actually
Gordon Brewer: that
Crystal Adams-Scott: are helping out in that area.
Gordon Brewer: That's great. That's great. Yeah. And I think there that's just that's just a whole segment of the population, particularly people that have gone through a lot of trauma or maybe suffering from PTSD and that sort of thing that are, are at risk for being, having suicide as we refer to in the in the clinical world, suicidal ideations is the clinical term for, you know, somebody that's thinking about suicide.
Yeah. And so with getting, Getting people to the help that they need. What are the some of the other avenues that you have besides therapists and that sort of thing? Because I know that that can vary across the country as far as. You know where where people can find help.
Crystal Adams-Scott: Well, it's interesting because we're actually it does vary across the country So we do have a lot of therapists.
That we do have some therapists. Let me say that correctly That have onboarded that are able to do telehealth anywhere but we also are looking for I mean, we even have a yoga instructor that does trauma healing So we're looking for anything that's in the holistic health space You The mental health space or the spiritual health space, because we we come together as firm believers that we're a three part being, and so taking care of those three parts, we even have a nutritionist.
So taking care of those three parts creates balance. And a lot of times that helps us navigate life's challenges. So that's what our goal is, is to really help someone full circle. with wherever they're, they're going through. We do have a lot of treatment centers. Speaking of addiction, we just placed four people in treatment this month.
We were able to vet that really well and it's, it's going really well. We have had people. That were suicidal and bipolar, that we've been able to connect to the right therapist, because sometimes, you know, they're like, you were saying, there's all sorts of different types of treatment. There's also sorts of different types of therapeutic therapeutic healing techniques, but that doesn't mean it's going to fit for everybody, which is another part of why we're doing what we're doing, because we really want to make the correct fit for that person.
I mean, we have a pretty intense. extensive questionnaire that our care coordinators asked the people in need of support so that we really know what we're looking for for them.
Gordon Brewer: Right, right. And so with it, with your volunteers, how do you I guess for lack of a better way to put it, how is it that you vet them to make sure that they're going to be, yeah, I guess, kind of cut out for doing this kind of work?
Crystal Adams-Scott: Well, we have we have two volunteer positions right now. We have a couple office things going on and like in the community here in south florida. But our volunteer positions are we have people giving the cards out and that's anywhere doing one act of kindness a day. We actually give them a packet. that gives them monthly.
We keep in contact with them monthly and we give them this little piece of paper for them to fill out. How many cards did they give out that day? What act of kindness did they participate in? So we're really focusing a lot of our volunteers on getting the movement out. So that's
Gordon Brewer: that's
Crystal Adams-Scott: easier to vet.
And then we have our care coordinator team. And typically, I do the interviewing personally, and it's either somebody who has been, like I said, a retired veteran, a retired police officer, or in that kind of workspace, so that they're already prepared for this type of work.
Gordon Brewer: Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what's, what's great about this is that to me, at least to me, the number one cause of suicide, if you were to cut away, everything would be people having a sense of loneliness and a sense of hopelessness.
And so I think for anybody to, to make contact with them and just had that. Human contact is really what is what is the most healing part of it all and it might be that there And it might be that they're not necessarily doing anything clinical with the person other than just just being present with them and being with them
Crystal Adams-Scott: perfect example last weekend, actually, there was a elderly woman that Called in that needed some help cleaning her house because she couldn't bend You And do the things she used to do.
So we got a team of six girls. It just happened to be girls. Could be meant to six women that went over to, to her house, her one bedroom apartment, and we did everything she needed with within an hour and a half. And she felt like, so, I mean, I can't even tell you how special she expressed to us that she felt, and she wants to get involved as a volunteer and that wasn't the motivation, but that's what happens.
So she wants to start passing out the cards. It's like the vision that I have for Hope Unites. Is this for every person that's went through a traumatic experience over the past five years, which I would say a majority of the population has experienced some sort of trauma in the past five years. If they would just reach out to one person every day and let them know their life is valuable because their life is valuable.
See what I'm saying?
Gordon Brewer: If
Crystal Adams-Scott: we all did something easy like that once a day, imagine the world change that would be made. Honestly, think about it. And it's not that hard to do. So that's really like, I like to encourage people to do that. And the reason I kind of caveated the service that we did this weekend was we got six girls to go over there, right.
And do this work for this woman in a one bedroom apartment. that took us an hour and a half. If we only had to, it might have taken us four hours and we all got to reap the benefits of that positive energy. How happy and grateful the woman was that we were able to serve her. And we all left there feeling amazing and purposeful.
And caring and kindness is a reward in itself. It raises its serotonin, dopamine in our brain. So this is, you know, it's not just saying, Hey, go be kind. And that's it. It's, it's a full circle. Win win. This is a win win for everybody. You know, so it's, it's a great mental health tool is being kind and positive affirmations.
We believe in self care tips. We offer people. We're very big into supporting the whole, the whole human.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. I love that. I love that. One of, one of the things that I'll mention Crystal is, is that in addition to this podcast, I have another podcast. It's, it's been on hold for the last year, just with all that I've gone, gone through, as we were talking about with the loss of my wife at, at the last year.
But the title of that podcast is incidentally kind, the kindness and compassion podcast. And so maybe we'll use this, some of this and that, that podcast as well. But you're exactly right. I think that having just simple acts of kindness with people is really what can be so transformative for people's lives, but also just changing the world.
I mean, as you and I both know there's so much polarization in the world right now, as far as, you know, divisiveness and, and all of that sort of thing. And I think, you know, my, my hope is, is we can begin to change that.
Crystal Adams-Scott: I'm on board, anything, I am on board, because it's funny, I would always say, it's not a small group of people doing a little, it's a large group, I mean, doing a lot, sorry, it's not a small group of people doing a lot that's going to create world change.
It's a lot of people doing a little. Together, right? Every time I, when I talk about hope unite and the, you matter movement, cause that's what it's called. Hope unite is a move. We are a movement of kindness, connection, and support. That's what this is all about. And so just little, little acts of kindness like this, this is such a great tool.
I can't tell you the beauty that has come from this simple. Little card. I mean, and the responses and the people that have gotten involved, it's been such a healing and a blessing for me to even be able to be a part of this. Cause every time people, somebody gives me accolades like, Oh, it's so great what you're doing.
My response is, I just said, yes, I just, yes. So what I believe I was put here to do, and everybody has the opportunity every day to have an intentional act of kindness, see, there's a difference. People talk about. Do a random act of kindness. What if we all did an intentional act of kindness? And we did it together.
So yeah, that is the vision.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I was reminded of one of the, you know, when I'm doing mindless stuff of watching new YouTube, a lot of what I like to watch are people doing acts of kindness just small ways. I mean, just across the board, I mean, just with different things, you know, particularly helping.
Kind of the homeless population, all of that sort of thing of being able to, you know, look, look for those little ways of, of doing things.
Crystal Adams-Scott: I'm just asking this for to know if you know it because I just read it not so long ago that even watching people doing kind things raises the serotonin and dopamine in your brain.
Oh,
Gordon Brewer: yes, absolutely.
Crystal Adams-Scott: It's amazing how powerful kindness is. And it's, it's just, it's a beautiful thing. It's beautiful. So thank you for letting me be here.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. So Crystal tell folks a little bit more about how they can get in touch or get involved or get some of the cards for their offices and that sort of thing.
Crystal Adams-Scott: That's definitely what we're looking for. So the more people involved, the more people are, are being, are being given the message, right? And then the more people were able to help and support. So every person involved. Their effort is valuable. So what the ways you get these cards is you can go to hopeunite.
org. It's not united. A lot of people like to say that. So it's h o p e u n i t e. org. And you can get the cards on the website and we'll send you out a package. If you're if you're in the mind, body, spirit, health space, and you'd like to join our network. Reach out to us. You can find out some more information about our support network online, or you can email me directly at crystal at hopeunite.
org and I'll connect you to our Teresa who handles all of our network onboarding. That would be great because the more people we have to help support, the easier it is for our care coordinators to find it for the people that need it, right?
Gordon Brewer: Awesome.
Crystal Adams-Scott: That's another way. And yeah, everything's pretty much on the website.
Gordon Brewer: Also,
Crystal Adams-Scott: I want to put out our support hotline number. If there is anybody that needs support that you think could, could use what we're doing, use some help finding it. Our number is 1 855 571 HOPE, which is 4673.
Gordon Brewer: Awesome. And we'll have links in the show notes and the show summary for people to find that easily.
So well, well Crystal, thank you so much for being on the, on the podcast. Any other closing thoughts before we stop?
Crystal Adams-Scott: Yes, you matter. Whoever's listening to this, you matter. If you, your little circle, it only takes you one, one person to be kind to, and it's easy, write someone a note, open the door for everybody that's behind you, smile at everyone you see.
It's really easy. It's not, it doesn't take too much effort to just put it in your mind to be kind to one person every day.
Gordon Brewer: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks again, Crystal, and hopefully we'll be able to connect again.