Mainspring Counseling and Training Services, LLC

11/09/2025

🌍World Kindness Week 🗓️

“Our inner reality creates the outer form.”
— Vivian Ayers (as quoted by Phylicia Rashad)

This year for World Kindness Week, with prices high and money tight, we’re remembering one truth:

Kindness is a currency too.

This week we are making deposits into our emotional checking accounts: small inner gestures that become outer generosity.

Even when the world feels heavy and expensive, we can choose softness, presence, beauty, connection, imagination, and generosity.

Not to bypass the world’s pain.
But to expand our capacity to respond to it.

Kindness is not naïve.
Kindness is world-building.

Happy World Kindness Week 2025.
May we fund our inner worlds first so the outer world can benefit.

10/21/2025

10/21/2025

With possible insurance updates on the horizon next year, now is a good time to start thinking about your care. Often when we think about preparing, getting things done or meeting a deadline, we are doing so under the ‘Threat Drive.” Planning calmly, intentionally, and without fear allows you to operate in the “Achievement and Soothing Drives.”

Think about it this way, aren’t you tired of delivering your best under threat or duress? Why must we be threatened into success and consistency? Why do you have to be in grave pain, dysfunction and suffering before ‘you’ come see about ‘you’?

This is what I’m trying to convey when I say you have time to make small, compassionate choices that supports your continuity care.

Here are a few ways to prepare:
🗣️ If you’re in therapy now, at your next session make it a priority to talk about your care should your coverage change.

🗓️ If you’re not in therapy, book your appointment now. Make full use of your remaining 2025 benefits.

📋Current and new clients: start compiling your best self-regulation tools, tips, skills, strategies and ‘ah-ha’ moments. In my practice, we call this our ‘cheat sheet’ or ‘one-sheeter’.

📨Therapist & Client Summary: The therapist and client write individual letters sharing overall experiences, main ideas and successes from the past 2-3 months. Then, in session exchange letters. It’s not appropriate for all therapist/client relationships; however, it’s a powerful tool to help refine your next steps should you have to pause your therapy.

💵Ask your therapist about self-pay or sliding scale options

Preparing ahead is a form of self-kindness. It says, “I’m looking out for my future self.” Even if things change, your care, your healing, and your connection to support can continue in meaningful ways.

10/16/2025

As we move toward 2026, there may be shifts in how insurance plans cover mental health care. Nothing is certain yet and that’s okay.

This is a gentle invitation to look ahead with self-kindness and calm preparation. Let’s use this moment to demonstrate how to kindly respond to adversity.

What do you mean Jon? We ‘could’ start a self-loathing or worst case scenario narrative to manufacture unnecessary stress in hopes of pressuring ourselves into making a change or we can simply say, ‘I live a life of ease and steadiness even in times of adversity. I don’t need to inject myself with additional pain to make a change.’

If you take medication to support your mental health, I offer you the following steps to take:

🤲🏾Go ahead and schedule an appointment today. Consider meeting with your psychiatrist at least twice before December 31st
🤲🏾Ask your psychiatrist for a 60–90 day refill in December 2025
🤲🏾Ask your provider for a “bridge plan”:
Discuss what steps to take if you lose access to care temporarily (a plan for medication tapering, symptom monitoring, or when to seek urgent help).
🤲🏾Keep an updated list of your medications, doses, and prescriber contacts
🤲🏾Ask your provider about generic or lower-cost options
🤲🏾Explore GoodRx, SingleCare, or NeedyMeds for medication discounts

Self-kindness means taking care of yourself before you’re in crisis, not because you expect the worst, but because you deserve continuity, steadiness, and peace of mind. You have time to prepare thoughtfully and gently. Begin to see yourself as a trusted friend that consistently cares for you.

10/15/2025

If insurance plans shift in 2026, having a few simple plans in place can help you feel emotionally and financially at ease.

This isn’t about fear; it’s about kindness toward your future self. You have time, and every small step counts.

Here are some ways to prepare
💵 Use your 2025 benefits wisely. Go ahead and schedule therapy, labs, or check-ins before deductibles reset.

🌱 Start a small “care fund.” Even setting aside a few dollars a week can create a cushion for therapy or medication if copays increase.

🧾 Review your insurance options early during open enrollment (Oct–Dec 2025). Pay attention to mental health coverage, deductibles and out-of-network reimbursement.

💬 Ask providers about payment flexibility. Many therapists and psychiatrists offer self-pay, sliding scale, or bridge plans if coverage changes. The key is to ask early.

Self-kindness includes planning for continuity — not because you expect disruption, but because you deserve to feel safe, prepared, and cared for in every season.

Ask yourself, how can I be kind to myself as I experience financial and/or healthcare uncertainty?

If you have helpful personal experiences or tips that can add to the conversation, please comment.

10/10/2025

🌍 World Mental Health Day 2025 🌍

This year’s theme is, “Mental Health in Humanitarian Emergencies: Access to care when the world feels unsafe.”

When crisis strikes, globally or personally, the question that rises from our bodies is the same:
“Am I safe?”

Emergencies don’t only happen ‘out there’.
They live inside us too. We know it all to well. It feels like overwhelm, burnout and grief. It’s our ‘dear friends’ we privately, and silently visit known as ‘the quiet quit’ and ‘the quiet collapse’ after holding on too long.

Self-kindness is the care we offer ourselves both in and out of pain; In and out of joy.

It’s the ongoing act of tending to what’s here Before, During, and After the storm.

It sustains us long enough for compassion to flow naturally, not from depletion but from steadiness.

This World Mental Health Day, may we welcome the following beliefs:
1. Global healing begins with inner safety.
2. Humanitarian care begins with the way we meet our own distress.
3. The most sustainable response to crisis, inside or outside, is kindness that stays.

09/02/2025

05/13/2025

12/31/2024

Step IV: Tell a Different Story

If you are still listening {reading}, I commend you. I would have tapped out a long time ago. Working through the four steps is not always the easiest thing. On some level, it points out you have a more discipline than most.

Ok, here’s Part 4:
The person you hear the most is you. To reinforce your intention and replace old, limiting thought patterns, this step focuses on consistently engaging with your new narrative. Yes, goals are great! More importantly, it’s the intention statement translated into how you think about yourself and how you see the world. You got to live, breathe and eat that thing.

1. Revisit Your Intention Daily
Commit to reading, speaking, or writing your intention statement every day.
Pair this with an existing habit for consistency.
For example:
Mirror Practice: Place your intention on your bathroom mirror and read it out loud while brushing your teeth.
Morning Routine: Write it in your journal as part of a gratitude or reflection practice.

2. Create Multiple Points of Engagement
Immerse yourself in your intention through different mediums:
Sticky Notes: Place reminders in your workspace, car, or near your bed.
Audio Note: Record yourself reading your intention statement and play it during your commute or workout.
Screensaver: Design a digital version for your phone or computer wallpaper.
Wear It: Turn your intention into a T-shirt or keychain as a daily visual cue.

3. Living the New Story:
Begin saving intentionally, each contribution reminding you of the pride and freedom you’ll feel.
Celebrate small milestones, like setting up your savings account or researching car models.
Visualize yourself in the car, embodying the discipline and success it represents.
By embedding this new narrative into daily life, you replace old patterns with a positive, intentional story that keeps you engaged in the experience of growth.

12/30/2024

Tips for Self-Kindness and Belonging to Self

Speak the Words You Need to Hear
If there are words left unspoken, speak them to yourself. Affirm your worth, forgive your mistakes, and express gratitude for the lessons you’ve learned. You are deserving of the same kindness you would offer a dear friend.

12/25/2024

Part III: Set an Intention

Now that you’ve clarified your “why” in the previous step, let’s move to the second part: the experience. This is my favorite part. When we combine your “why” with the experience you want to have, it forms the basis of a healthy intention statement. In some practices, this is also referred to as a manifestation.

Why Focus on the Experience?
Many goals focus solely on outcomes—what the achievement will allow you to do—but neglect the emotional experience tied to it. By tuning into the internal joy or fulfillment that achieving your goal will bring, you create a vision that is personally meaningful and motivating.

Let’s use the example of buying car. When I was younger and a little less gray and bald and bald, buying a car was about “They-esteem”; how people would view and value me. Let’s look at the same example using your ‘Why’ and ‘Experience’.

Example: Buying a New Car
Clarify the Why
You might say, “I want to buy a new car because I value independence and enjoy the freedom of driving something that reflects my hard work.”

Next, ask yourself: Am I willing to do the work to save and buy this car regardless of what others think or say?
If the answer is yes, move to the experience.

Visualize the Experience
Don’t just think about what the car enables (e.g., driving to work). Instead, immerse yourself in the experience of owning it. These are the moments of joy and self-validation that make your intention sustainable

Imagine the fresh leather scent and the satisfaction of keeping it pristine after a car wash.
Feel the joy walking out to your car, feeling confident.
Hear the bassline of your favorite song as you cruise, embracing the luxury of what you’ve achieved.
Envision the pride of knowing your discipline and hard work made this a reality.

An intention combines your ‘why’ with the envisioned ‘experience’. It is deeply personal and emotionally resonant. For example:
“I will work towards buying my car because I deserve the freedom and joy it brings. I see myself savoring the little details—smelling the leather, polishing the wheels, and feeling the pride of knowing I’ve earned this through my discipline.”