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 i’Mpossible Project Show!

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 Monica’s mental health—she went through several deep, dark depressions
• 3.42 Monica’s mom, also her best friend, passed away at age 52—and 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 Monica’s biggest obstacle in her life was the loss of her mother, which then triggered anxiety—a 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 Monica’s favorite word is “y’all” (spoken like a true pseudo-Southerner  — 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
• It’s possible to have a mental illness and still live mentally well

Resources or Websites Mentioned