EDITORS IN CHIEF – BRIAN McNELIS  &  JULIE GUSTAFSON Personal development and sexual health expert, Julie Gustafson, M.A., and Grammy-nominated music and film executive, Brian McNelis, are the king and queen of patching up their lives! This husband and wife, love and business duo, streamlined their rich life experience and extensive psychological training into a straight shooting, fun approach to creating the best life you can, with what you’ve been given.

___________________________________________________________________

OUR AUTHORS

ALEXIS WILLIAMSON is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s resident mind-body expert who is full of gratitude and enthusiasm about life and seeking wellness. She is a yoga instructor, Integrative Nutrition consultant  and long-time seeker of the healing powers of nature. She has extensive training from Yoga Alliance, Sura Flow, Whole Foods University and Vinca Von Muhlenberg Holistic Health among many others! She practices what she preaches; living an idyllic life with her husband on a small island off of Seattle, she strolls the beach for berries and peruses farm stands to find you the most natural ways to heal. Her column, “Healing Naturally” covers holistic mental health, yoga and other mind body traditions. If you are interested in receiving wellness coaching, you can contact her at her personal website: Alexiswilliamson.com. She writes for Duct Tape and Bubblegum under the handle ALEXIS WILLIAMSON.

AMY GENNRICH is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s resident, in-the-trenches-Mom, reporting to you about parenting skills, coping with parenting, child development and the joys and challenges of family life. She is a specialist in the area of child development and Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE). She runs a RIE parenting group in Austin, TX and has training in Child Development. Along with her gifted pediatrician husband, she runs a happy household, full of poopy diapers, packed school lunches, and lots of love. She is also super crafty, with a degree from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She loves colored duct tape and has been known to unplug a clogged drain with a crochet hook. She writes for Duct Tape and Bubblegum under the handle MISSAMYJANE.

BRIAN MCNELIS is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s Editor-in-Chief and veteran music and film executive based in Los Angeles. His early work includes producing the documentary films, Better Living Though Circuitry  and Call it Democracy which have received critical acclaim and television broadcasts on Showtime Network’s Sundance Channel and The Documentary Channel respectively. He has been honored with a Grammy nomination for the Napoleon Dynamite Soundtrack Album and is a music executive and music supervisor on such critically acclaimed films as The Lincoln Lawyer and Drive with Ryan Gosling. Brian has a lengthy CV that includes co-producing the feature film remake of Fame, as well as producing countless music albums, but Brian’s personal passion (besides music & film) is for self-development. He has a Jungian soul and you’ll find him explicating his personal brand of “McNelisms” that include such gems as, “If it took you 4 days to get into the woods, it’s gonna take you 4 days to get out.” Despite his success in life, he’s no stranger to patching up his own life having started out his career selling t-shirts at drag races along the loading docks of Philidelphia’s famed Front Street. Brian is also a longtime advocate for the well being of artists and their development creatively, personally and spiritually.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ, M.A. is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s resident spiritual style guru, writing and living in style while walking a renewed spiritual path. Having worked for a decade in Hollywood as a successful film, television and music stylist, Daniel currently works as a freelance stylist in London where he lives with his partner and their two cats. Daniel’s deep passion is for spiritual growth and he is trained in many spiritual areas. He has studied mediumship at London’s Spiritualist Association of Great Britain for 3 1/2 yrs and has a developed practice as an intuitive and a medium. Daniel has a Masters Degree in Fine Arts with a specialty in painting from UCLA and he currently expresses his art through the hand-crafted hoodie and t-shirt line, dannyhernanny. You can check out more of Daniel’s fashion and style wisdom here and here. He writes for Duct Tape and Bubblegum under the handle DANNYHERNANNY.

JOHN BERGIN and EMMA BERGIN are Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s father-daughter, resident rock star artists and graphic designers. Located in Kansas City, you can see their talents scattered around this site. John’s feature length film From Inside won the acclaimed Best Animated Film Award at Sitges International Film Festival. You can check out Emma’s fabulously whimsical and humorous personal graphic design blog here.

JULIE GUSTAFSON, M.A. is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s Editor in chief and the resident personal development expert, addiction specialist, sexual health expert, meditation instructor, and spiritual thinker. Her research work in sexuality, expressive writing, psychological trauma and health have appeared in psychological journals including Aids & Behavior and Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology. Julie is a long time practitioner of meditation and continues her ongoing training in Buddhist teachings of the mind.  Julie is deeply interested in how people cope with distress using their own spiritual beliefs, including their use of prayer and meditation. She has traveled the world in order to deepen her real world knowledge of Eastern and Western cultural expressions of spirituality. Rather than religious dogma, Julie is interested in how these self-processes are incorporated into daily, modern society and specifically, personal development. Julie has taught non-religious forms of meditation to a variety of people. In addition to her training in meditation, she has worked in the mental health profession for 13 years and has extensive therapeutic experience with adults, children, couples and families. Julie is a long time advocate for public welfare and spoke to a Congressional panel as a champion for mental health disparities and addiction. Despite all the fancy training and CV (including being a lifetime member of the Psi Chi Honor Society), Julie nearly flunked out of High School; so knowing how to patch things up comes from real life experience.

ZACH ALLEN is Duct Tape and Bubble Gum’s resident in-the-trenches-Dad, reporting to you about young men and fathers struggling to find balance within themselves in the dark age of manliness. Zach is a writer living with his gorgeous wife and two sons in Pennsylvania. His irreverent column, “Pomade, Pampers and Prayers” explores his personal experience of life coping with masculinity, family and spiritual balance. He loves music, has been known to make his way around a YMCA weight room, plays video games and builds stuff. He writes for Duct Tape and Bubblegum under the handle ALMOSTHUMBLE.

_________________________________________________________________________

The Lawn Shark (aka Cheezburgr) is Duct Tape and Bubblegum’s official mascot and occasional lolcat inspiration. As the infamous psychiatrist, Dr. Sigmund Freud, said: “Time spent with cats is never wasted.”

This blog is a proud member of The Mental Health Writer’s Guild

We’ve been nominated for the following blogger to blogger awards