Harping with Howie: A Peer Support Podcast

The Howettes
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

An after‑school special for adults. In each episode, we sit down with a guest from New York City's peer support specialist community to talk about their mental health journey: what worked, what didn't, and what they learned along the way. Hosts Anna Butler, John F. O'Donnell, and Ben Roberts, participants in the award‑winning Howie the Harp Peer Support Specialist Training program, bring wisdom and levity to the things that couldn't break us. Cover Art by Pepper Auerbach. On Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    Thank God! It Has A Name!

    Diagnoses can be both a bane and a boon in mental healthcare. Previous episodes have illustrated how they can pigeonhole you and negatively affect how both mental health professionals and laypeople treat you. They are also extremely reductive and don't include really any of the context of our lives and our selves. However, in this week's episode with Anne-Lilja, we explore how diagnosis can sometimes illuminate the darkness within us that we can sometimes think IS us. Intrusive thoughts can be a big part of the OCD experience and Anne-Lilja does an eloquent job of examining how disorienting and affecting that they can be. Community is a huge theme here at Harping with Howie and the warmth in this episode is palpable. Join hosts Anna Butler and Ben Roberts as we go through our guest's hell and back, once again!

  2. Oct 13

    We Are Not Our Diagnosis

    One of the abiding themes in peer support is that people are more than their diagnosis. A label ignores the multiplicity of experiences of a single person. Our guest Jacob has quite the story to tell! A Queens boy at heart with the accent to prove it. Join hosts Anna Butler and John F. O’Donnell as Jacob talks acting school, a career in sales, the rehab counselor whose acronyms still crack him up, and the peer on a psych unit who showed him exactly what he wanted to do with his life. Along the way we get into why hospitals should be for healing, why a diagnosis shouldn’t follow you forever, and how A Course in Miracles helped him find his footing. Jacob may have a hard exterior, but trust us, he’s a puppy dog inside! Pour yourself a seltzer and pull up a chair. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach on Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content note: this episode discusses child abuse, alcoholism, psychiatric hospitalization, incarceration, and includes adult language

  3. Oct 3

    "How Do You Have Lived Experience? You're Only 18."

    Invalidation is a common theme for those of us who struggle with mental health. Was what I went through "bad enough"? Am I overreacting? That wasn't abuse. Everybody goes through hard times. Maybe what makes a person crazy is treating them as if they are crazy. Denying their reality. In the parlance of the youth, gaslighting the shit out of them. We here at Harping with Howie are here to validate everyone, period. Listening to Tiffany's story, it's hard to imagine that some people have a hard time empathizing with young people and giving them credit for their resilience and pure verve. Abuse harms the body and heart, but maybe it can't truly touch a person's soul. Tiffany sheds light on how social media has increased mental health literacy and how determined many young people are to stop generational trauma. Borderline Personality Disorder is a fairly highly stigmatized diagnosis, but the source of the chaotic brew of severe emotional dysregulation leading to hurtful behavior towards loved ones and ourselves is compelling. Host Ben Roberts and Guest Co-Host Rachel Ji explore how this diagnosis has shaped Tiffany's life. Cover Art by Pepper Auerbach at @iwasateenagepepper on Instagram. Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content Note: this episode contains discussions of child abuse and neglect, self harm, suicide attempts.

  4. Sep 26

    ACAB!!! BMDIC

    The word Badass does not even cover the awesomosity of Raff. New New York City transplant by way of California and Idaho, Raff embodies (in some ways literally) the compelling tensions in just being a human person. Radical leftist whose dad is a police officer (ACAB BMDIC (but my dad is cool) as John proffered), surrounded by violence but living a non-violent life, and using pain as a coping mechanism. Raff has been through a lot of adverse childhood experiences, but one of our abiding themes here at Harping with Howie is that our past is not our destiny. Join hosts Anna Butler and John F. O'Donnell as we get to know perhaps the coolest person in our cohort. From being a part of a real-life The Wire-type situation to choosing hope over and over again, Raff is like a rainbow that points toward a way out of the dark. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach @iwasateenagepepper on Instagram. Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content note: this episode contains discussions of child abuse, self harm, and sexual assault.

  5. Sep 17

    Magic Dragon or Popeyes Chicken Sandwich?

    The Howette family grows today as we add a new rotating co-host to our roster, Ben Roberts, joining Anna Butler to present another thoroughly engrossing episode of Harping with Howie. Today's guest is Ray Guzman. Part philosopher, part artist, part mental health advocate. We get an in-depth look at what it's like inside of Schizophrenia and also what it's like to look back at it, once you're through it. We ride off on a chewy tangent about the history and beauty of hip hop. Then we loop back to Ray's recollections of competing realities. What and who can you trust? The conversation also touches on family, as it often does, as the source of love, pain, support, and trauma. The ties that bind indeed. We thank the goddesses that Ray decided on the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich of life and thank him for letting us try a crispy, crunchy, flavorful bite. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach on Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie

  6. Sep 10

    Learning to Love Myself For What I Went Through

    If people are layered, like onions, Renata would be a very large onion! Both whip-smart and level-headed, Renata takes hosts Anna Butler and John F. O'Donnell on a twisty-turny journey through the relationship we have with our mothers and our children, AuDHD, and the discovery we all make - even though we didn't cause it, we have to fix it ourselves. If life gives you lemons, make a goddamn lemon mousse tarte meringue parfait. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach on Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie

  7. Sep 3

    I Was Able to Make Myself My Own Hero

    How can gaming heal you? Let Naomi tell you all about it. On today's very special episode of Harping with Howie, hosts Anna Butler and John F. O'Donnell talk to a fellow program participant from the Howie the Harp Peer Support Specialist Training Center in New York City. With courage and candor, Naomi walks you through her recovery journey with PTSD. Her story asks the question: are we shaped by our history or are we the creators of our own lives? The answer (as with most binaries) is both. We'll let Naomi take it away from here. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach on Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content note: this episode discusses child sexual abuse and sexual harassment

  8. Aug 25

    I Want to Be of Service, But Not That Kind of Service

    Welcome back Howettes to the second episode of Harping with Howie! Today we talk to Anwar from the Summer 2026 cohort of the Howie the Harp peer support specialist training program in Harlem. Anwar details his beginnings in both the mean and nice streets of Chicago, through his time in college, rehab, and New York's housing system. From being the life of the party to finding a life that's more than just a party, Anwar epitomizes the heart of recovery, which is often just putting one foot in front of the other. Trauma may come at you from all sides, but wherever you go, there you are. Anwar tips his hat to his time in the restaurant service industry, but he's now ready to be of a different type of service to other people. Pull up a chair or earbud and join us on Anwar's journey of hope and recovery. Cover art by Pepper Auerbach on Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content note: this episode discusses domestic violence and includes adult language

  9. Aug 16

    Do You Know How Confident You Have to Be to Think You're Jesus?

    The key is having a grandmother who loves you too much. Just ask John! In this very first episode ever of Harping with Howie: a Peer Support Podcast, hosts Anna Butler and John O'Donnell talk about what led them to the Peer Support Training program at the Howie the Harp Advocacy Center in New York City. Along the way, they share tidbits of their story, like when Anna was accused of stealing $25,000 from a bank or when John was in cahoots with Bono. Above all, John and Anna offer candid reflections about some of the most difficult parts of their mental health journeys and what truly helped. The only drug we're dealing here folks is Hope, not dope. Buckle in as we begin our curiosity adventure into the depths of the human mind and heart. Cover Art by Pepper Auerbach. On Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com Created with support from listeners like you at ko-fi.com/harpingwithhowie Content note: this episode discusses childhood trauma, sexual assault, eating disorders, alcoholism, suicidal ideation, and psychiatric hospitalization.

    Do You Know How Confident You Have to Be to Think You're Jesus?
  • 9 Episodes

About

An after‑school special for adults. In each episode, we sit down with a guest from New York City's peer support specialist community to talk about their mental health journey: what worked, what didn't, and what they learned along the way. Hosts Anna Butler, John F. O'Donnell, and Ben Roberts, participants in the award‑winning Howie the Harp Peer Support Specialist Training program, bring wisdom and levity to the things that couldn't break us. Cover Art by Pepper Auerbach. On Instagram @iwasateenagepepper Visit us at harpingwithhowie.com

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