This is self-work and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford.

At self-work we'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world

and what to do about them.

I'm Dr. Margaret and self-work is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few minutes today for your own self-work.

Hello and welcome to self-work. I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford.

I'm a clinical psychologist out of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

I've been practicing psychology now for over 25 years.

And a couple of years ago, I decided to start this podcast because I wanted to extend the walls of my practice to those of you who might already be seeing a therapist or be quite comfortable with psychological issues and topics to those perhaps of

you who have just been recently diagnosed with some kind of mental illness or

you've run up against some relationship problems that are perplexing to you.

And of course there's a third group.

Those of you who may never have even considered talking to a therapist or a psychologist but are just curious enough to listen to a

podcast about such things. I am really tired of the prejudice and stigma

against mental illness.

And so I wanted to do what I could do my part to confront it.

Just in the last two weeks we've heard of the suicides of two young people who went through the

Parkland massacre last year. Mental illness is real. Depression can lead to tragic results.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

can be a very, very dark illness to have.

Our minds and our hearts can sometimes only take so much. And all we can do to connect with

one another, reach out to one another, support one another when we need to reach out for treatment and help.

Our hearts go out to those in the Parkland community and of course to the families not only of the victims of the massacre, but now to other family members who've lost

...