Jessica and Danielle

This month I thought it would be fun to interview two musicians that also work in the mental health sector. Each has their own unique style of music and both also have very different roles in mental health.

Part I - Mental Health

Jessica (she/her) is a licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) with over 15 years experience working in social service non-profit organizations and private practice settings. Jessica began her mental health career as a women’s case manager, working to connect Chicago homeless persons with health care, mental health care, resources, and housing. Two years into this role, Jessica simultaneously began working evenings in private practice, working with adults with anxiety, depression, and relationship issues. Jessica continued working these dual positions for several years. In 2018, Jessica started her own full-time private practice in Wicker Park, where she sees adults and couples for various mental health and relationship issues.

Danielle (she/her) is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) with over 10 years experience working with couples and families. She began her career working with children and families involved in the Cook County Juvenile Justice system. She has a wealth of experience working with teens and parents using empirically validated models such as Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and more!

She earned her Masters of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of The Family Institute. She earned her Bachelors from Michigan State University.

We have always had a lot of fun having people in at the station where we broadcast Radio One Chicago, especially when we have two guests at the same time. I appreciate both of you taking part in this interview.

Can you both share with me a little of what you do in the realm of mental health?

J: I have a private counseling practice in Wicker Park under “Jessica Emelia, LCPC”. I work with individual adults and couples, and specialize in anxiety issues, depression, life transitions, communication issues, conflict resolution skills, and relationship issues.

D: My practice, Home Remedy Chicago provides an alternative for families who have found little relief from traditional therapies or are considering out of home placement for their child. We offer an intensive, shortterm, home-based therapeutic model that targets the specific challenges of individual families in the context of their home, school, and community.

Jessica, I would like to start with you. You have entered the world of mental health more recently than Danielle. What are some of the challenges that you have seen starting off in this career path?

J: I’m not sure when Danielle started, but I’ve actually been working in the mental health field since 2004 - so it’s been a while! My overall career has been a split between non-profit social work and private counseling practice, which are quite different from one another. Certainly the non-profit work was much more challenging in terms of meeting the needs of the clients due to limited resources, and significant financial and systemic barriers to those in need.

Danielle, you have been doing this for some time. As you have grown with experience, what has come more natural to you?

D: I definitely feel more confident in my clinical skills than I did ten years ago! The majority of the families I see are thinking about sending their kids away to a therapeutic boarding school because they feel unable to handle the emotional and behavioral needs of the child. I’m able to offer parenting skills and help parents stick to house rules while emotionally engaging their child in a way where we are able to talk about the root of the problem. It’s an intense process, but I love it. I feel that trusting my intuition has become more natural as I’ve gained more experience..

Since both of you have seen different sides of mental health, what would you say have been some of the biggest themes you are currently seeing?

J: Increased anxiety and depression for sure. People are feeling very isolated, a loss of control, parents are struggling to manage work and school, families have tension within the family system because people have differing ideas about COVID safety and politics. And of course, fear of COVID! Right now I’m also seeing many people nervous about returning to “normal” life - not sure how they will re-adapt to socializing and the demands of our previous routines.

D: Depression and Anxiety in our youth is skyrocketing. I think that schools have kept their expectations high while we are all emotionally reeling from COVID-19. It’s too much for many to handle - reality has completely changed for everyone - so it can be difficult to concentrate on academic responsibilities!

How does one know when to ask for help?

J: That’s a good question! Many people don’t feel comfortable reaching out for help - they may not

have anyone they trust, or may feel uncomfortable being vulnerable or admitting vulnerability. I think one good signal to ask for help is when your life/ functioning feels negatively impacted - for example, if you are having difficulty concentrating at work, if your relationship is suffering, if you’re not able to do activities you used to enjoy or have feelings of hopelessness - those are all good signs to ask for help. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or harming anyone else, those are definitely times to reach out for help immediately.

D: I would love to see a world where everyone has a trusted, woke AF therapist and an hour every week reserved just for them in the mental health realm - just as a basic standard of care. Could you imagine the potential that people could reach? How many lives we could save from suicide? To get there, we’d have to de-stigmatize mental health and stop stripping public funding of mental health services.

Jessica, can you tell us a little bit about your YouTube Channel?

J: My YouTube channel consists of my own music videos and video collages I’ve created over the years, as well as video versions of my podcast, “Music Therapy With Jessica Risker”. My “Music Therapy With Jessica Risker” podcast focuses on talking with musicians about mental health, the creative process, music careers, parenting and music, touring, recording and releasing albums, and anything else we want to talk about!

Part II - Music

Jessica Risker Bio

Jessica Risker is an American musician and visual artist based in Chicago, Illinois. From 2011 - 2018 Risker performed and released albums under the name Deadbeat. In 2018, Risker signed with Western Vinyl with the release of the full-length “I See You Among The Stars” and began performing as Jessica Risker. Risker’s music fluctuates between electropsychedelic/experimental albums, instrumental music box lullabies, and psych-folk songs. From the dreamsoaked harmonies of ‘Moon’ to the neopsychedelic/ garage rocker ’Won’t You Meet Us In Vegas?’, Risker’s continuous genre shifting is inspired by dual desires to 1) experiment with soundscapes made possible by modern recording techniques, and 2) craft melodies, lyrics, and structures pared down to their most basic elements. Frequenting open mics, serving as an engineer’s assistant at a recording studio, and an active participant in Chicago’s DIY music scene, Risker has spent the past decade developing her sound and honing her recording/engineering skills. In 2012, Risker was named Chicago’s “Emerging Artist of the Year” by The Deli Magazine. In 2015 and 2016 Risker was awarded two independent artist grants from the city of Chicago, resulting in two 2016 releases: Big Forever, an ever-shifting continuous eighteenminute piece of electro-psychedelic music released via Already Dead Tapes & Records, and Soft Moons: Twenty Lullabies, a self-released album of original instrumental music-box lullabies.

In 2017, Risker was again awarded an independent artist grant from the city of Chicago, marking 3 consecutive years Risker has won the highly competitive grant award. The funding went towards recording a new psych-folk album with engineer Dave Vettraino of Public House Sound Recordings. The resulting album entitled “I See You Among The Stars” caught the attention of Austin label Western Vinyl, who released the album in spring 2018. Jessica Risker performs both solo and with the following musicians:

Joshua Wentz - keyboard/synths, drum machines, electronix

Jarrett Hothan - bass

Adam Wiebe - drums In spring of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, Risker also began a podcast called “Music Therapy With Jessica Risker”. The podcast’s goal was to connect the Chicago music community, explore issues meaningful to musicians, and offer mental health awareness and support, based on Risker’s experience as a professional counselor. The podcast

is recorded live on Instagram weekly, then distributed through podcast streaming platforms. Jessica is currently working on a new folk album, as well as a space-rock album with the full band.

Impulsive Hearts Bio

Impulsive Hearts is Danielle Sines & her friends. She sings, shouts, plays guitar, piano, organ, & accordion and records noises on tape recorders. She likes melodies that remind her of summertime. Impulsive Hearts pick up where recent revivalist acts like Dum Dum Girls and Best Coast have left off, adding just a hint of indelible Midwestern sadness to the neo-girl group garage rock sound. On “Cry All The Time,” the second LP from MidWest Action and Cavity Search Records, the surf-rock group delves into darker themes of love and loss, while maintaining bright, fierce and catchy-as-hell songwriting. sunny, fun summertime energy - and I love how that summery vibe comes across in her music! I’m also inspired, as a mental health professional, to witness another therapist actively maintaining music in her life - writing, recording and performing her own music, sharing music and events with others as a DJ for CHIRP, and encouraging young girls and women through her work at Girls Rock! Chicago.

D: I love and admire Jessica’s musicianship- she crafts songs in a new and interesting way and isn’t afraid to change keys and structures which I really appreciate. I also love how Jessica has been able to bring together a community of artists to talk about mental health at a critical time in our history. Musicians are especially vulnerable to mental health problems - so having this space on Music Therapy to talk through our process and thoughts has been so helpful and therapeutic.

Both of you write fairly different music, what do each of you appreciate about each other’s art?

J: I remember doing an interview with Danielle a while ago where she talked about feeling more inspired to write in the summer - really drawing from that

Does any of your mental health career cross into your music career, or visa versa? (If so, how)

J: I never directly write about clients or their stories. I certainly use music as a way to process and release my own emotions. My interest in understanding

people and the human experience are certainly themes I explore in my music. In the other direction, I certainly bring my musical experience into therapy sessions - many of my clients are artistic themselves, so it’s a way to connect with those clients and relate to that side of their lives. Also, the process of creating contains so much wisdom for our everyday lives - for example, the importance of honoring empty space/ time in your life, which allows time to rest and return to action with fresh perspective and energy.

D: I personally write every song as a way to process and handle my emotions and thoughts - especially on our latest record “Cry All The Time.” People don’t necessarily know it from the lyrics, but I coped with a lot of losses - a friend to suicide, my grandmother’s death, people close to me struggling with addiction - all through music. Writing music has become my therapy in a way; a sacred space to be able to say and feel anything - to process and allow myself to have a wide range of emotions and feelings.

Do you feel that your mental health careers changed the way you write lyrics? Are your lyrics or the way you think of writing different from before and after you entered your career as mental health advocates?

J: I don’t feel my mental health career impacts the way I write lyrics.

D: Ugh, looking back on old songs are like looking at bad diary entries. I try not to look back, and to not take it too seriously if I find something totally embarrassing in all the old notebooks I have. I think now I’m a bit more mindful of the power of words and lyrics - a lot of the first album I’m lyrically beating myself up. On YKILY, I’m talking about going to grad school to “cure myself” of myself. It’s lyrically a representation of my subconscious leading up to that point, an old form of self-talk. At the end of the song, I’m basically saying “nothing that you’re going to do is going to amount to anything, try again loser.” Now, I’m a bit nicer at least to myself. Once you shed that negative energy, you don’t want it back.

If you each had to name a signature song that you wrote that defined where each of you are at musically, what would it be?

J: Maybe “Zero Summer Mind” - moving about in sort of a daze, ready for summer warmth, and my mind is very preoccupied with everything that’s been happening around us. D: Haha, I like the energy and affirmation-like lyrics of “I WANNABE GONE” and that’s sort of where I am at musically. I’m so excited to get back together with my band and start having COVID-safe band practice and just have fun playing. So much of my musical experience pre-COVID was about getting it perfect, or getting too stressed out at shows or about things being “just-so.” Now, I’m ready to rip it all to pieces and focus on enjoying playing and enjoying being in a really great band with really talented people!

Have the two of you ever shard the stage?

D: Only virtually (I think!) Jessica created this really fun virtual Halloween cover show. She covered Lisa Loeb (swoon!) and I covered Tori Amos. I hope to share a physical stage with Jessica at some point though!

INTERVIEWED AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEX HERNANDEZ