Chronic fear and anxiety are destabilizing to the human nervous system. Healing stories can help calm and balance us, serving as vital mental health wellness strategies. As we learn to re-craft our narrative and implement structured rituals as tools for building resilience through pain, we allow our trauma and the societal pressures dictating who we should be to dissipate. Rooted in resilience and positive psychology, this transformative process affirms that knowing we matter to someone else can guide us through the darkest moments, offering a profound sense of meaning, connection, and direction in our lives.

To understand some small practices for building resilience through pain, Harvesting Happiness Podcast host Lisa Cypers Kamen welcomes Dr. Suzan Song, an internationally recognized humanitarian psychiatrist and anthropologist.

Suzan offers insights about the effects of trauma on the human psyche and the healing practices from her book, Why We Suffer and How We Heal. She describes how to release the stress of living in an environment of ambient threat through re-crafting our narrative, performing rituals, and embracing purpose.

Suzan Song, MD, MPH, PhD—Mental Health

• Chronic fear and anxiety are destabilizing to the human nervous system. {2:55}
• Healing stories are mental health wellness strategies. {6:50}
• Rituals as tools for building resilience through pain. {22:36}
• The three friends of winter practice increase positive mental health and resilience. {30:55}

Meet Our Guest:

Suzan Song, MD, MPH, PhD, is an internationally recognized humanitarianpsychiatrist and anthropologist with over two decades of experience advising on mental health systems in conflict zones across Africa, the Middle East, and

beyond. Trained at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and at the University of Amsterdam, she has served as an adviser to the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, and numerous humanitarian agencies, and has treated thousands of survivors of torture and human rights violations worldwide.

Her latest book, Why We Suffer and How We Heal (Harmony/Penguin Random House, 2026), offers a universal framework for navigating life's hardships across cultures and contexts.

“Low-lying fear and anxiety can destabilize us.” - Lisa Cypers Kamen