The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u NBC Studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:19
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:46
Good morning. Good morning, Las Vegas and welcome to the show. Thank you once again for getting up on a Sunday morning, a beautiful Sunday morning to join me. It's been a wonderful weekend. A little cloudy here and there. But um, nonetheless, a great weekend. Once again, I have a great show for you what I think is a great show. And a really interesting individual in the studio with me to chat this morning. So without further ado, I'm going to welcome Dr. Lauren Chappell love to the scoop. Good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:15
Good morning. So glad we could get up and talk about some stuff this morning. I know

Unknown Speaker 1:20
you weren't you are not but I appreciate you. For you know, starting off with that story of color. I was so glad we could get up you are such a night owl. Really. I'm a night owl too. But as as I get older I enjoy the desert mornings. I think as you mature, you begin to appreciate the things that when you were younger you slept through. Because I was a night owl I have been forever. You know, when you grew up in the desert. It's warm and beautiful outside. And so truth of the matter is my favorite season the spring and summer we're going to talk about renewal a little bit, I think that is in line with what you do. We're going to get into that in a moment. But spring and summer were my favorite season. So when you grow up in the desert, I grew up in Arizona, live 29 years here in Las Vegas, and he is what you know. So in the summer you wait for the sun to go down. And when you're young, you do what you hang out all night. So you become a night owl and you kind of miss the mornings. But as you get older, it tends to shift and so I enjoy waking up to a beautiful morning. So I'm glad you can share this one with me.

Unknown Speaker 2:28
Absolutely, I'm more of a fall girly. So I get down with Halloween and late nights. So

Unknown Speaker 2:35
I get down with late nights just spring summer. As we get into this pace of spring and we're you know, almost cruising through and out of April. The month of spring is birth and it's renewal. You are a psychologist, you're a licensed psychologist you are the founder of of L psychology. And that's uh, you know, that's cool. You're a black woman who's a psychologist and you're in sort of a specialized area. So you have a number of degrees. You've been to all kinds of schools, Bay Path University, the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Did your PhD at the University of North Dakota, I have to ask University of North Dakota as a black ball. You know, it's the same stigma I get being African American from Arizona and I used to get what they're black people in Arizona. Really? Yes, we're everywhere. But I have to ask what are we really in North? North?

Unknown Speaker 3:41
You know, what are the guys say on the show? There's dozens of us. I was fighting, I was fighting for my life. I think that whenever you go to a really homogenized place like North Dakota, meaning it's people that have been there generation after generation and not many of those people look like me. I think it's important to find your your your crew the people you know, found family is something it's helped me get through North Dakota. So

Unknown Speaker 4:08
I will do though, I can relate to that because I spent a small a short season I spent a season literally was from it. So I spent a season in Walla Walla, Washington and it is exactly the home of the famous Walla Walla onions it it is exactly that, but they have some amazing private you know, universities and colleges there and so academia is really huge and people found their way there to study interesting black folk really, and it's like a small community within the community. And you absolutely do gravitate to those who are akin to your culture and understand things about you and so I did fine you know refuge and laughter and all that stuff in the in the strange space of I thought I would just be me and Walla Walla, Washington, because I mean, it was it's in you know, the sun is up Up until nine o'clock 10 o'clock at night. So it's crazy how much sun you have, I could get so much done in a given day. I thought I was gonna lose my mind. But as I met people and found, you know, people who looked like me interest everyone that was around me it was a cool experience. But I know what you mean places like that the same, like you gotta be a little isolated, you do find your own, and it's very welcoming and the arms are open. So I can imagine that you survived North Dakota with a lot of love around you.

Unknown Speaker 5:32
Literally, I met my spouse out there and I got exposed to some Yeah, I was doing morning studying and apparently

Unknown Speaker 5:41
a while a while, but I love him. It was what I found boutique Daddy, I feel like my parents did boutique dating too, because they met in northern Arizona in a small town, a smile, my lumber mill town and I'm like, boutique dating, I think that's what happened.

Unknown Speaker 6:01
I got exposed to other cultures too. You know, I saw a breath of like indigenous culture out there and got to go to a powwow and all kinds of just like ceremonial things that I had never gone to before. So I did like it, it was not all bad. I will say this, it was cold. It was colder than what I could say on the radio, I'm afraid. But they didn't shut the school down. So it was like, I don't know, negative 40 or something or 60, sometimes Oui.

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Desert, you were done. So you came to the warm, so you could thaw out permanently for ever. But let's get into a little bit more of who you are. I've mentioned introduced that you are a licensed psychologist. And I thought it would be really cool to talk with you because of your area of expertise. And what you focus on is unique and specialized. And so what I was, I've had the pleasure of meeting you on a number of different occasions, but to really dig into who you are a little bit of your background. It's just cool. Um, you offer individual psychotherapy, diversity, equity, inclusion, consultations, you do speaking and you do trainings. And within that you help a segment of the of the population cope with things and I liked the way you've worded it. oppression and majority would you call it majority cultural spaces. And so you're you do a lot with the LGBTQ AI so I learned some things here too. And black indigenous people of color groups as well. So why those why psychology to begin with because you didn't just study it in undergrad, you went all the way through and did the PhD. And so something about that field has to capture you. So what was it for you that made you go down this path?

Unknown Speaker 8:01
I did it resonated with me, I think for me, so I do a lot of forensic psychology work and that's just psychology work within the legal system. So sometimes treating people who are incarcerated, doing evaluations, all that kind of stuff. For me, it's because I was nosy so when I was a kid, you're like you still are Yes, ma'am. I can be receptive to that feedback. It's okay. But yeah, when I was a kid, my my my parents had this extensive bookshelf of some of the books on it were like true crime and the rule my household was you can't read nothing like that. And so you're like 14 Okay, so I'll

Unknown Speaker 8:41
just make the books off the shelf when you weren't supposed to way my

Unknown Speaker 8:45
anxiety a setup. I think I did one bad thing when I was a kid, I wore my pants backwards like criss cross and I changed it and I felt bad as if Okay.

Unknown Speaker 8:55
So you're so what you're saying is you're also a rule follower. So you're a rule follower. Is that what I'm

Unknown Speaker 8:59
here I am. Yeah, I would

Unknown Speaker 9:02
never, I would have never picked you to be I mean that like you know, just disruptive but not really a rule follower either. Okay. I just knew you the books. I

Unknown Speaker 9:13
work within the system to bring it down for sure. For sure. No, but yeah, so by the time I got there, I was like, okay, and I started reading books about you know, why some people do things to other people and that just interested me, so I'm hard to embarrass. I called up a forensic psychologists where I grew up, and I said, Hey, you don't know me. I'm a high school kid. I'm a pipsqueak. But can you give me some books to read? Like, how did you get your job helped me understand and he was kind enough to take me on as a mentee. And I haven't looked back I went on through to the undergrad. I went to graduate school, I worked with my masters for four years I hit a glass ceiling and I said let me go on and on and get this doctorate and then I did and here I am.

Unknown Speaker 9:56
It's really about congratulations. First of all to you But even more so a black woman who was into forensic psychology is not something that you really see every day, it makes me think of the conversations that we have all the time, where if you see it, you can be it, if you see it, you can believe it. I don't know, honestly, until meeting you really truthfully, and I've been a crime reporter that I've ever actually met a forensic psychologist who was a black woman. I don't think I ever actually, I don't know that I've really ever met one. But the idea of who you are and what you do. A few shows ago, I had LaTanya Lister on and she was the first black woman in Nevada to become a firefighter with any of the fire departments here in the state. So you know, when you have those kinds of first, or you meet people who've done, you know, the thing where they're the anomaly, they shouldn't be, but But you are, I have to tip my hat, I have to tip my hat and say, kudos to you, because you're a living example of what someone can grow up to be. Having never thought about being good, but you thought about it, you were interested, and you did what was necessary to knock down the doors and open them to pursue it. So kudos to you for doing that. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 11:18
I think it takes a village like I do the thing, right? Where I grew up outside of Chicago, there was not but a few ways to get up out of the neighborhood, you can maybe carry a basketball, you could sing something like that. So for me to get out, you know, academically that was that was unheard of, I didn't even know that was a job. That's why I said I'm gonna date myself a little bit, when I was putting my finger through the phonebook, looking at names. And I didn't even know it was a job. Like nobody told me it was a job we didn't have. In my public school, we didn't have that kind of career counseling. So by no means knocking other professions, I come from a blue collar family. And I think it was really just a village like it took having people around me. So I could ask those questions. And I didn't know like, I didn't know how to write a college essay, I didn't know what a resume was supposed to look like. So I think it took a lot. And now that I'm here, I view my job as to whatever room I get into, I'm a whole my my arm back and make sure I hold the door open for whomever else is trying to get up in there.

Unknown Speaker 12:28
Thank you, I want to say too, we share something in common, I believe you are any merge Nevada alumni. And in marriage, for those who are not familiar is a course that trains women of various backgrounds, who were democratic to run for office, our impact civic engagement, and whatever platform or by whatever means they choose. But we have both gone through this training program, which is a what is like a six month course for women interested in politics, and you meet every month. And you've just learned all these different things about running a campaign or organizing in your community, organizing people contributing to campaign supporting them, and just understanding more about the political process as a whole. But more importantly, also, it's a space that allows you to understand more about yourself as an individual in terms of your passions, and how you can channel that passion into action. And so I just want to welcome you also as my fellow emerge, I mean, you weren't in the class of 2019, which, of course, is the foremost the best one mine. Oh, wow. Wow. That you know, you were in the other

Unknown Speaker 13:41
one, you were hot on y'all. Y'all heels, you were.

Unknown Speaker 13:45
And I brought that up because emerged introduces a lot of thought, general thought, open thought, and you do some focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. And as we are seeing our society evolve, and a lot of changes in this country, and we're dealing with mental health so. So seriously, on so many levels, you're in a space that for a while, I thought was beginning to fall by the wayside because there was this whole movement of diversity and inclusion and hiring people. And then it seemed like it just was a thing that everybody kind of acted like they had reached some numbers, and they've done something and now we see a lot of stuff associated with just constantly getting dialed back. How do you tell us your work, help people cope with how society is changing? What is affecting in terms of how it's affecting people's mental health and how that plays into this diversity, inclusion and equity conversation.

Unknown Speaker 14:46
Excellent question. I think it starts with better understanding historical perspective. I very tongue in cheek, say that, you know, racism was not invented in the summer of 2020 when we all blacked out our In our Instagram squares and, and Callahans, and I think it is, when we take a look at how people can be impacted by these isms racism, trans, you know, phobia, et cetera, that we can start to really get a better understanding of how things shift. So while things might have looked very different four years ago, a couple few years ago, now, I've worked a lot with people on just validating, like, yes, you're not making this up. There is such a thing as racial trauma. And that is how we process being exposed to micro aggressions, how we process being exposed to the things on the news and the other things that go on in our world, and how to work through that in a resilient way. How to find our family, our crew, if you will, and learn how to build support in and around our community. So that tends to be something I focus on, either at the individual level working with people in psychotherapy, or going to organizations who come to me and say, Hey, we want to get better at this, or we want you to do some listening sessions with our staff to see how things are. Because for a lot of people the power differentials there, right, like, am I going to tell my boss, I feel uncomfortable with that joke he made at the watercooler? No. So they call on somebody like me to better help understand what's going on, and then figure out how to make the changes that are going to help. Are

Unknown Speaker 16:26
you finding that companies are really forward thinking like that, and that they are? Isn't major corporations that are forward thinking? Are you finding that smaller operations that want to keep a close knit feeling of family and their offices are forward thinking and saying, Hey, come in and work with us, we'd love to have a training, you know, how organic?

Unknown Speaker 16:45
Yeah, I've had some amazing organic conversations with companies big and small, like larger university, versus like, smaller kind of mom and pop, like we've had this, you know, these 60 employees, you know, for the past two generations of the small organization kind of thing. And I think unfortunately, the majority of folks that I speak with are in a reactionary circumstance, maybe some employees got together and said, Hey, we don't like what's going on here. We need to make some serious shifts or changes to the culture here, meaning the company culture, do I feel safe? Going in the office? Do I feel safe, you know, in this way, that way? And the third, I think a lot of mental health, behavioral health sadly, comes at the behest of a reaction, something will happen. And then everybody will look around and be like, wait a minute, what's what's going on? What who was this person's therapist who, you know, why didn't this person have someone to speak to? That's why I like doing a lot of the advocacy work I do and legislative efforts I'm able to support because when you get government agencies or larger organizations, willing to have those conversations, and to have kind of rolling trainings or rolling, you know, circumstance, circumstances where they're able to make improvements, I think that's when you see the most effective way to change.

Unknown Speaker 18:06
That was really good to hear an interesting to talk about as well. You highlighted some areas, as I was getting to know you on your, your website for L. And you focused on the areas you listed anxiety, self esteem, depression, anger, management, stress. And I was like, wow.

Unknown Speaker 18:34
Because like, stop reading my diary, please. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 18:38
You know, because you're looking at these are the things that even though I might manage them, some days better than other people do. At some point in life. We're all dealing with some, you know, with these triggers, for different reasons. And it wasn't like you explained them, that was what I think really caught me. They were just stand alone, like they were just islands columns supporting themselves within themselves. Anxiety, self esteem, depression, anger, management, stress, no explanation, no definition, no examples, no anecdotes, whatever this is, too. You take this, and you associate it with yourself, however you choose whatever you need to. And of course, you're on my website, so give me a call. But I kind of like the stand alone approach because you weren't telling anyone how to think about it. Which says a lot about who you are as a psychologist, because your website isn't telling anyone how to think about it.

Unknown Speaker 19:44
Really appreciate that. That feedback is something we fall in the psychology field projective meaning Who the heck am I to tell you what stress looks like? Right? So this is it's more of an open ended question. Do you see yourself reflected there? And If you do cool, I'm also good enough. And I've been doing this more than a few weeks where I know I might be the best fit for everybody. And that's okay, too, it's more important for me, to ensure that the person has got a resource that is going to work best for them, that might be me, there might be somebody else in the community. Right? Right. And when I have that, on the website, people are able to then call in and say, Hey, this is what I'm experiencing. We have another concept that we talked about, which is cultural humility, but just professional humility in the sense that Yeah, absolutely, I'm the doctor in the room. I'm the expert on, you know, subject matter expert on all of these different experiences, but I'm never going to be the expert in you, and your lived experience. That's where the patient, the client, the person I'm talking to, they're in charge of that. They help me understand what it's like for them, and then we together collaboratively are able to work towards something like what are your goals? Where are you trying to get towards? Some people have real fancy words for that, or like real specific things that they want to do? I want to cry less, I want to be able to fall asleep more, I want to improve my relationships. Other people are like, Doc, I'm just trying to live in like this. Okay, so let's figure out where you want to be. And let's help you get there. Right?

Unknown Speaker 21:15
Find the source. Because we know what the effects are, let's find the source the cause of the effects. I want to make sure we put the qualifier out there, because we haven't done that. I mentioned that you have a number of different degrees from various universities that you've been acquiring since 2000. And I think it was seven. But that is to say, what is your you know, timeline of experience? How long have you been in this business? Many years of expertise, I just want people to, to, I don't want them to think you started a year or two ago, because you've done your time. And you know, through the forensic psychology to offering the personal consultation services to L psychology surfaces, I want people to know how long you've been in the business.

Unknown Speaker 21:57
Sure, sure. If they did not pick up from my reference to a phone book.

Unknown Speaker 22:04
I did pick not to sell not Google, not Google, the paperback that they used to deliver to your door. Right, they will bring you the new issues. Why are you telling people are you telling our business like that stop?

Unknown Speaker 22:16
I am telling them I will edit that out for mental health benefits. No, but I got my undergrad degree. Goodness, I want to say yeah, 2007 The first time I started doing work in correctional settings. So like at a jail doing intakes and therapy would be 2006. So I've been doing work in correctional psychology since Oh, six. I got my master's degree in 2010. I got my first I call it my first big girl job, but my first full time mental health professional job with my master's degree in 2011. So I've been doing mental health professional stuff. 13 years or so. My Yeah. And I've been a psychologist for the past four years.

Unknown Speaker 23:02
Why did you choose? I mean, from North Dakota to here? Was there a particular reason that you ended up here?

Unknown Speaker 23:12
Yeah, I have lived per my my degrees like gosh, almost all over the country and Massachusetts and New England, in North Dakota and Chicago and St. Louis. And I have family out here my my spouse and I have family and we wanted to be near them and so we moved out 2018 and have been here ever since and I'm trying to give him moving companies money and we're here to stay sometimes

Unknown Speaker 23:37
I just love to hear the reasons because people come here for lots of different reasons. And I like to share what you know the draw was or the thing that made Las Vegas where you place the anchor and so sometimes I like to share that information because it's I think a really unique qualifier interesting qualifier, oh, how a person came to why's it work? Was it just was a weather was it family? Just was it opportunity? Was it just something new, just a different space, because for some just being in the desert alone, if you come from the East Coast and southeast is a different experience, because it's just climate wise, and the scenery is absolutely different as well, when you get out into it. And so different things draw people to different places. We're getting into the last five minutes or so of the show. And I want to also talk a little bit if we can just touch on the population. I know you you're there for everyone, but to do a little bit of focus to mention on LGBTQ AI and black indigenous people of color communities. The reason for that focus, because that's a sensitive and surreal in this day and age as we become more and more aware and receptive. And embracing. That's, you know, it's just it's just Think population. Sure,

Unknown Speaker 25:01
I'm a person that thinks that multiple things can be true. I have clients that joke with me that my, my favorite phrase and therapy is and also so I'm going to hit y'all with and also mental health, behavioral health is for everyone, period, end of sentence. New sentence. One of my specialties is working with black identify folks and queer or LGBTQ folks. And I think that there's important levels of understanding, I've had additional training on how to work with trans folks, through like W path standards, I've had additional training that helps me better understand populations in much the same way that I have colleagues that work with. And I've had additional training for folks with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. So I think part of it is for therapy. For some people, it can be about identity. For some people, they look for Black Psychologists, they look for queer psychologists, because maybe their healing some, some hurts that they experience with folks that maybe didn't have the training or didn't want in the community. So therapy for me is absolutely for everybody, we treat everybody and sometimes people have particular identity factors and that becomes important. So I want to make sure to be able to better serve the communities that I reside in as well.

Unknown Speaker 26:23
Well, thank you for that. Thank you for that thoughtfulness and to anyone out there who is looking for someone who has the expertise in the level of sensitivity, understanding and cultural experiences and differences in the psychology services space for LGBTQ AI and black indigenous people of color. Dr. Lauren chapel love is here for you, Lauren, I want to make sure we share your handles. So people I know can find you on all the social media platforms, but to make it easy for them. Please share your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and anything else that you have out there and just make sure they know your website to to do a little research and to be able to find you

Unknown Speaker 27:08
sure 100% I have a name that sounds fake. It sounds like I picked it out specifically for Vegas. But it's not it's just my name my name is Dr. Lauren Chappell hyphen love like going to the chapel gonna get married. And yeah, I do psychotherapy for people with depression anxiety stuff going on stress relationships and sports psychology stuff I if I don't have expertise in it, I will send you to someone who perhaps is is is more well versed in it but I do quite a bit I can be found via my website, which is Dr. Chapel love.com Ch a PP L E. l o v.com. And I have got some handles which are at Dr. Chapel love. So I try and keep things nice and nice and simple. Once you figure out how to spell my name,

Unknown Speaker 28:03
I can appreciate that. And I would assume those handles on everything that we believe are near and dear and popular which would include include what used to be Twitter, which is now x, whatever X even stands for, I guess it's just exponential thought processes and communications across whatever number character they allow you to put on an ex post. And then of course Instagram and Old Faithful Facebook, right?

Unknown Speaker 28:30
Yeah, and tick tock, tick tock. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 28:32
so, right that is on the chopping block. Well, Lauren, thank you for getting up and grabbing your cup of coffee or tea or whatever your favorite drink is there and spending some time with me this morning on the scoop. I appreciate you coming and talking with me and my listening audience. Thank you. Not

Unknown Speaker 28:52
a problem at all. I'm happy to wake up early for you. Thank you for having me

Unknown Speaker 28:56
here. You've been wonderful. Las Vegas. Thank you for tuning in to another edition of the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan here on 91.5k u n v. Jazz and more public radio I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tonya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFL a na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai