Healthy Mind, Healthy Life

A gentle note before you listen:

This episode touches on trauma, family violence, and moments of mental health crisis. Lee shares her story with honesty and care, but if any of it lands close to home for you, please pause whenever you need to. There is no rush.

If you are struggling right now, you are not alone, and reaching out is not weakness. It is one of the most human things you can do.

India

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• Vandrevala Foundation (24/7): 1860 2662 345 / +91 9999 666 555
• AASRA (24/7): +91 9820466726
• KIRAN Mental Health Helpline (24/7, toll-free): 1800-599-0019

United States

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

United Kingdom

• Samaritans (24/7): 116 123

Global

• Find a helpline in your country: https://findahelpline.com

If you are in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency number.

Whoever you are, wherever you are listening from, please know this: the world is better with you in it. Take your time. Reach out. Stay.

Some kinds of healing don't show up in books or productivity apps. They show up in a pair of eyes at the foot of your bed in the middle of the night, in a paw on your leg when your chest gets tight, in the quiet act of being known by something that doesn't need you to explain yourself.

Avik sits down with Lee Atherton, founder of Phoenix Rising SDSL, to talk about her psychiatric service dog Shadow, the hidden disabilities so many people carry behind a calm exterior, and the slow, honest work of rebuilding a life after trauma. A grounded, deeply human conversation about asking for help when help doesn't look the way you expected.

About the Guest:

Lee Atherton is a clergy person, coach, speaker, and international best-selling author. She is the founder of Phoenix Rising SDSL, a foundation dedicated to placing psychiatric service dogs with people living with PTSD and mental health disabilities. Her work draws from her own lived experience with Shadow, the service dog who helped her return to her life and her work.

Key Takeaways:

• Hidden disabilities are real. People can look fine from the outside while carrying severe PTSD, anxiety, or panic on the inside.
• Psychiatric service dogs do specific, trained work: interrupting night terrors, sensing rising anxiety, providing tactile grounding, and helping people re-enter spaces that had become too overwhelming to navigate alone.
• Naming what happened, even years later, is often heavier than the original event. Honesty is its own kind of brave.
• Family is not always the place trauma gets witnessed or believed. Building support outside the original system is sometimes the only way forward.
• Healing is not a straight line. Lee describes it as having come through, not having overcome. The hard days still arrive, and that is part of being human.
• The bravest thing a person can do is stay open to the form that support takes when it actually arrives.

Connect With the Guest:

• Website: https://phoenixrising-sdsl.com
• Email: lee@phoenixrising-sdsl.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-atherton-coachrev/

Episode Chapters: