Jessica Isom - The Steve Fund

Jessica Isom

Jessica Isom, MD, MPH is a Steve Fund mental health expert and the lead content developer for My Digital Sanctuary, a platform supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people of color. Dr. Isom is a board-certified community psychiatrist, clinical assistant professor in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, and a nationally recognized expert in mental health equity. She earned her MD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also completed an MPH in public health leadership. Dedicated to addressing structural racism in healthcare, Dr. Isom’s work spans teaching, clinical practice, and consultation through her company Vision for Equity LLC, empowering organizations to adopt equity-minded approaches that improve outcomes for underserved populations.

All 44 Insights 44

Overcoming Relationship Stress with Creativity

INSIGHT 20 Feb 2025

What strategies do you turn to when challenges arise in your relationships? Your creativity is an important and underappreciated tool you can use every day — both to cope with your own stress and to work through challenges you may face with others. Let’s explore some creative strategies that can support your mental health and emotional well-being.

The power of your story

INSIGHT 20 Feb 2025

How do you preserve important moments in your relationships? While some may be captured in photos or on social media, you’re more likely to capture them in the stories you tell. Studies on understanding life experiences show that dedicating time to processing your experiences through storytelling can support your mental health, lead to psychological growth, and increase your well-being. Let’s explore your story.

Building Stronger Bonds: Turning Conflict into Growth

INSIGHT 11 Jan 2025

You may face relationship conflicts influenced by factors outside of your control. External pressures like racial stress, financial strain, or balancing responsibilities can shape how you see and respond to conflicts, sometimes without you realizing it. Here are some practical steps you can take to understand conflict cycles and how you can work through disagreements when they arise.

Learning, Loving, Growing: Embracing Challenges with Strength

INSIGHT 11 Jan 2025

Embracing love as care, affection, responsibility, respect, commitment, and trust can provide a strong foundation for your relationships. This exercise is designed to help you reflect on your relationships when you face questions about emotional well-being, balance, and mutual support. What do you think healthy love looks like — and how can you build healthy relationship habits? Let’s look.

Setting Boundaries in Relationships

INSIGHT 11 Jan 2025

Have you ever struggled to communicate your needs without causing tension with someone you love? Mindful communication can help with this common challenge — and help you find a healthy balance honoring the “me,” the you,” and the “we” in your relationships. Mindfulness in your communications can help. Here’s how.

Sociocultural stress: What’s love got to do with it?

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

“As you navigate social and cultural stressors it can be overwhelming to ask yourself, “What’s love got to do with it?” As I reflect on my earliest experiences with love, I can see how they were influenced by systemic racism and other sociocultural factors. These forces influenced not only those who tried to love me but also my attempts to love in return. But, I made progress. Here’s how.” -Dr. Jessica Isom

Journaling for Change: Growing Your Relationship Skills

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

How do you grow your skills within your relationships? Practicing healthy ways to give and receive love means letting go of popular misconceptions about love and moving towards love that is healthy, empowering, and nurturing. This journaling exercise will help you explore how to approach patterns within relationships and define steps to grow your skills.

What Do You Believe About Love?

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

Research shows that young people of color are thoughtful and informed about connecting and maintaining relationships of all kinds. This exercise is intended to support a mindful approach to understanding your internalized messages about love, the beliefs you hold about love, and the patterns that contribute to your relationships. Let’s get started!

Recognizing Healthy Love in Your Life

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

Have you wondered how to define healthy love and its components in your relationships? Research shows that you’re not alone if you find this challenging. But with a mindful approach you can take steps in understanding and applying these six components of love that can strengthen your relationships and your mental health.

Learning to “Live Love”

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

How do you learn to “live love” and not just think of love as desire and emotion? Television, movies, and your relationships may offer some useful examples, but the media often shows love in ways that are contradictory and limiting. How do you define love? Let’s look.

Love is more than a feeling — it’s how we live

INSIGHT 10 Jan 2025

My experiences understanding love as a young person of color are reflected in this quote from All About Love by bell hooks: “It is easier to articulate the pain of love’s absence than to describe its presence and meaning in our lives.” Her words and scholarship validate the moments of confusion I felt that made me ask, “What exactly is this thing we call love?”

Mindful Justice — How Balance Can Empower Us

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

For us as young people of color, justice is more than just a legal concept. Justice shapes your physical health and mental health. As I was becoming a young adult, I began to see more clearly where justice and injustice reside. Taking steps toward justice can enhance our sense of empowerment and control, benefiting our mental health and resilience. Here are insights and tips to help you on your journey.

Creating Justice: A Colorful Mindfulness Meditation

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Try this coloring meditation to reflect on your creativity and how you find meaning and joy in expressing yourself. Is there a favorite form of art that flows naturally for you, like music, writing, drawing, or dance? Consider how you can use your creativity to express yourself, support your well-being, inspire others, and contribute to creating a more just society.

Finding Balance through Creative Writing

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Imagine yourself as a different person, and this person wants to support you. This other person could be a friend, family member, or mentor — or even your future self. Imagine their perspective and use these five steps to write a letter to yourself expressing why you deserve balance, how creativity can support you, and why being fair with yourself and others makes a difference to your well-being. Let’s get started.

The RAIN Method: A Creative Art Exercise

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Whether you can draw well or not, this creative exercise will take you step-by-step through a creative process designed to help you process emotions, restore balance, and support your mental health. All you need is a piece of paper, something to write and draw with, and about 20 minutes. Your creativity can lead to insights and breakthroughs and help support your mental health and well-being. Ready?

Unleashing Your Creativity to Restore and Maintain Balance

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Your creativity is more than just a way to express yourself. Sometimes justice can feel elusive, especially for young people of color. But your creative energy can be a catalyst for creating change and finding balance. Your art and creativity can inspire you and others to make change while also supporting emotional well-being, resilience, and healthy choices. Let’s explore these ideas.

Strategies for Balance: Which Strategy Will Be A Part of Your Justice Story?

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

For young people of color, prioritizing self-care is a powerful and radical act that nurtures both individual well-being and collective resilience. As you develop your action plan for self care, take a look at these strategies and consider which can be a part of your personal journey toward mindful justice and emotional well-being.

Reflecting on the Past, Planning for the Future: A Coloring Meditation

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

In this coloring meditation, you can let your mind recall stories about the march toward justice and well-being in your community. What insights can you gather about the qualities and skills of people who worked to improve their lives and the lives of others? What insights have you gained from conversations with your elders, parents, or peers about finding support that sustains your well-being?

Wisdom Talks: Exploring Mindful Justice Across Generations

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Talking with people from older generations can help you see life in new ways and shed light on your journey, and your community’s evolution. While your culture may have unique ways of being and creating connections, here are a few ideas and questions to help you plan a genuine and inspiring conversation with an elder in your community

What’s Your Story?

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Your story matters and sharing it does too! Telling your story is empowering — and can help you clarify your thoughts, process your experiences, and create connections and understanding. And opening up and sharing your story is a great way to support your mental health and emotional well-being. Try these five prompts to help get your stories flowing — in writing or recording on your phone. Let’s start.

Drawing Strength from Stories of Mindful Justice to Help You Tell Your Own

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Drawing on stories that inspire you can help you navigate your mindful involvement in seeking justice. Just as stories can shine a light on who you are, they can also inspire and fuel your resolve to take action to support mental health and emotional well-being in your life and communities. Let’s explore the power of stories — and you can start telling your own story.

The Caged Bird, Justice, and Self-Compassion: A Reflective Exercise

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Using Maya Angelou's powerful poem 'Caged Bird' and Kristin Neff's steps of self-compassion, this exercise invites you to explore themes of freedom, limitations, resilience, and well-being. Grab a pen or your tablet, and try this reading and writing exercise to explore justice and self-compassion in ways that support your mental health and emotional well-being.

Reflection on Connection: Building Bridges for Justice & Well-Being

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Research shows that everyone can experience tough moments when trying to connect with others. At times, you may have disagreements, or experience intense emotions, or feel anxiety when the risks of an interaction seem high. Try this 3-step exercise to reflect on your relationship with yourself, with others, and with your community. Let’s go!

Mindfully Connecting With Ourselves and Others to Seek Justice and Healing

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

In a world filled with different forms of injustice, being self-aware and connecting with others is crucial for building more inclusive and supportive communities of color rooted in a commitment to mindful justice. Understanding how identity — like race, gender, and ability — shape your experiences can help you forge deeper connections within your communities. And, this understanding can help you advocate for justice and support your mental health, and well-being.

Mindful Justice Coloring Meditation: What Does Balance Look Like for Me?

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

To help practice mindful justice, it can be helpful to slow down and reflect on how you can incorporate aspects of this powerful practice into your daily life. Here is a coloring meditation to give you the space and time to support your mental health and consider what balance looks like for you in the present moment.

Create Your Soul Care Toolbox for Personal Empowerment & Well-being

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Liberating yourself from injustice, past challenges, and unhealthy situations is a key part of your soul care journey. To help form daily habits that support your holistic mental health, here are two tools you can develop, refine, and use to create the balance necessary for mindful justice that supports your emotional well-being and mental health. Ready?

Guided Walking Meditation: Justice and Radical Acceptance

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Let’s take a few minutes to let ourselves just be. Walking and breathing are great ways to help us observe our environment and our place in it, and gradually allow our minds and feelings to find balance. Mindfulness meditation is a great tool to help us center yourself, support your mental health, and sustain your efforts to work for justice.

Liberating Ourselves as We Seek Justice and Healing

INSIGHT 26 Dec 2024

Liberating ourselves means breaking free from the limitations of injustice in our daily lives in the ways we can. Persistence and resilience in seeking justice for ourselves and in our community requires a sustaining source of guidance and motivation. For me, my sustaining sources are my values, and a commitment to improving the mental health of individuals and communities of color. What sustains you? Let’s explore together.

Meditating on Creativity for Hope and Healing

INSIGHT 26 Nov 2024

Your creativity can be your guide for finding hope, strength, and healing. Historically, creative artistry has shown us that we don’t have to accept the world as it is. We can each use our creative gifts to express our feelings about the present reality and to imagine a healthier, more just world. ...

Setting Emotional Creativity Goals

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Before engaging in a creative activity to support emotional resilience and regulation, it’s helpful to explore your needs and identify your ideal outcome. Consider your emotional goal, choose a creative tactic, decide on the emotional approach that works best for you, and then determine how this activity will help you. Here are four steps to help set you on the path toward managing your emotions and mental health productively.

Embrace Hope and Healing through Creativity

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Creating art is a powerful way to regulate your emotions and support your resilience. Here are eight creative ideas to support your emotional well-being and explore the science of hope. Use paper or any medium you like, including the Shuffles app from Pinterest, which can help you create, publish, and share your art. Let’s get started.

Creativity Is a Tool for Raising and Maintaining Hope

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Creativity and the arts can support our emotional regulation and resilience. Your creativity can help you express yourself and manage emotional responses that might otherwise turn you away from our identified goals, pathways to achieve them, and a sense of personal agency. But how do you get started? Let’s talk about it!

Meditating on Hope and Motivation

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

What sources of motivation do you draw on to care for your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health? Soul care for each of us can sometimes begin with reflecting on our experiences or the stories of others. Pausing to consider goals from our past, present, and for the future, can allow new ideas, goals, or action steps to come into focus. Try this mindfulness coloring exercise to get started.

Your Story Matters, and Sharing It Does Too!

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Throughout our diverse histories, stories have always held power in communities of color. The sequence of creating a story about your personal journey can help you to clarify your thoughts, process your emotions and experiences, and create connections. Here are seven thought starters and writing prompts to help you get started — whether you share your story in person, through a video, social post, or in writing.

How Your Story Can Help You Find Hope and Healing

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Like many of you, as a young person of color I often wondered where my life journey and the stories it holds fit into the larger history of my community. While I recognized that storytellers have long held the power to inspire hope and resilience, I questioned whether my own narrative might do the same. ...

A Coloring Meditation on Building Healthy Relationships

INSIGHT 25 Nov 2024

Focusing on your relationship with yourself is a powerful way to strengthen your ability to build relationships with others. Here’s a way to take a breath and meditate on caring for yourself and others as you build healthy relationships. As you prioritize emotional well-being and mental health, you become better able to care for people you value, and cultivate hope, resilience, and a commitment to thriving at school, work, and beyond.

Build Your Hope Network

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Ready to identify and cultivate a support network that fosters hope, healing, and resilience in your life? Recognizing individuals who know and understand you can create a network of trusted allies who uplift and empower you during challenging times. Why? Because they value your strengths, contribute to a hopeful, healthy mindset, and are available to support you. Grab a notebook and let’s get started!

Connecting with Ourselves and Others to Find Hope and Healing

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Building healthy relationships with trusted friends, adults, and mentors who support you for who you are can help you find the hope and healing you need to thrive. As a young person of color, my chosen family and growing social network created space for new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that were missing in important ways within my own family. Here’s what I did about it to support my mental health and well-being.

The Color of Hope

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Sometimes it’s helpful to slow our minds down by doing some simple crafts and creative work. Here’s a coloring sheet to meditate on hope, which is more than just wishful thinking. Hope is a belief in the possibility of a brighter future and an understanding of our own ability to shape it. Ready?

How Hope Heals — and Sets Us Free

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Hope is more than just wishful thinking. Hope is believing in the possibility of a brighter future and understanding our ability to shape it. I learned about the science of hope, which shows that setting goals, identifying pathways, and moving forward can profoundly affect us — and our mental health. I’ve seen firsthand how hope can be a beacon of light that guides us through challenges to build our resilience and find healing.

Cultivating Hope Skills for Healing and Well-being

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Learning to “raise” hope in our lives is something each of us can do each day. With guidance, intentionality, and patience, you can find support to cultivate hope as part of your mental health and well-being journey. Studies show that learning to cultivate hope can support you as an individual, and as a member of your community, to set goals, cope in daily life, and give you tools to maintain hope — even in tough times.

Liberating Ourselves to Find Hope and Healing

INSIGHT 23 Nov 2024

Understanding the science of hope is a journey toward freeing ourselves from moments of despair and helplessness to move towards our goals. As a young person of color, I benefited from this understanding of hope at each phase of my personal and professional journey. Hope helps us see beyond challenges to envision and create a brighter future. Let’s explore how you can free yourself from challenges to your well-being and the impacts of oppression to cultivate hope.

Freedom Dreaming: What Are Your Deepest Dreams and Highest Hopes?

INSIGHT 14 Nov 2024

Can you imagine your life or the world free of societal constraints and oppressive forces? What are your dreams? What do you hope for? What possibilities do you see when you look ahead? What does freedom look like to you? What supports your mental health and well-being?To help get started, let’s read a poem and do a little writing. Ready?

Freedom Dreaming: What Do You See When You Dream about the Future?

INSIGHT 14 Nov 2024

Freedom Dreaming is a tool for survival that has been used for centuries by people of color to create space to exist despite societal constraints faced in their daily lives. While Freedom Dreaming can be used to imagine a future without societal constraints and oppressive forces, it can also be used each day to support our mental health and emotional well-being.