Nancy Sharby, PT, MS
Professor, Psychosocial Aspects of Health Care
I teach “Psychosocial Aspects of Health Care” to 3rd year physical therapy students. This year I was privileged to have Terry Wise provide a guest lecture to my class. She did an extraordinary job telling her story and helping the students to understand that people with mental illness are US rather than THEM. A goal of the course is to help students learn to understand various aspects of the human experience and how to support patients in their journey to wellness with whatever conditions are bringing them pain. By telling her compelling story the students were able to understand that mental illness is no one’s fault, it is not something that happens to people who are weak, and there is treatment. With good care, comes hope and recovery.
Terry is a riveting speaker who is able to bring the listener into her personal experiences with depression. She tells her story with deep insight, profound honesty and clarity of thought. Stigma can only end when individuals who have lived with mental illness come forward and expose their most personal struggles and triumphs. Terry shows amazing courage in her ability to use her own darkest moments to enlighten others. One outcome of her talk that I feel is particularly significant is that as a result of Terry’s presentation, one of the students revealed to her classmates that she has depression and takes medication. Her classmates responded with respect and support.
Nancy Sharby, PT, MS
Professor, Psychosocial Aspects of Health Care
Northeastern University
