Inspiring Conversations with Josh Roberts of Inspired Mind Mental Health LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Roberts.

Hi Josh, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Well my story starts far away, on the tip of Africa where I was born and raised. But the first time I touched down in San Diego I knew I was home. Hands down best place on the planet! (Cape Town is a beautiful 2nd). After starting out at the Ocean Beach youth hostel with my brother in 2011, my American Dream got off to a great start…only to turn nightmarish in a hurry.

Everything was going peachy when I met my soul mate at Winston’s karaoke bar, we had our first child, had bought a condo in Lakeside, and was loving the Land of the Free. And then my pursuit of truth almost cost me my mind. While in seminary, my dormant bipolar was triggered, and I feel head-first down Alice’s rabbit hole, experiencing dimensions of consciousness I thought were only mythological. Turns out science doesn’t quite know what the mind is, which is why it’s officially referred to in scientific circles as “The Hard Problem of Consciousness.” In the traditional South African worldview, we see these conditions are potential spiritual gifts…but not here. The system saw illness where my culture saw gift-potential, and I was involuntarily hospitalized 6 times, arrested twice, and blew $86k. Needless to say, my American lucid dream took a darker turn. And yet…

In losing myself, I found myself! I discovered the San Diego mental health scene, and these vibrant and open-minded people who I could collab with and enrich our understanding about the world of the mind. While working for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), they gave me a shot at expressing my experiences in terms of depth psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and spirituality. UCSD took notice, and our most successful workshop, Neurodiversity Gifts was born! I took a leap of faith and started Inspired Mind Mental Health LLC with my wife on 2/22/22.

And now the dream is back! The mental health workshops and services we offer are in such high demand that I’ve employed a few of my friends to help me run them. The National Empowerment Center flew out to San Diego to turn our workshop Neurodiversity Gifts into a digital training. Color has returned to our American Dream like never before! Our aim is to provide “Inspiration for Transformation,” and help to bring the vital oxygen of meaning, purpose, and connection back into our world. Since San Diego has offered so much to me and my family, I’m starting to return the favor by offering our city experiential maps of the frontiers of our minds, which include wisdom from broader cultural and historical perspectives. We’re San Diego Voyagers heading to the new frontier: the outer edges of consciousness!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My whole voyage has been a challenge. But whereas in the past I would have been annoyed at these things that got in my way, now I see that the obstacle *is* the path. It’s the refining process that polishes our rough rocky souls and turns them into shiny gems. In the Hero’s Journey, the abyss is what leads to the metamorphosis. Nevertheless, obstacles and challenges are not easy, and they can suck at the time.

It was a huge challenge to reconcile my expansive spiritual experiences with a mental health system that saw them only as symptoms to suppress. I had to figure out the line between breakthrough versus breakdown. It was a challenge to navigate having two young kids while being in-and-out of psychiatric hospitals. It was a challenge to see how deeply hurtful my psychosis was to my wife and my mom.

And it was a challenge to start a business in San Diego.

While Inspired Mind is now beautifully successful, the first 3 years involved literally not knowing where rent money would come from each month. It also required courage to not water down my message to just get cash, but instead to make every effort to bridge evidence-based practice with expanded perspectives, integrating neuroscience with ancient wisdom, and clinical training with lived experience. As a Peer Support Specialist who’d been through the system, I knew there was room for “both/and” rather than “either/or” approaches. But so much of our world is set up in dichotomies: us vs. them, scientific vs. spiritual. I tried to write a book and no one would publish it because, although they said it was a powerful perspective, it was “too spiritual for secular audiences, and too secular for spiritual audiences.” Great. And yet now, with the advent of the Age of AI and the coming crisis of meaning and purpose that Universal Basic Income may create, a spiritual renaissance that integrates science and spirituality seamlessly, may be just the inspiration we need. And in my business journey, I’m super grateful that San Diego, being the visionary city that it is, was willing to listen.

As challenging as my voyage was, it also seemed like San Diego had my back. I got free mentorship from SCORE, and the SBDC, and even though I have a Master’s degree, I went to Mira Costa College to learn entrepreneurship and AI, and that’s been epic! If there is a place to start a business, San Diego is it. If there’s a place to start a paradigm-shift, San Diego is it. And the fact that your voyage has landed you here, makes me believe you’re in the right place, at the right time. And I’m stoked we’re neighbors!

As you know, we’re big fans of Inspired Mind Mental Health LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Our mission at Inspired Mind Mental Health is to provide “inspiration for transformation.” That’s why I love it that you guys are interviewing local businesses with the purpose of inspiring others!

See the thing is, we also recognize that transformation can often be tricky. Metamorphosis involves mess. The caterpillar has to dissolve its molecular structure to re-emerge as the butterfly. But if we know that there’s something larger (a wisdom, a community, a path greater than what we can currently see) it empowers us to keep going, because something more amazing than we can possibly imagine may be in store for us. Post-Traumatic Growth is real!

So at Inspired Mind, we offer tangible experiences of this. We have Kintsugi workshops and kits that are one option to participate in Post-Traumatic Growth. Kintsugi is a Japanese art where you smash a piece of pottery and then piece it back together with gold. So the finished product turns out more interesting, unique, and valuable than it ever was to start with. We have life coaches that help people navigate the varied terrain of their minds and lives. We also do mental health workshops and Peer Support groups throughout the County for mental health organizations, non-profits, education centers, and businesses. Cali recently allowed Peer Support Specialist services, which are led by people who have actually been through it themselves, to be Medi-Cal billable. These workshops empower people with a fresh perspective on their Neurodiversity, which means to appreciate being wired slightly differently. One of our Participants said it best: “Honestly, [this was] one of the experiences in my lifetime that I will never forget. Spiritual, honest, vulnerable, and fun. That was pretty life-changing for me.” He came in seeing his diagnosis as a life sentence and left seeing it as a compass pointing toward his unique strengths. That’s the kind of inspiration for transformation we live for. Because it turns out that mental health conditions can also be seen as Neurodiversity Gifts, these profound and muliti-faceted abilities if we learn how to harness them. And yes, we do need to learn to harness them. Like fire, they can burn the house down if out of control. But like fire tamed, they can illuminate and warm the house, and ultimately propel rocket-ships to all new heights.

The fire is bright and warm in San Diego, and we’re really grateful that you have welcomed Inspired Mind into the mental health field of America’s Finest City. We’re excited to team up with you and show the world new ways to experience the richness of reality, and to play a role in the dawn of a new world that’s coming. If there’s any place that thrives in the light of the dawning sun, it’s San Diego!

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
The Bible

Myron Golden’s Entrepreneurial Podcast and YouTube channel

Into the Region of Awe – David Downing

The Flip – Jeffrey Kripal

Memories, Dreams, and Reflections – Carl Jung

The Great Divorce – CS Lewis

Narnia Series – CS Lewis

The Spirit of Creation: Modern Science and Divine Action in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Imagination – Amos Yong

Varieties of Religious Experience – William James

Oswald Chambers – My Utmost for His Highest

Ralph Waldo Emerson – Essays

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.InspiredMindMentalHealth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neurodiversity.gifts/
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084758212707&_rdc=1&_rdr#
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/southafricanjosh/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Neurodiversity-Gifts