Caring Without Losing Yourself: How to Communicate, Find Support, and Protect Your Well-Being

Cynthia is a newborn ICU nurse by trade that has spent the last six years in the medical device industry educating nurses and doctors about devices that are new to their facility. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, traveling the world with her family, and creating Halloween animatronics for her annual front yard display. She has a passion for life-long learning and enjoys sharing what she learns with the people around her.

Dr. Leah E. Walsh is a NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellow and Instructor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). She previously completed a predoctoral research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and her American Psychological Association-accredited internship in Behavioral Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a clinical psychologist who is committed to improving the caregiving experience for family and friends providing care to patients with serious illness through the development and adaptation of psychotherapy interventions to improve anxiety, depression, existential distress, and other mental health outcomes. She is particularly interested in examining the unique needs of caregivers during critical points in the care trajectory, such as after hospital discharge. In addition to her research, Dr. Walsh provides individual therapy to caregivers through the Caregiver Support Program in the Steven S. Elbaum Family Center for Caregiving at ISMMS. 

Dr. Laura Polacek is an Assistant Professor and clinical psychologist in the Steven S. Elbaum Family Center for Caregiving within the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). She completed a clinical fellowship in Geropsychology and her American Psychological Association-accredited internship in Behavioral Medicine at VA Boston Healthcare System. As the primary clinician in the Caregiver Support Program, her work focuses on helping caregivers develop effective coping skills to manage both psychological distress and the significant burden of the caregiver role. In addition to providing mental health treatment in individual and group formats, her work focuses on program development, quality improvement, and psychology training.