More than anything, that is what this space is about — being, exploring, and reclaiming what it means to be fully human — and most notably, wholly ourselves.

In many ways, this place is about building the space I never had as a kid — a sanctuary where all my truths are safe to exist in their entirety and the experimentation of self is celebrated fully without moralization of any kind.

Professionally, I am a writer, speaker, mental health advocate and Public Health Strategist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health Communication. Most people know me from my advocacy, TEDx talk, mental health pages — Kate Speer, Wafflenugget, and Solidarity Stories — and five-year tenure running the internationally renowned storytelling company, The Dogist.

And when we listen to it, it lessens.

Here — I will celebrate that and many other lived truths.

Breaking up with this paradigm is particularly important to me because the pain I felt and expressed as a child was used to diagnose me with a psychiatric condition I did not have at age 18. What I had at 18 was deep sorrow due to a world that had not offered a safe space for me and my neurodivergent brain, learning disability, and sensitivity. What I did not have was bipolar disorder. But I wouldn’t learn that for ten years, so that misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder resulted in a decade of medication-induced intermittent psychosis, suicidality, psych ward stays, and deep harm.

On top of that, after finally breaking free of the psychiatric inpatient care system, I spent nine years harming myself by working tirelessly to become the societal definition of “well.” And being the stubborn hard worker I am, I did “it.” I ran an acclaimed NYC-based startup, amassed a community of thousands online, and did this while living a mental health recovery the media deemed a “fairy tale.”

But I didn’t feel well. I didn’t feel well at all.

So, I broke up with that life. I broke up with hustle culture. I broke up with a steady paycheck. And I broke up with sacrificing myself and my entire well-being for a dream that wasn’t even my own.

Now, after a year and a half of writing my first memoir as a serial here on Substack (thank you, 9,000 incredible humans [I still can’t believe that] for reading along), I am finally getting brave enough to put myself out there again — to hope as I hurt, and to cultivate joy, meaning, and light on the very same days I weep, mourn and process a decade of deep medical harm.

Here, I am going on the adventure of figuring out what it means to build a life that loves me back. And ooooh baby, it is going to be messy because spoiler: it always is.

I don’t exactly know where this quest will take me, but I do know this:

Our time here together will be about BOTH processing pain AND. practicing the pursuit of self-reclamation.

It is my hope that my practice of healing out loud can empower you and your own, and that together — yes, together — we can both build lives that love us back.

Here, we explore the perpetual duality of life and healing on earth in these forms:

1. The free weekly newsletter

This newsletter goes out every Friday and includes — surprise — duality and an assortment of the following:

1. A short essay or brief update about my week’s mis/adventures in healing.

2. Glimmer/s of my week — usually a story about my service dogs. Because, well, DOGS.

3. Stories from my past experiences with serious mental illness and the mental health care system.

4. The weekly invitation to explore healing out in the world.

5. The weekly writing prompt to empower your own practice.

6. Solidarity stories from our community so we can be in this messy magic — together. This includes but is not limited to art created in response to weekly prompts.

7. Photos, art, and poems that offer permission to pause.

8. Dog photos. Always dog photos.

2. Healing Out Loud Together

Healing Out Loud Together is a gathering where we share our writing and art to find solidarity in the messy magic of healing. Healing Out Loud Together is hosted on Zoom. Everyone is welcome to share their stories, and poetry. To bolster accessibility, this is an entirely free offering. All are welcome to join us. Of equal importance, though all are welcome to join — no one is required to share or even be on video during the session.

3. The Patient Is In

The Patient Is In is a long-form piece or podcast episode for paid subscribers that explores one of these things:

• An interview with a writer, advocate, or mental expert about their healing practice

• My personal experiences in the mental health care system and my re-entry into the world after years of disability.

• Mental health culture — online and in person — and how it informs our understanding of self

• A question from the community about mental health and healing

• The biomedical model of mental illness and how to break from its conditioning

• Dogs, always dogs. And what we can learn from them.

  

To accredit my messy human self, I was told to tell you that I’ve been seen in…

A bit more about what this space holds…

Here, I examine the human condition and humans’ conditioning. I unpack hustle culture and toxic positivity. I explore recovery in and beyond the biomedical model. And I share deeply honest stories from my lived experiences with mental illness, write the beauty that is the unabashed truth, and question just about everything I have been taught about health, wellness, mental health, success, and how we think about emotional pain and a life worth living.

Since I spent a decade navigating a psychosis-inducing psychiatric misdiagnosis and still live with PTSD and dissociative fugue, my focus here is particularly linked to mental health. However, this space is not limited to those living with mental illness or mental health challenges.

This space is about reclaiming intention and humanity so we can define well-being on our terms in a world that prioritizes the exact opposite.

That undoubtedly is an endeavor open to every single human being.

Here, through invitations to get outside in the world in different ways and writing prompts to examine the many worlds within us, we celebrate the practice of discovering, reclaiming, and building the places we were happiest in as children — spaces where:

• Less is more

• The little things are the big things

• True beauty is finding, reclaiming, and being our full selves in safety

• We are together — living, breathing, laughing, crying, fully ourselves — with our people.

Quite simply, I want to reclaim that state of being where a chrysalis is all the content I need for an afternoon and my dogs full body waggle is celebrated as the good medicine it is. But as easy as it is to write such truths, living them proves far harder and that is the invitation of healing out loud — to practice and process this pursuit — together.

So, if you are a seeker of your one true self, that belly laugh and full body giggle, alignment in purpose and passion, and a fort made of sheets where you can cry, love, and be truly safe as you are seen — this project is for you.

And no matter what, whether you join us here or not, I hope you find what you are looking for. Yes, I really really do.

Wishing you a day.

Because a day — just like you — is always enough.

Kindly,

Kate

Healing Out Loud is an entirely reader-supported publication. Being a paid subscriber makes my advocacy work possible and keeps this space sponsor-free. If you are able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

A subscription costs $6 a month ($1.50 a week) or $60 a year ($1.15 a week).

Paid Subscriber Benefits Include:

• The Patient is In — a monthly long-form essay or podcast that explores

  • My personal experiences in the mental health care system and my re-entry into the world after years of disability.

  • The experience of a renowned writer, advocate or scientist and their perspectives on healing in the modern day.

  • Mental health culture — online and in person — and how it informs our understanding of self

  • A question from the community about mental health and healing

  • The biomedical model of mental illness and how to break from its conditioning

  • Relationships and how best to weather hard times.

• The Full Archive — which includes:

  • Maura and Me — the memoir I wrote and shared here as a serial about my lived experience finding best friendship and a lifeline while navigating psychosis and disabling serious mental illness.

  • Dogs are Medicine — personal essays about the dogs I’ve met and the healing they have so generously given me

  • Lines — my version of poetry — that explore recovery, resilience, and self-reclamation in a body and mind that society deems unacceptable

• Healing Out Loud Gatherings — a monthly storytelling hour devoted to sharing our writing and art and celebrating being human together.

• My deepest gratitude.

Subscribe now

Please know: I am not here to add more barriers to an already broken world so if you would like access and do not feel able to pay for it, simply fill out this form and I will add you no questions asked.