{"id":3607,"date":"2023-05-10T14:41:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T18:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3607"},"modified":"2023-05-10T14:41:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T18:41:27","slug":"special-feature-safe-space-a-place-for-healing-through-empathy-community-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3607","title":{"rendered":"Special Feature – Safe Space: A Place for Healing through Empathy, Community, Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik<\/strong><\/p>\n

The winter in London, 1962, was the coldest it had been in a century, and the poet Sylvia Plath felt it like the depression in her bones. It had returned, caused by the pains of motherhood, the role she played as a wife. It was caused by feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and the trauma of her \u201csuffering the atrocity of sunsets,\u201d she said. At night, she was an insomniac, \u201cinhabited by a cry.\u201d During the day, she wrote poetry with a \u201ca dark thing that sleeps in [her].\u201d This, following multiple suicide attempts and rounds of electroconvulsive shock therapy. This, as she wrote a collection of poems that would win the Pulitzer Prize after her suicide.<\/p>\n

Plath\u2019s readers felt for her and empathized with her \u2013 her tormented soul became the salve to their own suffering. In much the same way, Safe Space is a sanctuary where those who went through periods of their life where they were struggling with their mental health offer support to those who need it the most.<\/p>\n

Founded by Tracy Mergler in 2020, Safe Space offers services, classes, and support groups for many things, ranging from eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, postpartum experiences, men\u2019s mental wellness, and more. Currently, the organization is partnering with local providers and offering these services until Safe Space\u2019s physical space is completed, at which point everything can be offered under one roof.<\/p>\n

Mergler, who grappled for decades with an eating disorder and depression, conceptualized the organization after she returned from an in-patient facility for the sixth time. \u201cI said, \u2018What do I need, what is missing that I need in this community?\u2019 And honestly that night, being the special ed teacher that I am, I laid out a piece of paper and markers and I drew Safe Space. So it is built off of my own recovery, what I found worked for me, and what we were lacking in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During her in-patient treatment, Mergler was forced to join a group for patients with eating disorders. \u201cI was surrounded by individuals that had gone through something I had gone through . . . In treatment, it was that feeling of being understood [that] validated everything,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a game changer, and I was like, we have to normalize this in community. We just kept coming back to that. How do we create community? But do it in a way that is safe. And so, \u2018Safe Space.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Safe Space has grown over the years. Now, the organization offers six peer-to-peer support groups, with more in development. Safe Space has a partnership with Right Mind Syracuse and is doing a four-part series with them partnering mental wellness and art. \u201cWe also are doing community pop ups through the Westcott Community Center, Southwest and Northeast to bring Safe Space services TO the community and find out what they want to see more of,\u201d Mergler said.<\/p>\n

Classes in yoga, meditation, breathwork and drumming will all be offered in the next month on the second floor of the Gere Block building that has been gracious enough to allow Safe Space to use that space until theirs is completed. All of this is because of the high demand and the desire of those who want to help because they can relate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the medical model with the holistic model,\u201d said Mergler. \u201cWe are encouraging individuals to build their own toolbox of supplies because what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for the other. So what peer-to-peer support does is it puts us on the same playing field. [Group facilitators] can say, \u2018I\u2019ve sat where you\u2019ve sat and I\u2019ve gotten to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rina Brule is one such person. She leads one of the postpartum support groups. After the birth of their first daughter, both she and her husband suffered from some postpartum depression\/anxiety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt completely unprepared for being a parent, despite all the books we had read and classes we had taken. I felt really scared and alone. And I couldn’t believe that no one had given me an honest heads-up about how difficult the postpartum period can be,\u201d Brule said. But the more I talked to other people in the same position, the better, less alone, and stronger she felt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, support groups are magical – meeting people at their most vulnerable, experiencing the same struggles and joys as you\u2013there’s just something that binds you together and strengthens the entire group,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Participants in The Men\u2019s Group know the magic of meeting like-minded people; it is one of the largest groups in Safe Space. The facilitator, Sean MacMaster, is a single, divorced father whose friendship with a man who has a shared experience led MacMaster to understand why community dialogue is so valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge need for men to have a space to discuss issues they are facing today. So many men suffer in silence because we are taught to \u2018suck it up\u2019 or \u2018be a man\u2019 or any other phrase that doesn’t allow us to be able to be authentic,\u201d MacMaster said, noting that nearly 80 percent of adult suicides in America are men. \u201cSeeking help is seen as a sign of weakness. The goal of the group is to change that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

All groups are well attended and helpful to many, and Mergler wants to make sure it stays that way. She does outreach to local providers, therapists, and dieticians to collaborate. She\u2019s raising funds to finish the space. She works with her board for executive decisions and networks with other women entrepreneurs in Syracuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an unlimited amount of people that need this support,\u201d Mergler said. \u201cSo because [Safe Space] is built to fit Syracuse, I see it only continuing to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are interested in learning more about Safe Space, check out www.safespace.com<\/a><\/u><\/span> or find them on social media. If you would like to donate to help fund the completion of the space, go to givebutter.com\/BgKTH7<\/a><\/u><\/span> or email Tracy Mergler at tracymergler@safespace.com<\/a><\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik The winter in London, 1962, was the coldest it had been in a century, and the poet Sylvia Plath felt it like the depression in her bones. It had returned, caused by the pains of motherhood, the role she played as a wife. It was caused by feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1413,733,1411,1412,1290],"class_list":["post-3607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-feature","tag-mens-group","tag-mental-health","tag-safe-space","tag-tracy-mergler","tag-yoga"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image_6483441-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1707%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3752,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3752","url_meta":{"origin":3607,"position":0},"title":"Special feature: Healing by helping others to heal – Betsy Cusumano launches The Cus Foundation","author":"syracusewomanmag_c4lfdt","date":"September 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Janelle Davis Betsy Cusumano\u2019s world changed forever in the fall of 2022 when her husband Tom, also known as \u201cCus,\u201d unexpectedly took his life.\u00a0\u201cHe never suffered from any mental health issues. 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