Renee Crown Wellness Institute

It takes a village of mothers

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 20:56:42 +0000

It takes a village of mothers Rachel Sauer Wed, 08/13/2025 - 14:56

Sona Dimidjian and Anahi Collado

How mothers supporting mothers can help fill the health care worker shortage gap and other barriers to care

For generations, women have relied on informal networks of friends, family and neighbors to navigate the complexities of birth and motherhood. Today, research is finally catching up to what generations of women have known: Peer support can be a lifeline.

Despite growing evidence, the unique wisdom and strength that arise when mothers help mothers has been surprisingly under‑explored in the scientific literature, but that’s beginning to change. Peer-delivered programs are beginning to bring together long-standing community traditions and structured, evidence-based approaches to support the mental health of new and expectant moms.

We are clinical psychologists at the University of Colorado Boulder Renée Crown Wellness Institute. Our work and research weaves together psychological science and the wisdom of mothers supporting mothers. Our program, Alma, supports women in restoring well-being in ways that are community-rooted, evidence-based and scalable.

Through the Alma program, researchers Sona Dimidjian (left) and Anahi Collado (right) aim to support women in restoring well-being in ways that are community-rooted, evidence-based and scalable.

Pressure on parents

Nearly 50% of parents report feeling overwhelmed by stress on most days. An even larger share, about 65%, experience feelings of loneliness, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These feelings hit mothers especially hard, the report says.

In 2025, mothers in the United States continue to shoulder most of the caregiving of children while also managing work, personal health and household responsibilities. The transition to motherhood is often marked by emotional and psychological strain. In fact, 10% to 20% of women experience depression during pregnancy, the postpartum period or both. Depression is one of the most common complications of childbirth. A similar number of women also face significant anxiety.

In many communities, mental health resources are scarce and stigma around mental health issues persists; therefore, many mothers are left to navigate such challenges alone and in silence. Antidepressants are widely prescribed, but research suggests that many women stop using antidepressants during pregnancy – yet they don’t start therapy or an alternative treatment instead.

Psychotherapy is the most preferred care option among new and expectant mothers, but it is often inaccessible or nonexistent. This is due in part to a workforce shortage of mental health providers.

The shortage has contributed to long wait times, geographic disparities and cultural and language barriers between providers and patients. This is especially true for underserved populations. In fact, more than 75% of depressed mothers do not receive the care they need.

Science of peer support

The science of peer support is part of a larger field exploring community health workers as one way to address the shortage of mental health providers. Peer mentors are trusted individuals from the community who share common experiences or challenges with those they serve. Through specialized training, they are equipped to deliver education, offer mental health support and connect people with needed resources.

A study that analyzed 30 randomized clinical trials involving individuals with serious mental illness found that peer support was associated with significant improvements in clinical outcomes and personal recovery. Researchers have proposed that peer support creates space for learning and healing, especially when peers share lived experience, culture and language.

In 2025, mothers in the United States continue to shoulder most of the caregiving of children while also managing work, personal health and household responsibilities. (Photo: Shutterstock)

As clinical psychologists, we heard from mothers in our work and communities that wanted to help other moms recover from depression, navigate the challenges of motherhood and avoid feeling alone. This insight led us to co-create Alma, a peer-led mental health program based on behavioral activation.

Behavioral activation is a proven method for treating depression based on decades of randomized clinical trials, including in new and expectant mothers. It helps new and expectant mothers reengage in meaningful activities to improve mood and functioning.

The Alma program

Alma is based on the principle that depression must be understood in context and that changing what you do can change how you feel. One strategy we use is to help a mother identify an activity that brings a sense of accomplishment, connection or enjoyment – and then take small steps to schedule that activity. Mothers might also be guided on ways to ask for help and strengthen their support networks. Alma is offered in English and Spanish.

Peer mentors typically meet with moms once a week for six to eight sessions. Sessions can take place in person or virtually, allowing flexibility that honors each family’s needs. Traditionally, peer mentors have been recruited through long-standing relationships with trusted community organizations and word-of-mouth referrals. This approach has helped ensure that mentors are deeply rooted in the communities they serve. Alma peer mentors are compensated for their time, which recognizes the value of their lived expertise, their training and the work involved in providing peer mentoring and support.

“This was the first time I felt like someone understood me, without me having to explain everything,” shared one mother during a post-program interview that all participants complete after finishing Alma.

To date, more than 700 mothers in Colorado have participated in Alma. In one of our studies, we focused on 126 Spanish-speaking Latina mothers who often face significant barriers to care, such as language differences, cost and stigma. For nearly 2 out of 3 mothers, symptoms of depression decreased enough to be considered a true, measurable recovery — not just a small change.

Notably, most of the depression improvement occurred within the first three Alma meetings. We also observed that peer mentors delivered the Alma program consistently and as intended. This suggests the program could be reliably expanded and replicated in other settings with similar positive outcomes.

A second study, conducted through a national survey of Spanish-speaking Latina new and expectant mothers, found that peer-led mental health support was not only perceived as effective, but also highly acceptable and deeply valued. Mothers noted that they were interested in peer-led support because it met them where they were: with language, trust and cultural understanding.

Supporting mothers works

Supporting mothers’ mental health is essential because it directly benefits both mothers and their children. Those improvements foster healthier emotional, cognitive and social development in their children. This interconnected impact highlights why investing in maternal mental health yields lasting benefits for the entire family.

It also makes strong economic sense to address mood and anxiety disorders among new and expectant mothers, which cost an estimated US$32,000 for each mother and child from conception through five years postpartum. More than half of those costs occur within the first year, driven primarily by productivity losses, preterm births and increased maternal health care needs.

Beyond the impact on individual families, the broader economic toll of untreated mood and anxiety disorders among new and expectant mothers is substantial. For example, it’s estimated that $4.7 billion a year are lost to mothers who have to miss work or reduce their job performance because of symptoms like fatigue, anxiety and depression.

Together – as individuals, families, communities and institutions – we can cultivate a world where the challenges of parenting are met with comprehensive support, allowing the joy of parenting to be fully realized. Because no one should have to do this alone.

Sona Dimidjian is director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. Anahi Collado is a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ assistant research professor of psychology.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

How mothers supporting mothers can help fill the health care worker shortage gap and other barriers to care.

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How was it for you? Women are finally being asked

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:10:57 +0000

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/24/2025 - 14:10

Pam Moore

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex’

Driven by a long-held interest in the ways in which unwanted and nonconsensual sexual experiences can shape individuals’ future sexual experiences and overall well-being, Chelsea Kilimnik, a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the University of Colorado Boulder Department Psychology and Neuroscience and the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, teamed up with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to study that very topic.

It’s not surprising that research has largely neglected how women’s trauma shapes their sex lives, considering that, as a culture, “we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings,” says Kilimnik, who is the director of the Growth, Identity, and Sexual Trauma (GIST) Lab at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ researcher Chelsea Kilimnik, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, notes that that, as a culture, "we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings."

Kilimnik’s and her colleagues’ research, published recently in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, provides foundational insights into women’s motivations for sex—an area of study that has long been overlooked by the scientific community.

An overlooked area of research

Although the tides are beginning to turn, for many healthcare providers, the idea of prioritizing women’s sexual pleasure is still novel. Many times, when women come to the doctor reporting pelvic pain or pain during sex, their experiences are invalidated and their healthcare needs ignored, says Kilimnik. Not only is this frustrating, but the lack of belief, offered agency and validation can exacerbate mental health difficulties for those with past experiences of sexual trauma.

Meanwhile, the body of data on women’s mental health and its connection to sexual health and well-being is “still in its infancy,” says Kilimnik, who is part of a small community of researchers studying it.

“Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries, so we need to document it in the literature,” she explains.

While we may think of sex as something that doesn’t affect our lives beyond the bedroom, our sexuality affects many aspects of our day-to-day lives, says Kilimnik. That’s because psychological and sexual well-being are deeply linked.

Psychological well-being encompasses multiple factors, including the presence or absence of mental health disorders, general mood and overall quality of life, says Kilimnik. Sexual well-being, on the other hand, can include your sexual satisfaction, how you feel about yourself as a sexual person, the way your body operates in sexual encounters, body image and the presence or absence of sexual disorders, she says.

“While psychological and sexual well-being are two distinct constructs, they are almost always related,” says Kilimnik. For example, if you’re depressed, that will impact your sex life. And if your sex life is unsatisfying or you struggle to view yourself as a sexual being, that can impact your self-esteem, and in turn, your mental health, she explains.

What the data say

The team of researchers explored the relationships between the frequency of duty sex (the act of engaging in sex out of a sense of obligation or duty), sexual functioning and nonconsensual sexual encounters (NSEs).

"Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries."

While duty sex is consensual, it’s motivated not by desire but by “the feeling that you have to,” says Kilimnik. That might be for reasons ranging from not wanting your partner to be angry to the fear that they might leave you, or the sense that you have a responsibility to your partner to engage in sex.

The data revealed that people with NSE histories reported higher frequency of duty sex. They also found that people with lower levels of sexual satisfaction and higher levels of sexual pain reported more frequent duty sex.

“These relationships can be bidirectional,” Kilimnik points out, particularly with regard to duty sex and sexual pain and dysfunction. In other words, people may have more duty sex because they don’t enjoy sex due to pain or discomfort, but it’s also true that people may not find their sex lives satisfying because they’re frequently engaging in duty sex.

When the researchers controlled for sexual functioning, they found that NSEs “have this unique impact on engaging in duty sex above and beyond what sexual functioning can account for,” says Kilimnik. This is consistent with existing research that indicates those with NSE histories often have more difficulty asserting their sexual boundaries, she says.

While this paper alone can’t tell us how to improve our sex lives—and, consequently, our overall well-being—it does support the existence of an important pattern, says Kilimnik. “That pattern supports this idea that if the primary reason you’re engaging in sex is out of a sense of obligation, it can be harmful for your sex life and well-being.”

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��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex.’

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Top photo: iStock

Expert to share how to use your voice for more power

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 17:58:29 +0000

Expert to share how to use your voice for more power Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/16/2024 - 11:58

Presentation titled ‘SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Students and Educators’ is set for April 29

Your voice can be a path to power, a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ expert argues, and she will explain how in a public presentation this month.

Chelsea Hackett, a university research associate, will give a presentation titled “SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Students and Educators,” on Monday, April 29, at 3 p.m. via Zoom.

The event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required at this link. The event is sponsored by Be Well, the College of Arts and Sciences' wellness initiative, and is part of its regular Let’s CU Well series of programs.

During the session, Hackett will explore “how to support your voice both within and outside of the classroom. This focuses on three aspects of voice: social/emotional, physical and civic.

“During this interactive hour, you will learn tangible skills to keep your voice healthy, and to practice getting comfortable being uncomfortable so that you can speak about issues that are important to you!”

Hackett is a 2010 ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ theatre performance graduate and PhD graduate of New York University. She is now a research associate at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ’s Renée Crown Wellness Institute.

She is the co-founder and executive director of SPEAK, a nonprofit that focuses on vocal empowerment for young women and girls. In addition, she is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and creative consultant.

SPEAK, which Hackett founded with Beth Osnes, a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ professor of theatre, aims to “support and celebrate the voices of all young women and girls.”

The organization envisions a world in which all young women and girls are “heard, valued, and affirmed, a world that benefits from their unique contributions, one where they are safe to express themselves fully, and are free to co-author an equitable, survivable, and thrive-able future.”

If you go

What: SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Students and Educators

When: 3 p.m. Monday, April 29

Where: Zoom, free but registration required

The nonprofit says vocal empowerment “is the ability to express yourself the way you want in any context.” The group’s approach to vocal empowerment addresses three aspects of of voice: physical, which draws from theater and voice and speech pathology; social/emotional, which uses meditations, journal activities and games to help young women and girls explore their internal voices, ideas and emotions; and civic, through which women and girls are encouraged to share their thoughts about vital issues with their communities.

“By combining theatre with voice speech pathology, Dr. Beth Osnes and I have worked to charter a new, creative and trans-disciplinary endeavor we call Vocal Empowerment that is designed for use primarily by young women to become agents of change in their communities, their nations and the world," Hackett says. "This work supports youth in speaking about issues that are important to them, such as sexual violence prevention, climate change and racial justice.”

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Presentation titled ‘SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Students and Educators’ is set for April 24.

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Forging a thoughtful path to a mindful future

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Forging a thoughtful path to a mindful future Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/28/2023 - 00:00

Shubham Sapkota, researcher at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, to share insights into and lessons from the Mindful Campus Program

A mindful campus is a healthier campus, experts at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder contend. One of them will make that case in a public presentation next week.

Shubham Sapkota, a research associate at Crown, will give a talk titled “Be mindful through the Mindful Campus Program,” on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. The event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required at this link.

Sapkota’s presentation will give an overview of the work done by the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, specifically on Crown's Mindful Campus Program. The event is sponsored by Be Well, the College of Arts and Sciences' wellness initiative, and is part of its regular Let’s CU Well series of programs.

Shubham Sapkota, a research associate in the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, will give a talk titled “Be mindful through the Mindful Campus Program” on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. via Zoom.

Sapkota, a native of Kathmandu, Nepal, earned a doctorate in religion and theology through the Joint Doctoral Program in the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology. His PhD work focused on how to bring Buddhist meditation practices and principles in the spheres of academics, pedagogy and community engagement.

The Mindful Campus Program includes an eight-week series in mindfulness launched at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ in 2021 to support the well-being of students and was designed, in part, by students themselves. As experts at Crown have emphasized, the program is not just geared toward students; they are involved in its creation.

This approach “allows the voices of young people to be central and guiding within the research process,” Sona Dimidjian, director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute and a professor of psychology and neuroscience, said last year.

The program is now implemented across ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and continues to seek participants to go through a mindfulness journey that complements life at CU.

Crown is an interdisciplinary institute that focuses on youth education, with mindfulness as a crucial tool that, the institute says, “enables holistic learning and wellbeing” for the university community. Leaders at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and beyond have argued that the effort is of critical importance.

Philip Distefano, ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ chancellor, states that mental health is a growing concern: “Mental health and wellness are increasingly a critical topic in K-12 classrooms and college campuses across the country. It's imperative that we collectively create solutions to promote wellness. The Renée Crown Wellness Institute will conduct groundbreaking research relevant to wellness, starting as early as possible in development and continuing through college.”

If you go

Who: Shubham Sapkota, research associate, Renée Crown Wellness Institute

What: Be Mindful through the Mindful Campus Program

When: Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m.

Where: Zoom–This online workshop is available to CU students, employees and community members. Please register here.

Why: To support a culture of care and wellness

Rob Anderson, superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District, has heralded the Crown Institute’s work. “We have no doubt that the breakthrough developed at Crown will have a profound impact on the community we all have the honor to serve.”

Mindful Campus has gained traction just as many sources of data suggest that such initiatives are sorely needed. Recent research finds that anxiety and depression among students have risen steadily during the last eight years, and students of color have experienced the steepest increase.

Researchers from Boston University analyzed surveys of 350,000 students from more than 300 campuses between 2013 and 2021. Their meta-study, like other smaller studies, found students’ rates of depression and anxiety had more than doubled in eight years, rising by 135% and 110% respectively.

Additionally, research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that mental-health challenges are worse among high school students who perceived racism. The study concluded that understanding “how negative health outcomes are associated with student experiences of racism can guide training for staff and students to promote cultural awareness and anti-racist and inclusivity interventions, which are critical for promoting safe school environments for all students.”

Meanwhile, students’ demand for psychological counseling has far outstripped the availability of resources. These are national trends, but officials note that they are reflected among ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ students, too.

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Shubham Sapkota, researcher at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, to share insights into and lessons from the Mindful Campus Program.

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Students, faculty forge a thoughtful path to a mindful future

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 21:40:48 +0000

Students, faculty forge a thoughtful path to a mindful future Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/15/2022 - 15:40

Clint Talbott

Mindful Campus Program, designed by students and faculty, aims to help students improve their own wellness and that of the community

An eight-week series in mindfulness launched at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2021 to support the well-being of students was designed, in part, by students themselves. And while the series strives to help students live more fully in the present moment, it also aims to leverage mindfulness in the effort to promote social justice.

The Mindful Campus Program, an initiative by the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, began in 2019, with students’ helping to craft surveys and focus groups to gauge other students’ interest and preferences, asking, for instance, how the campus could minimize barriers to mindfulness programming.

Later that year, students, faculty and mindfulness experts co-designed the eight-week mindfulness series. That first series was the focus of a research study, the results from which Crown Institute experts are still analyzing.

Seven Crown Institute experts were instrumental in developing and implementing the eight-week series, including (top center going clockwise) Kathryn Dailey, Caitlin McKimmy, Cody Moxam, Michele D. Simpson, Natalie Avalos, Kourtney Kelley, and (center) Sona Dimidjian.

Using data from this study—which drew about 150 student participants—the team is still honing the eight-week series. Another team is working to develop a for-credit class and make it available at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and other campuses and communities.

Kourtney Kelley, senior project manager and professional research assistant for the Crown Institute, participated in the design of the eight-week series using Youth Participatory Action Research, a method in which young people learn to conduct systematic research to improve their lives, their communities, and the institutions intended to serve them.

As she noted, “It’s not just research about students and what students are going through. Students are involved.”

This method of research “allows the voices of young people to be central and guiding within the research process,” said Sona Dimidjian, director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute and a professor of psychology and neuroscience.

“The whole tenet is that I as a researcher don’t know what the community needs, and I need to learn in partnership with students and campus partners from the ground up,” added Caitlin McKimmy, a graduate research assistant in Dimidjian’s laboratory.

Natalie Avalos, an assistant professor of ethnic studies, noted that the eight-week series includes instruction, practice and the sharing of ideas. In one session, for instance, participants learn a compassion practice in which they breathe in the suffering of others and, on the exhale, give compassion and healing to themselves and others.

One goal is to help participants see how they might use mindfulness and compassion practices to support anti-racism and social justice, “explicitly linking them and then going on from there,” Avalos said.

Avalos added that students assume teaching and co-mentorship roles in the Mindful Campus Program: “Hierarchies of power shifted, and I think students really responded to that and really appreciated that.”

McKimmy concurred, emphasizing that “at the heart of this project, and this is really an important part of the Crown Institute, is having undergrads at the table where their voices are central.”

Kathryn Dailey, interim/acting director of health promotion at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, was part of the co-design team and, because her office was housed in the Division of Student Affairs, she shared her insight into students’ experiences, particularly what stressors students reported experiencing.

Dailey has also worked as a facilitator with Mindful Campus generally and with its LGBTQ+ facilitation group. “We're looking at true culture change on campus, trying to engage people at all different dimensions and levels of the university to be able to bring mindfulness into different spaces, whether it is student employment or into the classroom into co-curricular experiences,” Dailey said.

Join us at the Crown Institute Oct. 14 open house

Want to learn more about the Crown Institute? Celebrate the grand opening of its new space at an open house on Friday, Oct. 14, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Meet faculty, staff and students from the institute and experience how groundbreaking research is impacting the lives of young people and the systems and adults who support them. Learn more and register online—walk-ups are also welcome.

Interested in learning more about or registering for the Crown Wellness Institute's next eight-week Mindful Campus Program course? Please contact mindfulcampus@colorado.edu.

Looking to the future, Dimidjian said, “We are so excited in the Crown Institute to offer the eight-week series to students on our campus as part of our enduring commitment to link research and practice. We are exploring ways to bring some of this learning directly into the classroom through what we hope will become a semester-long, for-credit course.”

Cody Moxam, an honors student in psychology and neuroscience, completed the eight-week series and is now part of an interdisciplinary team of students and faculty co-designing the for-credit course. He said students and faculty “set aside our personal agendas to truly work on a course designed for the well-being of its participants.”

“We were able to integrate our experience as students, and as people, with the research literature to thread together an experience that would change students’ lives for the better,” Moxam said, adding that the: “values of community, social justice and mindfulness were imbued in our team interactions from the very start.”

Michele D. Simpson, a Crown Institute faculty affiliate, research associate and ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ associate teaching professor, underscored that point, saying that her motivation in joining the Mindful Campus Program was not to simply boost mindfulness on campus, but also to expand it into different communities on and potentially off campus.

Voicing a guiding vision for the Mindful Campus Program, Simpson said, “Mindfulness belongs to everyone. Wellness is a right of everyone.”

Mindful Campus has gained traction just as many sources of data suggest that such initiatives are sorely needed. Recent research finds that anxiety and depression among students has risen steadily during the last eight years, and students of color have experienced the steepest increase.

Meanwhile, students’ demand for psychological counseling has far outstripped the demand. These are national trends, but officials note that they are reflected among ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ students.

Mindful Campus Program, designed by students and faculty, aims to help students improve their own wellness and that of the community.

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Renee Crown Wellness Institute

It takes a village of mothers

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