of Arts in Community Counseling. She worked as a community support worker, crisis worker, assessor, and therapist while achieving her license. Monica became a Licensed Professional Counselor in 2007. She currently supervises a team of community support workers and is the QMHP for the integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders program. Monica is passionate about suicide prevention, Out of Darkness Walks, and advocating for mental health awareness. Monica lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Click to tweet: Monica Raegan shares her incredible journey on the iāMpossible Project Show!
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Time Stamped Notes
- 2.09 Monica grew up in a small town in southeastern Missouri
- 2.55 While Monica was in graduate school, her dad went to prison and it was really difficult on her mom and on Monicaās mental healthāshe went through several deep, dark depressions
- 3.42 Monicaās mom, also her best friend, passed away at age 52āand this was the beginning of Monica actually dealing with her mental health and mental illness straight on
- 4.48 Monica has worked at Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri as a counselor for the past 11 years and also helps with the annual SE Missouri Suicide Prevention Conference
- 5.35 Monica is married and she and her husband are trying to adopt but in the meantime they are proud parents to two fur-babies, a dog named Ashton who is 9, and a 2-year-old rescue cat
- 8.29 Monicaās biggest obstacle in her life was the loss of her mother, which then triggered anxietyāa lifelong mental health condition
- 9.36 Despite being a mental health counselor, Monica is always learning about the field and about her own mental health and mental illness and is constantly developing new coping skills
- 13.03 Monica describes in detail what exactly a panic attack feels like (in her own personal experience), and in part, likens it to feeling like a heart attack
- 14.43 Monica describes how she copes and how she comes down off of panic attacks
- 23.09 Monicaās favorite word is āyāallā (spoken like a true pseudo-Southerner ļ ā find out more fun facts about Monica in the Quick Fire Round)
Key Points
- No matter your level of expertise on a subject matter, there is always something to learn
- Storytelling and lived experience promotes and helps develop empathy within the listener and sometimes the storyteller (for themselves) as well
- Itās possible to have a mental illness and still live mentally well
Resources or Websites Mentioned
MonicaāsĀ story,Ā AĀ ThreadĀ Unraveling,Ā (e-bookĀ orĀ paperback)Ā inĀ TheĀ iāMpossibleĀ ProjectĀ VolumeĀ 2:Ā