{"id":851315,"date":"2026-09-17T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851315\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T20:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:16:09","slug":"glen-ellyn-natives-combine-professional-skills-to-organize-virtual-event-focused-on-mental-health-challenges-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851315\/","title":{"rendered":"Glen Ellyn natives combine professional skills to organize virtual event focused on mental health challenges \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than a couple of years, two Glen Ellyn <\/a>natives and Glenbard South High School acquaintances have written a book together, started a podcast and organized an upcoming virtual event all aimed at individuals who need help navigating adversity and change.<\/p>\n

Throughout high school, Kelsey Dunbar, a personal fitness trainer, said he and fellow Glenbard South classmate Marc Rogala, a support and recovery specialist, would nod to each other in the hallway, but did not interact any more than that.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later, they were added to the same men\u2019s nutrition and exercise accountability text group of fellow high school classmates.<\/p>\n

With 30 years experience as a fitness coach, Dunbar realized \u201chelping people with their mental health meant helping people with their physical health.\u201d <\/p>\n

The texts led to a phone call between the two, and from that call the duo came to realize that \u201ca lot of the same framework we were using with our respective clients, even though their issues were completely different, the things we were giving them to do and using to support and develop a framework in their lives were exactly the same,\u201d Dunbar said.<\/p>\n

Calling it an \u201ca-ha moment,\u201d the two realized that the same strategies in Dunbar\u2019s work as a fitness coach and Rogala\u2019s work as a recovery specialist were successfully used to help others deal with a large assortment of issues including depression, anxiety, OCD, ADHD, PTSD and addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the making of the book,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The two co-wrote \u201cSuffer to Tougher: From Rock Bottom to Real Strength,\u201d which was recognized in the Los Angeles Tribune. They also wrote a children\u2019s mental health book, \u201cYou\u2019re Not Broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunbar said the children\u2019s book was created because many of his own mental health challenges began when he was a child.<\/p>\n

The two also created Suffer to Tougher, an organization focused on resilience and mental health with the goal of helping people overcome personal struggles such as food addiction, depression, trauma and low self-worth through fitness, emotional healing and accountability.<\/p>\n

Next up for the two is a virtual event, the Transformation Gap Summit\u2014a free six-day event with 130 presenters that is expected to reach more than 10,000 attendees from Sept. 24 to 29.<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s goal is to help \u201cset people up for success in their life, their relationships, their business,\u201d said Dunbar, who now resides in Oswego. <\/p>\n

Each day of summit will have a specific focus such as identity, behavior and habits, relationships and work.<\/p>\n

Dunbar said the event and the organization\u2019s goal is mental health prevention and \u201cto help people before they get stuck and can\u2019t move forward with their life.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often we get to the point where people are in crisis before they ask for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy doing something for prevention rather than treatment, we can avoid a lot of situations from happening,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Dunbar said may individuals suffer, often for years years, with mental health issues and are \u201cso far in the weeds, it is so hard for them to get the help they really need.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something the two know all too well from personal experience.<\/p>\n

Rogala, who suffered from addiction, anxiety and panic disorder, now works in hospitals, treatment centers and community organizations to help others who are struggling. <\/p>\n

Dunbar, who grew up with alcoholic parents, said he never touched alcohol or drugs because \u201cas a child that is the last thing I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI steered clear of it and thought I was doing great until I graduated high school and I was over 300 pounds and realized I traded alcohol and drug addiction for a food addiction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now the two are dedicated to changing other people\u2019s lives by framing their work in a way \u201cso that it is not screaming mental health,\u201d Dunbar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think if you are talking about mental health it is because there is a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone has mental health. It is in a constant state of flux. No one is positive all the time, and no one is negative all the time. It is about what we can do to keep in a positive state of mind and flourish with our mental health as opposed to be struggling with our mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

To register for the Transformation Gap Summit visit The Transformation Gap Summit | September 24\u201329, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In less than a couple of years, two Glen Ellyn natives and Glenbard South High School acquaintances have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[1075,53234,319188,97,983,259,260,3,49688],"class_list":["post-851315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-community","tag-dupage-county","tag-glen-ellyn","tag-health","tag-local-news","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-news","tag-oswego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}