In this episode of the Reno Dads podcast (welcome back!), we welcome a local dad, Clint Malarchuk, who played goalie and coached in the NHL for more than 20 years and faced death multiple times – once by a freak accident on the ice and once by a suicide attempt. He shares his story of resilience and working through mental health trauma. It’s a tough topic to address for some folks — as dads, we sometimes want to show the world how strong we are by not talking about how things are affecting us, and not sharing how we’re feeling. His wife, Joanie, describes just how hard it was to watch her partner and best friend deteriorate over months and years.
Thankfully, and by some miracle, Clint was unsuccessful in his attempt. Since then he’s been open about how he’s learning, through a combination of hard work, therapy, and medicine, to better manage the ongoing stress of life, especially during the pandemic over the past year.
We are so grateful to have Clint and Joanie to talk about their experiences and share them with all of you, the dads and families of northern Nevada.
One of the organizations mentioned in the podcast is NAMI Nevada, which is hosting a virtual event on January 22: NAMI Nevada’s Drive to Thrive. Hosted by Reno’s Connie Wray and sponsored in part by Reno Behavioral Healthcare and Nevada Psychiatric Association, the broadcast will feature such special guests as Clint Malarchuk, and Reno’s own Emma White (suicide survivor and author). We encourage you to listen to this podcast and put Drive to Thrive on your calendar as we work on improving our ability to lead our children bravely into the big, wide world.
Do you have a story you’d like to talk about on our podcast? Is there someone we should meet and have on the show? Click on Contact Us, and get in touch!
