About
Mind Blossom
Making the World a Better Place For All of Us
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Our Story
Mind Blossom was founded in 2023 by Pernille Yilmam, whose personal experiences inspired its establishment. You can read more about Pernille’s background on her website.
But Mind Blossom is not the story of a single person. Mind Blossom is ultimately the result of long conversations among people who are passionate about preventing and combating mental illness. In 2023, those conversations turned into action.
Join us in creating a better place for all of us.
Our Mission
Mind Blossom strives to prevent and combat mental illness through mental health education and fostering community support.
We integrate humanity with science by using mental health education, an evidence-based method, to empower people’s understanding of their own and others’ physical and mental wellbeing. Through lectures, discussions, and practice people build up a repertoire of positive coping mechanisms, rendering them better at dealing with current stressors and more resilient to future ones. Our goal is three fold:
1. To build people’s evidence-based knowledge foundation on mental health and illness
2. To empower people with effective communication skills to talk about mental illness with various stakeholders, including healthcare providers, peers, employers, and loved ones.
3. To ensure they have the skills to seek out and implement effective mental health support for themselves and others.
Through this process, we build community among peers and ensure sustainable and long-lasting effects of our programs.
Mind Blossom is dedicated to thinking outside the box and incorporating scientifically validated methods and technology to support continued mental health education and fostering continued community support.
Our Vision
Mind Blossom envisions a world where mental health education is integrated into all community centers, schools and companies with the aim to prevent and reduce mental illness. This vision is two-fold: Mind Blossom envisions a world where an individual has the general knowledge to understand their feelings, thoughts and sensations from a personal and scientific perspective. In parallel, we envision a world where the community (friends, family, community centers) can serve as reliable support for individuals struggling with mental illness.
Mind Blossom envisions this world to rely on evidence-based methods, including technology, education, and group-activities, to continuously support individuals and communities thrive.
What we do at Mind Blossom
Weekly mental health education sessions
Join our weekly in-person or virtual sessions crafted to empower individuals of all ages. Gain practical knowledge, communication skills, and coping strategies for enhanced mental well-being.
Workshops
Join our intensive one or two-day workshops, focusing on specific mental health challenges. Gain empowerment through knowledge, enhanced communication skills, and practical coping strategies.
Conversation facilitation
Enhance the mental health of your community by fostering communication skills and coping strategies through weekly conversations facilitated by mental health experts. These group sessions are complemented by educational sessions held weekly.
Consultation on best practices
Engage our experts to identify challenges and formulate action plans aimed at enhancing your team’s mental health and preventing the onset of mental illnesses.
Watch our recent presentation at the 2024 NAMI convention
Check out our work from the first 5 monts of 2024
We need your support!
We provide free of cost mental health education in underserved communities. Many of these communities do not have the means to support us financially, so we are relying on financial support from people and organizations that beleive our work is meaningful. Please consider gifting us with a tax-excempt donation.
Let’s start empowering people
Let us bring our enthusiasm and passion to you.
The Statistics in the US
Suffer from Mental illness
Die from suicide annually
attempt suicide annually
children suffer from mental illness
%
rate work as their main source of stress
%
higher risk for cardiovascular disease in people with depression
did not receive treatment for their mental illness
of youth with mental illness whose insurance does not cover mental illness treatment
The Mind Blossom Team
Please scroll down if you are interested in learning more about our Advisory Board and Board of Directors.
Founding Team
Pernille Yilmam, PhD
Leading Founder
Obi Onochie, PhD
Founding Member
Wesley Updike
Founding Member
Leadership and Officers
Pernille Yilmam, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Sushma Srinivisan, MS
Director of Programming
Aramie Bloom
Compliance Officer
Justin Kalinay
Head of Community Outreach
Ava Duskic
Associate Editor
Iulia Nandrea
Director of Podcast and Livestreams Series
Grace VanOort
Fundraising Lead
Program and Project Specific Team Members
Carina Filemyr
Ambassador Program Coordinator
Ethelia Holt
Maternal Health Program Coordinator
Chantell TiAnna
Maternal Health Program Facilitator
Consultants
Brittany Augugliaro, MSW & LMSW
School Programming Consultant
Mona Miao, EdM
School Programming Consultant
Danielle Balogh, MS
Marketing Consultant
Morgan DiPrimo
Outreach Consultant
Interns
Azzarree Uwhubetine
Editoral Intern
Jessica Reed
Editorial Intern
Krystal Rivera
Creative Intern
Jamie Sheppard
Editoral Intern
Sophie Shea
Grant Writing Intern
Khushbu Savla
Newsletter Intern
Advisory Board
Norman H. Kim, PhD
DEI Officer, Antiracism Trainer and Consultant
Molly Dickens, PhD
Founder and Director of the Maternal Stress Project
Kathleen MacDonald
Insurance Advocate & President of Insurance Advocacy 4 All, LLC
Charlotte Markey, PhD
Professor and Department Chair at Rutgers University
Dorsey Standish, MS
CEO and Founder of Mastermind
Ky Langley
Author & Business Owner
Board of Directors
Sola Togun-Butler, PhD
Board Member
Obi Onochie, PhD
Board Secretary
Daniel Fincham
Board President
Sean Perry
Board Treasurer
Sara Spowart, PhD
Board Member
Mind Blossom is dedicated to ethical and culturally competent practices
Mind Blossom works with people from all societies spread across socioeconomic, racial, and cultural practices. We continuously ensure that our team reflects the communities we support, and that we are all trained to support and respect all backgrounds and identities.
We believe that our differences make our communities stronger.
If you are interested in learning more about how the Mind Blossom team is equipped to support diverse communities, please download the document below or email us at info@mindblossom.org with any question.
Mind Blossom’s Organization Structure
Nonprofit registration
Mind Blossom is a registered 501(c)3 Public Charity Organization with Tax ID number: 92-2178954
Nonprofit Cause
Mind Blossom’s major mission is to further the cause of mental health education in schools (K12 and colleges) and community centers, and all profits obtained will be reinvested in this cause.
Nonprofit compensation
Given its nonprofit status, Mind Blossom does not have any shareholders. Board members and advisors are not financially compensated for their positions.
Profits, Donations & Reports
Where does your money go
All profits from services and all donations are reinvested into developing mental health education programming for financially insecure schools and community centers.
Decide where your donations go
Mind Blossom is dedicated to make an impact in your local area. When you donate 1000$ or more, we will reinvest our profits in your local area (state or region).
When you donate 3000$ or more, we give you the option to decide which specific school or specific area we should dedicate our pro bono services to.
Know where your money went
We release quarterly newsletter that state where we have worked either as a service or pro bono activity. In this newsletter we also state how much money we received in donations and exactly how we have spent them.
A Letter from the Founder
Mental illness is hard. Because of mental illness we cry, we lose loved ones, we die. Scientists have spent decades finding ways to treat mental illness, and we have taken enormous strides. Instead of cutting out people’s frontal lobes, we can now combat mental illness through evidence-based talk therapy and medications. We are even entering an era that resembles sci-fi more than normal reality: some people with treatment-resistant depression and suicidality now have electrodes implanted in their brain which literally changes the activity of their brain cells, and ultimately relieves their feelings of despair. These leaps are enormous and absolutely worthy of celebration. Thankfully, newspapers and pop-science books have done a fantastic job at bringing this knowledge to the people.
But what about preventing mental illness before it even takes place? It is generally known that to maintain your own and other’s mental wellbeing, you should treat each other kindly, refrain from physical and physiological abuse, and live a healthy lifestyle. While these are legitimate and useful strategies they have not prevented the sour increase in mental illness that affects every living human being in all socioeconomic and demographic areas. We need something different and we need it now. So what are actual implementable and scalable ways of creating preventative programs for mental illness?
Before answering that we have to ask another question: what are evidence-based ways of preventing mental illness? I have been steeped in psychology and neuroscience research for over a decade and, honestly, the research on this seemingly obvious question is scarce. But there is one thing we know works. It actually works so well that psychiatrists and therapists consistently use it as a part of evidence-based treatment approaches and it is used in the military to prevent PTSD. What is this holy grail of mental illness prevention? It’s mental health education (also known as psychoeducation and mental health literacy). You can read more about mental health education here, but what I want you to consider right now is that mental health education is one of the few evidence-based approaches to prevent mental illness. On top of that, it also reduces existing mental illness symptoms. It’s a win-win. Sadly, this method is not generally available to people, at least not to all people.
Mental health education can be given to groups of people (and not just one at a time as most therapy sessions), it does not require a prescription, it is cheap, and it can be provided anywhere regardless of technical amenities. Mental health education is such a simple solution it almost seems too good to be true. So why is mental health education not implemented in schools, companies, and any organization that seriously wants to prevent mental illness among their target group?
This was a question I grappled with for years, and in 2022 an idea slowly started forming. In 2023, that idea became reality in the shape of Mind Blossom. I have assembled an incredible team of people with diverse backgrounds and personal stories, and we are passionate about bringing mental health education to the people. I hope you will join us in these efforts.
Pernille Yilmam
Pernille Yilmam, PhD
Our Partners
Mental Health Literacy Collaborative‘s (MHLC) mission is to make the education framework of mental health literacy foundational in schools and communities. We envision a world where all individuals understand mental health and can make informed choices, respond mindfully, embrace healing, and thrive.
Be Thrive exists to support individuals who are caring for others with extraordinary mental health experiences, and are longing to connect with others who get it. Through individual and group coaching, we partner with you to problem solve, explore new skills, and consider new ways of approaching your relationship with individuals living with mental illness, all while holding the truth that this journey is unlike any other, and it is best done with community and support.
ANAD believes people heal better when they know they’re not alone. With a warm helpline, virtual peer support groups, a peer mentorship program, and more, ANAD is a free community resource available to anyone struggling with an eating disorder.
Butterfly Counseling Services was established with the vision of making mental health services affordable and accessible to a diverse client population. Butterfly Counseling Services is also committed to challenging the stigma of receiving mental health services.
transfoHRm is an LGBTQ-led HR firm, providing strategic, human-centered HR partnership to CEOs, Founders & Leaders in the most critical times & areas of their mission.
They’re obsessed with scaling [mission-driven] organizations into their fullest potential, while putting their people at the heart of what they do
Recoverlution is a virtual community platform for addiction recovery. On their platform, you can virtually connect with people sharing the experience of addiction and easily connect with the resources that best support your recovery.
Counseling Space, PC is a mental health practice that strives to improve the wellness of individuals, communities, and organizations through advocacy, counseling, and education.
Our Sponsors
With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world’s largest online therapy platform, facilitating over 5,000,000 video sessions, voice calls, chats, and messages every month. They set out on a mission to make sure everyone has easy, affordable, safe, and discreet access to high-quality therapy. Since 2013, their licensed and accredited therapists have helped more than 3,000,000 people face life’s challenges and improve their mental health.
BetterHelp gratiously sponsors Mind Blossom’s ability to increase accessibility to mental health care and education to underserved communities.
Give Today
Mind Blossom reinvests all donations and profits into mental health education programs and services for schools and community organizations with financial insecurities. You can decide where your money goes.
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Get In Touch
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
info@mindblossom.org