Gina Ryder

Writer and Teacher

Gina Ryder is an independent journalist and educator based in New York City. Her narrative reporting has appeared in a myriad of publications including The New York Times, Boston Globe's STAT News, The Guardian, and Marie Claire. Gina has taught courses in English departments at both John Jay College and City College. She holds a bachelor's degree from Temple University and a master's degree from Columbia University. Reach out at byginaryder@gmail.com.

Portfolio
Healthline
How Sensitivity to Trauma Can Transform Our Mental Health

Trauma-informed care is important in areas we don't typically associate with it in everyday life - doing our taxes, going to a yoga class, or even going to the dentist. In a dentist's office, you're asking people to lay down in very vulnerable positions, Bryant explains.

Marie Claire
07/08/2019
Is Benzodiazepine Dependence the Next Opioid Crisis?

When Rachel Ziegler was 22, her doctor prescribed 0.5 mg of Xanax once a day to treat generalized anxiety and panic attacks. "I don't recall ever discussing a potential stopping point," says Ziegler, who works as a chemistry-lab technician at the University of Illinois, "but I do remember asking her if I would become addicted."

Vice
03/28/2018
This Female Black Preacher Wants to Dismantle Religious Patriarchy

A Google image result for Reverend Neichelle Guidry brings up an image of a young black woman in a magenta dress standing in a pulpit, with a microphone placed in front of a statement necklace. Another shows a cold shoulder cutout top paired with clerical stole.

the Guardian
08/28/2019
Faith and freelancers: why churches are turning into co-working spaces

Last summer, Ted Henken, a 47-year-old sociology professor at Baruch College, New York, was searching for somewhere to get some work done when he passed a sign advertising a co-working space. Although there is no shortage of these in Manhattan, this one was different: the sign was outside a 90-year-old Lutheran church.

Glamour
12/30/2017
'Walk and Talk' Therapy Is a Legit Thing, and It Actually Works

When Megan Treby, 41, an art teacher who lives near Washington, D.C., first started seeing her therapist, Jen Udler of Positive Strides Therapy for her anxiety, Udler suggested that the two of them might conduct their sessions while taking walks to help release excess energy.

CNN
Ways to make someone feel loved, besides saying it

"I love you" translates intimacy between ourselves and others, but the expression is so common that it can lack the meaning it's intended. When saying and hearing it becomes automatic and expected, its power becomes dulled in our brain's limbic system, where we process love.

Glamour
05/04/2018
Living With Flat Affect: Like 'Resting Bitch Face' but Not Funny

We live in a time when "resting bitch face" is a joke, selfies are constant, and activist art implores us to stop telling women to smile: We're as aware of our faces as ever. But the conversation still largely excludes people who don't always have control of theirs: people with a flattened affect.

The Cut
04/19/2018
I Joined a Procrastination Support Group and It Changed My Life

Last year, I attended an author Q&A at Housing Works Bookstore that I thought would inspire me to write more. At some point during the event, someone in the audience asked the author about work ethic; in response, she told the crowd that when she sees a deadline, she turns her work in a month before it.

Teen Vogue
12/26/2017
Why #RelationshipGoals Can Actually Be Unhealthy

If you're single and yearn for romantic connection, seeing your social media blow up with #relationshipgoals can stir a variety of emotional experiences depending on the images you see. On one hand, watching couples online can be fun: the posts are often light hearted, mushy (in a good way) and even spark hopeful feelings about love.

Teen Vogue
08/24/2017
5 First-Time Voters Open Up About How Voting REALLY Feels

If someone between the ages of 18 and 29 is registered to vote, they are very likely to actually head to the polls instead of skipping their civic duty. In 2016, according to the Center for American Progress, 79% of 18- to 29-year-olds turned out to vote in the presidential election.

HuffPost
05/03/2012
The Serenity Prayer's Journey From Wartime To Recovery

If you are looking for it, the Serenity Prayer is everywhere. The words to the familiar prayer are: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

HuffPost
02/17/2015
9 Reasons Why Doing Random Acts of Kindness Can Heal a Lonely Heart

When I think about the Monday nights in the summer of 2014, my insides soar. Each Monday was spent doing a different random act of kindness around New York City. On two of the evenings, a group from my church and I gave out free balloons to about a hundred people we encountered.

HuffPost
09/30/2013
Can A Community Of Faith Decrease Recidivism?

Does anyone love me? Is there a point to all this? We all tend to ask ourselves these questions time and time again. For a person coming out of jail, these questions seem to have even more weight. Does anyone love me after what I've done?

HuffPost
10/27/2013
The Single Habit That Helps Me To Eat Healthy and Save Money

For me, the secret to consistent healthy eating comes down to one routine I've built into my life. Every Sunday, I spend a few hours preparing fresh, healthy meals for the week ahead. This habit saves me time and money overall.

BUCKS LIFE magazine
Knocking Down Walls

A Trenton NJ company is redefining mainstream America's perception of waste and graffiti art

HuffPost
06/30/2015
What If We Treated Homeless People Like Potential Friends?

In the past six months I've spent more time with a 61-year-old formerly homeless man than I've spent with many of my friends and family. His name is Carlos Daniels, and he spent over 20 years living in New York City subway stations.

Psychology Today magazine
Mother Courage

Pregnancy is a time for forward thinking

Reader's Digest
Coping With Anxiety: What Everyone Needs to Know | Reader's Digest - Reader's Digest

Uber Images/Shutterstock Your feelings can be undermined by the belief that you shouldn't feel anxious, that your feelings aren't valid-and this can be reinforced by well-meaning family members and friends. Their intentions may be good, but that sentiment is useless during an anxious spell; you can end up feeling guilty on top of anxious.