Cohen Miles-Rath
speaker
1,309 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 3 Jun
Cohen Miles-Rath’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
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Yeah, so I initially wanted to get my master's in social work to become a substance use counselor or a therapist. That was what I initially had thought of. But then in grad school, as I continued to learn about mental health from that clinical point of view and with social work, they don't just focus on direct service. That degree, they do branch out to advocacy and the more macro work.
And I realized in my studies there that that's just how my mind went, how my mind thinks. So that's when I really wanted to be more involved with the advocacy piece. And then it was all about just finding a position after grad school that could align with that.
And I know that with my story, with my experience, I always knew that I wanted to bring that into the picture because what I learned is that stories can really make an impact. When people hear these types of experiences, it allows them to relate and understand another person's point of view with it.
And I think that helps to fuel more effective advocacy and more effective ideas and how there are certain things that we can change in our systems, our culture to better serve people who might go through those type of experiences as well.
The first time that I wrote about my experience, the first time that I was vulnerable in that public space was actually in my second year of grad school. When I had done that, I wrote a blog post for NAMI, National Alliance of Mental Illness.
And that really, I think, based on people's responses and how people would come up to me afterwards and be vulnerable about themselves, to me, that was like, okay, there's something wrong. to that. There was something to me being vulnerable in a public space that could help others. And that was a spark.
Once I got in my professional position, I got my eight dimensions of wellness all structured, my financial wellness, I'm living comfortably. I can now open up my experience in a much more versatile way. And that's when I started writing my memoir and putting my heart and soul into that so I could really leap forward with it.
Yes, it's A Mending Reality, An Advocate's Existential Journey with Mental Health.
Yes, I will say that as soon as I started putting pen to paper, I mean, and it flowed. Part of that writing experience was coping for me. The experience with psychosis, being in jail, thinking that I was a prophet, thinking that I discovered the truth of the universe. There was a grandiose nature to it too. It's such a challenging experience.
And even the incident with my dad, attacking him, that haunted my dreams for many years after the incident. So going through that writing process, it really served my own therapeutic process of just putting it out there and reading it and it helped to cope with it. And in many cases, it was triggering. But again, being vulnerable with myself, I think,
helped me really understand myself even better my mental health my diagnosis and there was a lot of challenges since I've written it but it was definitely very helpful I think overall in just my own mental health I mean I spent five years on this thing this book and I didn't know if it was going to get published or not for a long time and that was a whole different set of challenges that I've
somehow found a way to overcome and get to the position where it's actually going to be released and i will say that i'm not terrified a lot of people have read this book but not the general public so it does get a lot of reads i'm not worried or stressed about how people might react to it because the way that i've written it i really think can impact people significantly and make them understand that type of experience a lot further
That's the most meaningful part of doing my work with this. Last year, about a year ago, stood before 200 plus mental health advocates at an advocacy day up in Albany. I had 10 minutes to share my story in a way that captivated them and inspired them to advocate right there. The way I structure my speaking, I try to make it gripping and pull you in.
The first sentence I say is, when I was 22 years old, facing a mental health crisis, I tried to kill my dad. And I remember when I say that, the audience, you see those gasps, you see those eyes widen, and then it's a hook that pulls them in. Then I take it apart, right? And I'm like, what could have prevented this? And they're seeing me at the stage.
They're seeing someone who's done that in front of them. And I think that in itself is, wow. There's a lot more to this story. There's so much more to the story. I did have many students come up to me after that talk, just thank me for being vulnerable and appreciating me doing that because the advocacy day is really meant to provide a space for that.
And when eventually during the day they go out and they allow students to grab the mic and share their own story, I could hear them. sharing their difficulties and their challenges. And I do like to think that by me doing that, created a space for them to do that themselves.
And I think that just helps to fuel this momentum around changing how we approach mental health in circumstances that are very difficult.
At this point in my career, I'm geared more towards trying to improve our trainings and our education around mental health. As far as like specific incarceration systems, I do keep up to date with what is happening and I will support other people's work with that.
When I share that part of my story about going through the incarceration system and my experience with that, I think it opens up that discussion. Clearly, jail was not the right place for me, if you hear more about what it was like to be in solitary confinement with psychosis. But what would be the place for me in that type of state? I thought I was in hell.
I was trying to give birth to Satan's child. I literally physically tried to do that in the middle of a cell. There are so many dark, difficult things. But what place would be best for me to recover in a state of like that? I don't know. There's a discussion there. There's a discussion there. There's a way to approach that better. And it's a complex system. And there's no one easy answer.
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