Mental Health Champions: Why & How Caroline P. Cardenas of The Hula Hoop Girl Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness

Society needs to do better at promoting, valuing, and prioritizing play throughout the lifespan and understand its transformative quality with regards to emotional and psychological well-being that is supported by biological, psychological, and sociological research. Imagining a world without play is a daunting world. Play is essential for our well-being throughout the life-span, period.

As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Caroline P. Cárdenas.

Caroline P. Cárdenas, MSN, MA, RN, CBCN, a doctoral candidate in psychology, has over 18 years of service as an oncology and hospice nurse and lives in Kauai, Hawaii, where she is helping fellow nurses throughout the U.S. to prevent and decrease burnout and compassion fatigue by promoting self-care through the experiential process of body and movement play. Within her master’s thesis, Cárdenas, a Walden University Master of Science in Nursing…