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“For me, self-care is more important than for the average person because the downside is mania, psychosis, suicidal depression. So I have to be much more on my game. It’s just something that must happen or I can’t be a mom and a wife and a professional.”
Katherine Switz is founder and CEO of The Stability Network, a global coalition of people working together to change the narrative around mental health. She also serves as an advisor to local, national, and international mental health efforts.
Prior to her work in mental health, Katherine gained business experience at McKinsey & Company and General Electric, held a variety of executive roles in the non-profit sector, and led economic development programs across Russia, India, and Africa for major international development organizations. Katherine received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Dartmouth College. She lives with bipolar 1 disorder.
Katherine and I grew up together in Richmond, VA and recently reconnected when we ran into each other on the street in Seattle – after over 25 years of separate life paths. After learning more about Katherine’s story in our high school alumni magazine, I asked her to join me for a discussion about living – and thriving – with a mental health condition, the importance of self-care to managing her bipolar disorder, and the tools she uses that can help us all lead more present, fulfilled, and happy lives.
Highlights
- How having a psychotic break while at Harvard Business School led Katherine to create The Stability Network
- How The Stability Network gives people living with mental health conditions a clear path to thriving in career and life
- Why self-care is more important to Katherine than to the average person – and the tools she uses to make sure it happens every day
- Why Katherine thinks mental health conditions carry such a stigma – and how to help change that
- How dialectical behavior therapy helps Katherine manage the symptoms of bipolar disorder – and how anyone can benefit from using DBT tools
- How to identify when you need support in life and career – and how to ask for it
- Katherine’s new meditation practice, how she started it, what’s hard about it, and how it’s changed the way she moves through her days
- Why establishing and sustaining self-care habits is a daily choice – no matter how long you’ve been practicing them
- Katherine’s advice for people living with mental health conditions and for those close to them
- Katherine shares her work improving access to mental health care for the homeless population – and what’s working
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
The Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison(Amazon affiliate link)
Dialectical behavior therapy overview
Other mental health resources (recommended by The Stability Network)
Connect with Katherine: Website |Facebook|LinkedIn|Twitter
Thank You for Listening!
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xo,
