Tag Archives: mental health
Jordan Hayslip Lives At The Intersection Of Teaching, Coaching, And Making
When you think of Amherst football in the early ’90s, you probably remember linebacker Jordan Hayslip, a four-year starter and anchor of the defense. But Jordan was much more than a gifted athlete. An English and Fine Arts double major, today he describes himself as a teacher, coach, and maker. I call him a Renaissance man who has woven together art, athletics, and community in ways that feel deeply intentional.
After years teaching in Watts, working as a coach and educator in Hawaii, and experimenting as a furniture builder in Los Angeles, Jordan returned to Amherst in 2018 with his wife Sarah (a Hampshire grad) and their two children. He now works in the Amherst College athletic department, supporting student athletes’ development with a focus on mental health. Outside of that role, you’ll find him in his woodshop turning local trees into furniture, painting landscapes of the Pioneer Valley, and hosting classmates when they come back to campus.
Jordan opens up about his own mental health journey, the lessons he’s drawn from coaching and teaching, and why Amherst — the town and the college — continues to shape his life decades after graduation.
Conversation highlights include:
Jordan lives at the intersection of teaching, coaching, and making, three pursuits that form the through-line of his life.
On becoming a mental health advocate: Jordan speaks openly about his own mental health struggles and how they shape the way he supports Amherst student athletes today.
The meditative power of making: Whether painting on trails or building furniture from local trees, Jordan sees his creative practice as both expression and therapy.
The Amherst classmates he wants to hear from next
To contact Jordan, email him at jordanhayslip72@gmail.com or jchayslip94@amherst.edu, or visit his website, jordanhayslip.com, to see his handcrafted furniture.
Dr. Aki Hosoi Brings Warmth And Wisdom To Mental Health Therapy
If you were thinking of becoming a therapist, you’d be hard pressed to find a better instructor and mentor than Dr. Aki Hosoi.
Now a senior staff psychologist and the director of training at Colorado State, where she oversees a graduate-level training program that provides clinical training master’s and doctoral level clinicians, her career path is winding and varied.
After graduating from Amherst College in 1994, Aki spent a year doing internships, including working with endangered cranes and conducting whale research. While completing her dissertation in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she began volunteering at the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center. That’s where she found her true calling.
She went on to earn a second PhD, this time in Counseling Psychology, at Colorado State University, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the San Francisco Veteran’s Hospital. For the last 13 years, she has worked as a therapist for university students at the Colorado State University Health Network.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Aki’s take on the state of mental health on college campuses today
How the tactful introduction of clinician authenticity and vulnerability can improve care and results
How the mental health market, including both the supply and demand-side, has evolved post-Covid
The surprising and most memorable professional feedback she ever received
The Amherst classmates she wants me to interview next
For more information on Aki and the work she does, click this link to her training website. You also can email her at aki.hosoi@colostate.edu.
Caroline Russell Smith Serves Up A Midlife Upgrade
Caroline Russell Smith is a sex therapist, and in this episode, she reassuringly shares the things that people can do to have the best sex of their lives. She offers so much more than just paths to a healthier, more fulfilling sex life, though. I see Caroline as a healer and someone who can help especially those in midlife upgrade their lives.
In this conversation (which covers sex and includes some profanity, just in case you listen in the car with kids or at work), you’ll learn about:
The importance of learning new things in middle age – and the new sport Caroline has fallen in love with
Her journey through high school sex education and working with both sex offenders and survivors of sexual violence
Advice on how people in their 50s can tackle three problems common to this cohort: searching for meaning, facing malaise, and evolving our sex lives as our bodies age
The Amherst classmate she wants me to talk to next
Want to get in touch with Caroline? Visit her website (https://caroline-russell-smith.squarespace.com/) or send her an email at carolinerrsmith@gmail.com.
Matt Collins' Blog 