04/18/2026
It's the worst feeling as a parent when you see your child struggling. ๐
Sometimes missing school is the exact right move.
If the environment where they are spending enough hours it's a full-time job doesn't feel kind or fulfilling, why would they want to go...
Because the adults said so?
Sometimes therapy is the same song and dance around their trauma.
If the clinical setting makes them cringe because of the stigma, why would they want to go....
Because the adults said so?
I've been in the mental health field for over 20 years.
Providing intensive in-home counseling services to families. Working in psychiatric hospitals and residential facilities. Day in and day out.
I saw what they see.
The burnout, paperwork, diagnosis loop that is our mental health system.
The same loop seems to plague our education system as well.
As a mental health professional who left the clinical field, I believe in following the energy.
Don't force.
๐ฑ Find the passive ways to access their brains.
Get your people together - the ones who guide YOU. These wise ones will be the wading around while the kids crash and bumble, ready to offer a morsel of hope and connection.
Place the resources around the house. The 800 digits, fidgets, and books! They'll be alone in the house and bored one day. You never know what sentence might stand out.
Offer mental health support with a teen life coach. Removes the stigma, feels a little more solution focused and less about that gosh darn insurance coding. ๐ซถ
Get curious about what life could feel like for your child if the constraints of "how to human" were removed from your well-intentioned belief system. What could happen if they forged ahead in their own time and way?
This might be their cocoon stage.
We get to be the wild flowers ready to embrace them as they emerge.
Leave a ๐ฉท to learn more about my youth empowerment method, from a former licensed clinical community counselor turned teen life coach, personal trainer and forever cheerleader.
They'll respond when it aligns.
Sending all the love.
Coach Kelly