Authentic Mental Health

03/21/2026

Kayla Olson

03/20/2026

We made it, folks!!!!!!!

03/19/2026

03/17/2026

🍀 This St. Patrick’s Day, Choose Self-Compassion 🍀

Luck is wonderful — but caring for your mental health isn’t about luck. It’s about intention.

Today is a great reminder to:

Check in with yourself
Reach out to someone you trust
Take a few quiet moments to reset
Give yourself grace
If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. Support is available, and small steps matter.

Wishing you a day filled with hope, connection, and a little extra kindness — for yourself and others. 💚

03/17/2026

Yesterday afternoon we experienced an unexpected phone and internet outage due to a service interruption with our provider (as did many of you). As a result, we were temporarily unable to receive calls or messages.

Service has now been fully restored and we are back to normal operations. If you tried to reach us and were unable to get through, please feel free to call again at 715-770-9180.
Thank you for your patience and understanding!

03/16/2026

A hard lesson: if someone has a long history where every job, every friendship, and every relationship ends with them being the victim… eventually you have to consider the common denominator.

03/14/2026

In honor of National 3.141592653589793 Day.... What is your favorite kind of pie?

Those who submit a response, and tag a friend, will be entered into a random drawing for a gift card!

03/10/2026

Children don’t misbehave because they’re bad — they misbehave because they lack skills. Impulse control, frustration tolerance, flexible thinking, and emotional regulation all develop over time. Our job isn’t to punish the lagging skill — it’s to coach it.

Gentle parenting is long‑term work. It prioritizes relationship, safety, and skill‑building over short‑term compliance. And while it can feel slower in the moment, it builds children who understand limits, trust their caregivers, and develop internal regulation — not just external obedience.

03/09/2026

Emotional dysregulation in ADHD shows up as intense, rapid mood swings and disproportionate reactions to everyday frustrations, often looking like "behavior problems" or "bad parenting". This is a neurobiological feature of ADHD, not a parenting failure

What emotional dysregulation looks like in ADHD
Emotional dysregulation in ADHD shows up as intense, rapid mood swings and disproportionate reactions to everyday frustrations
Common examples include:
1. Explosive anger: Outbursts over minor triggers, like being told "no" or losing a game"
2. Sudden tears: Crying over small disappointments or perceived slights.
3. Impulsive outbursts: Shouting, hitting, or throwing objects in the heat of the moment

Why it doesn't look "normal"
Typical emotional regulation follows a gradual arc: trigger → feeling → pause → response.
In ADHD, this arc is compressed or absent, leading to trigger → immediate, intense response

This mismatch with typical patterns makes the behavior stand out and invites judgment Parents face judgment because these outbursts break social norms, but the behavior reflects brain differences, not discipline issues. Understanding this helps shift focus from blame to support and effective strategies

ADHD is a developmental delay - we have to adjust our expectations and give them more time to develop the skill of emotional regulation. Your job as a parent? Is to stay calm.

03/08/2026

One hour less = self care more this week!

03/07/2026

Brainspotting is a brain‑body therapy designed to help individuals process trauma, emotional pain, and deeply stored stress responses.

It’s based on the idea that “where you look affects how you feel.”

During a session, a trained clinician helps the patient identify a specific eye position (a “brainspot”) that correlates with emotional activation. By maintaining that eye position while mindfully observing internal experience, the brain is able to access and process unresolved material at the somatic level.

Brainspotting is commonly used for:

Trauma and PTSD
Anxiety and panic
Performance blocks
Chronic stress
Grief and complex emotional experiences

Unlike traditional talk therapy, brainspotting works more directly with the subcortical brain — the area involved in survival responses and stored trauma.

When talk therapy reaches its limits, body-based approaches like brainspotting can offer another pathway to healing.

Rebecca, Missy, Savannah, and (soon) Mattie are available to implement brainspotting!

03/06/2026

Ever notice how one small thought can shift your entire mood?

“I messed that up.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“This is going to go badly.”

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is built on a simple but powerful idea:
Our thoughts influence our emotions, and our emotions influence our behaviors.

When thoughts become distorted — overly negative, catastrophic, or rigid — they can fuel anxiety, depression, and avoidance. CBT helps identify those patterns and replace them with more balanced, evidence-based thinking.

It’s not about “positive thinking.”
It’s about accurate thinking.

Want to get started? We are happy to help!