Bud Clayman is the publisher of OC87 Recovery Diaries. The website is an outgrowth of the autobiographical documentary film, OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie. Bud created, co-directed (along with Glenn Holsten and Scott Johnston) and was the principle subject of OC87, which had its theatrical premiere in 2012 and can now be seen on Amazon and YouTube. The film chronicles Bud’s ongoing battle with mental illness. OC87 Recovery Diaries expands on that story by allowing others to share their own stories of empowerment. His vision is simple yet challenging: to have a world free of mental illness stigma.

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Gabe is an author, editor, actor, playwright, director and a lover of commas. For five years, he worked at Montgomery County Emergency Service, Inc. (MCES), a non-profit crisis psychiatric hospital in the capacity of Allied Therapist and, later, as Development Specialist. At MCES, he created innovative programs such as a psychiatric visiting nurse program, a suicide prevention collaboration with SEPTA, and an Inpatient Concert Series that brought professional performing artists to entertain the patients and enrich their inpatient experience. While at MCES, Gabe also produced and directed a full-scale production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town with the staff of the hospital, as an exercise in teamwork, empathy-building, and creative expression. Gabe serves on the Board of Directors of the Thornton Wilder Society and is Editor of its newsletter. He lives in a suburb of Philadelphia with his wife, twins and a basset hound named Tennessee.

Read Gabe’s essay on Men’s Mental Health.

Learn more about Gabe’s experience producing Our Town at a psychiatric hospital: part one and part two.

Leah is an artist who has fully embraced the Internet. She is a designer of web sites for art centered experiences, diverse teachers, and has shared her story on OC87 Recovery Diaries. Leah has worked on documentary films that have screened on Ovation TV, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and on Netflix. You can see her work and sign up for her mailing list at withleahmoon.com. Leah is a graduate of Smith College with a dual degree in the Study of Women and Gender and Studio Art with a concentration in Electronic Media. Leah is also trained as a Reiki Master.

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Glenn is an award-winning director who loves to create compelling documentary story experiences of all lengths for screens of all sizes. He is an avid reader, studied literature in college, and his passion for stories with strong characters and interesting narratives stems from those years. His career as a visual storyteller began at WHYY (the public television station in Philadelphia) where he worked for 15 years before becoming an independent filmmaker. In addition to his PBS documentaries about arts and culture, he has directed films about justice and human rights, and now, mental health. He was emboldened to undertake his current documentary project, Hollywood Beauty Salon, a colorful feature-length documentary about surviving mental illness and finding the courage for recovery, after his transformative experience directing OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie, along with Bud Clayman and Scott Johnston.

See all posts by Glenn Holsten >>

Laura Farrell is a New School graduate who studied creative writing. She grew up outside of Philadelphia and first became interested in the recovery process while working with PTSD patients. Her passion grew as she struggled with her own mental health challenges and was so happy to become a part of OC87 Recovery Diaries. Laura loves making all types of creative work: writing, visual, singing, dancing among other things.

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Anna Hewstan is a marketer with a twist. She landed in marketing after studying BioPsychology at the University of British Columbia aspiring for a career in medicine. Her fascination in human behavior based in science, followed by an interest in understanding how brands influence purchasing decisions, led her to a career in marketing shortly after graduation. Over the years Anna has developed marketing programs for magazine and book publishers, web start-ups, national retailers, financial service giants, and now serves clients of all shapes and sizes at Small Gigs Marketing. Anna is a social media butterfly — you can find her on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn — just search her name.

Amber studied Strategic Communications with a focus on Public Relations at Temple University. Since graduating, Amber has assisted in a wide-range of PR departments, from corporate retail and real estate to medical devices and mental health organizations. Amber enjoys camping trips, gallivanting with her Rottie-German Shepherd, and impromptu dance parties with her family. You are likely to find Amber sipping coffee while planning out her next big trip.

Jon Hershfield, MFT, is a psychotherapist who specializes in mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders and is licensed in the states of Maryland and California. He is founder of The OCD and Anxiety Center of Greater Baltimore in Hunt Valley, MD.  Previous to entering fulltime private practice, Jon was associate director of the UCLA Pediatric OCD Intensive Outpatient Program at Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. Jon is coauthor of The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD and author of When a Family Member Has OCD. Jon is a professional member of the International OCD Foundation, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, and the Association for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. In addition to his clinical work, he is a professional contributor to multiple online OCD support groups and blogs regularly about OCD and its treatment.

Read Bud Clayman’s interview series with Jon Hershfield >>

In addition to her current role at OC87 Recovery Diaries, Lena works an office job, reads manuscripts for a literary agent, and serves on the editorial staff for the literary magazine, Philadelphia Stories, and the academic journal, Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe. Lena holds a bachelor’s in English from Temple University, as well as master’s degrees in both creative writing and publishing from Rosemont College. She hails from the City of Philadelphia and enjoys reading, writing, and playing computer games.