Speaker: Michaela I. Fissel
This webinar will provide a basic overview of what it means to engage in advocacy when delivering peer services, approaches that enhance confidence, self-efficacy, and personal agency; along with self-care strategies to reduce burnout. Attendees will gain skills for advocating with young adults who experience mental health challenges.
When working in peer delivered services, advocacy is an essential responsibility that requires intention and integrity. This begins with acknowledging the value of another human being despite their state of struggle. When a person or group is viewed as less than, it is easier for others to assume power and limit the rights of a marginalized group. Young adults engaged in mental health services face many obstacles, including discrimination based on age and perceived competency. This webinar will provide a basic overview of what it means to engage in advocacy when delivering peer services, approaches that enhance confidence, self-efficacy, and personal agency; along with self-care strategies to reduce burnout. Attendees will gain skills for advocating with young adults who experience mental health challenges.
Michaela Fissel
Michaela I. Fissel has been actively involved in the behavioral health field since achieving recovery in 2007, at the age of 21. Since that time, Michaela has risen as an advocate who actively seeks to ensure that the opportunity of recovery is available to all young people within Connecticut. Over the past 10 years, Michaela conducted a series of research projects to explore recovery during the transition to adulthood through the perspective of young people. Identifying the relationship between recovery and the transition to adulthood as a highly subjective and internal process, marked by the gradual attainment of intrinsic qualities, Michaela has begun to explore the integration of mindfulness-based practices in supporting both processes. In conjunction with her research, Michaela shares her personal experiencing navigating the challenges of surviving personally devastating circumstances and evidence informed strategies that have supported her healing journey.