“I used to be the guy I hate now,” JC Santana joked. Santana, who founded the Florida-based Institute of Human Performance in 2001, was describing his earlier self as a young combat athlete. “I was that kid in his 20s and 30s who thought, ‘The more you hurt me, the more I like it,’” he said, in a recent interview with ... Read More
Featured in Experts
Mental Health in Combat Sports: An Interview with an Expert
Generational Differences in Approaching Mental Health
Perspectives on mental health can vary across generations, sometimes dramatically so, and these differences are not always transparent. For help decoding the different ways that generations perceive mental health issues, we reached out to FHE Health’s director of dialectical behavior therapy, Arielle Kanitz, LCSW, ... Read More
Learning to Take on More Responsibility After Rehab
Years before Zack Traynor was Director of Admissions at FHE Health, he was fresh out of rehab, new to recovery, and trying to discern short-term versus long-term goals. Questions of responsibility loomed large, as they do for so many in this critical first year of sobriety: Which responsibilities should come ... Read More
Recreational Therapy: What Are Its Benefits in Rehab?
“Can you provide a definition of recreational therapy?” We were talking to Adam Lazarus. Lazarus is the recreational therapist at FHE Health and had agreed to be interviewed as part of our expert interview series. “Recreational therapy is a way to utilize recreation to help clients find purpose, meaning and joy in ... Read More
What Experts Say About the Importance of Community to Mental Health
In what ways is community valuable to mental health? Conversely, how are social isolation and loneliness harmful to a person’s psychological wellbeing? Questions like these have prompted a flurry of study in the last decade by major research institutions across the country. What scientists have found is that, whereas ... Read More
How Healthy Nutrition Boosts Recovery
If you talk to Staci Shacter about nutrition for just a few minutes, it quickly becomes evident that she’s a passionate believer in the power of food to heal. She’s also a reservoir of information on the subject. As a registered dietician serving FHE Health, Shacter regularly educates patients about how healthy ... Read More
The Dangers of Letting a Diagnosis Define Us
A mental health diagnosis can impact a person’s sense of self and their assumptions about what they can and cannot do. Sometimes this dynamic can be so self-limiting that it keeps a person from living their life to its fullest. In other words, there are dangers to letting a diagnosis define us, as writer Jordan Kisner ... Read More
Is People Pleasing Causing Problems? What to Know, From an Expert
People pleasing can wear on a person’s mental health. Sometimes the negative impact can be significant. It can also be a sign of an underlying condition that may benefit from treatment. For help decoding this common behavior, including what can cause it, who may be more prone to it, and its adverse effects, we reached ... Read More