NOTL native offers a TrU mental health approach in new book

Jocelyn Pepe’s new book Claim Your Brain takes her approach as a mental health coach from the corporate suites to the masses. And she’s excited for the opportunity to introduce her practical guide to residents in her hometown next week.  

The Niagara-on-the-Lake native is the founding partner and head of well-being at Oakville-based TrU Living. Over the past decade, she and her partners have worked with medium to large corporations across North America in the telecom, healthcare, banking, winery and travel industries, helping employees at all levels understand the impacts of mental and physical health on performance. 

“When we are all healthy and well, we perform at our potential,” Pepe tells The Local. “Ideally, that’s where we want to get to. It’s where most people thrive when they feel good about themselves and feel an intrinsic form of motivation or reward.”

In Claim Your Brain, Pepe, whose brother Justin runs Cacio Pepe with his wife Ashley, lays bare her own story, including her parents’ separation when she was four years old, a bout with depression in her middle school years and a struggle with alcohol during high school. She refers to moments such as these as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.

More recently, difficult pregnancies, a divorce, and a terrible accident during a triathlon that left her with post-concussion syndrome created major challenges to her mental health. 

“The importance of sharing my story specifically around mental health is to break the stigma,” Pepe explains. “When we can have a bigger conversation or a more open dialogue, it creates more depth and intimacy and human connection. When I do speaking engagements at conferences, a lot more of my focus lately has been on sharing my story.”

In part two of the book, Pepe, who has a master’s degree in the psychology and neuroscience of mental health from King’s College in England, digs into the science and soul of mental health. 

If that sounds daunting, Pepe insists she has written it “in layman’s terms, so that it can resonate for anybody from any walk of life. You don’t need to have an understanding of brain circuitry and neuroscience at a high level, just a basic description of it. My book bridges academia with the real world.”

And from there, Claim Your Brain moves into Pepe’s TrU model of well-being and mental health, based on five elements: social, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. 

“I start with social well-being, which is our relationship within, our inner dialogue,” Pepe says. “I look at the boundaries and the self-compassion that we can have with ourselves and how that is reflected in the types of relationships that we have.”

Next is the physical element. Pepe cites clear research that proves that exercise is almost as effective as an antidepressant. Physical well-being, she explains, releases endorphins that help with mood. She also explores the gut-brain connection and the effect of diet on cognitive performance. 

The mental well-being chapter offers practical tips for mindfulness and reflection, comparing and contrasting the different types of stress that can put strains on mental health. 

Next, Pepe focuses on the emotional piece, including “ the things that trigger us, and how important emotional responsiveness or emotional hygiene is for us as we navigate mental health.”

Pepe wraps it up with the fifth element, the spiritual, which she describes as the world that we live in. She insists that having some type of connection to something bigger than ourselves is positive for our mental health.

“It’s nature,” she says. “It’s the universe, it’s having bigger perspectives and oscillating between the macro and the micro. I bring in some Indigenous ways of living and being with each other in the world, and our reciprocity with each other and with nature.” 

Each of these five sections includes worksheets and checklists which help guide the reader through their personal mental health journey, which Pepe explains is a continuum, and as unique for each person as a fingerprint. 

She’s also quick to point out that her approach through the 323 pages is that of a wellness coach. Claim Your Brain, says Pepe, is meant to be informative and educational and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. 

She wrote the book to bring her message to those who may not be able to afford a therapist, and says it can work as co-therapy for those already exploring that option. 

“A therapist would dive deep into your past, going into those adverse childhood experiences, she says, “while a coach is working with you to help you get from where you’re at to where you want to be.”

Pepe will be at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library signing copies of Claim Your Brain, on Thursday, July 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. Claim Your Brain, published by UpLevel Publishing, is available via Amazon in paperback, hardcover and e-book formats.