Rising Stars: Meet Alivia Nunez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alivia Nunez.

Hi Alivia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story begins and ends with mental health, starting with finding help for myself and ending with a passion for helping others. I began struggling with mental health while transitioning into high school and my life course changed exponentially after finding help and wanting to be able to put that same amount of good back into the world. I attended college studying Psychology and further found a love for helping marginalized communities and individuals that were suffering. Upon completing my undergraduate degree and transitioning into a Masters of Social Work program to become a therapist, my life entered a new phase and level of crisis that I had not yet experienced. On my 23rd birthday, I was assaulted while simultaneously living through an emotionally abusive relationship and experiencing immobilizing mental health symptoms. While working in Iowa as full-time as a community mental health counselor, helping others everyday, I was also suffering with unexplained symptoms that held me in a very dark place. I was able to accurately self-diagnose myself with Borderline Personality Disorder, and it felt as though every struggle I had experienced with my mental health had finally made sense. Through all the turmoil that I experienced, creativity and artistic expression had always carried me through, even when I felt like I was drowning.

I was able to move to Kansas City for a fresh start, finally knowing myself with the goal to help others in their mental health struggles. As I am finishing my master’s program, I decided to open a store in the West Bottoms of Kansas City. For me, the shop is a way to continue to utilize art and creativity along with my passion for mental health advocacy to create the Silver Lining Shop. The shop shows that things that might have been otherwise thrown away can be utilized to create something beautiful. I feel strongly that no matter what we are struggling with in our lives, we can find a silver lining. I am able to build a creative community in the West Bottoms with other healers and artists and create unique items that you can’t find anywhere else. The shop is a means to another endeavor, of living full time in a Skoolie (school bus conversion) upon my graduation and travel across the U.S. advocating for and providing mental health services in underserved communities. I aim to create a curriculum that can be tailored to schools, first responders and community agencies to educate and provide resources for mental health. I would like to show people that we can change the stigma of mental health, not only in the way we discuss it but also in the way that we as providers treat it.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There are universal struggles that exist within accessing mental health services, which are exacerbated by being a woman, a minority and part of the LGBTQ community. As a mental health provider, I was able to navigate these issues with a more clear understanding of the system but ultimately went years without an accurate diagnosis until I was able to do so for myself. Even after doing so, it was a year before I was able to find a provider that would also validate and confirm this diagnosis, as the diagnosis for Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the most polarizing and stigmatized diagnoses in today’s mental health climate. Also, as a woman, I am continuously underestimated in my plans for changing the landscape of mental health implementation and in my skills and talents for building and creating.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I personally specialize in may not be a typical “artist” trait, but I think that problem solving is my strongest talent that I bring into what I do. I enjoy refinishing and repurposing vintage and thrift items that would otherwise be neglected or thrown away. I love finding the potential beauty in things, but the process of finding that beauty or silver lining is not always linear. Many times items that I work on go through several reincarnations before they become their final form, but that process within itself is also beautiful. It’s a challenge that I love, each time that I work on a project, through trial and error to utilize mistakes as opportunities and letting the thing you are creating turn into what it is meant to be. I am most proud of being able to see the world in a unique way and find value in things and in people that are not always obvious to others.

How do you define success?
I define success as being able to find not only brief and fleeting happiness in the thing that you are doing or creating but finding contentment in the life you are living. Success is not synonymous with financial gain or popularity but with the amount of good that you are putting back into the world. I also feel that we can only truly put selfless good into the world when we are content within our own lives without the expectation of reciprocal outcomes for ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.silverliningkc.com
• Instagram: @silverliningkc
• Facebook: @silverliningshopkc