Conversations on Mental Health, Human Connection & Healing

Maybe I Don't Have to Choose

Hello friends,

First, I want to say thank you.

After last week's newsletter, so many of you reached out with messages, prayers, encouragement, and genuine concern for my daughter and our family. I read every message, and I truly appreciate every one of you from the bottom of my heart. 💛

I'm also happy to share that my daughter has now completed her first week of intensive outpatient therapy, and so far, it's going well. We're taking this one day at a time. She's showing up. She's participating. She's getting the professional support she needs.

And right now, that's what matters.

Something my husband said changed my perspective

I'll admit something else.

Last week, I was frustrated. Not with my daughter. Not with what she needed from us. I was frustrated because I'm deeply committed to the work I'm building, and suddenly so much of it had to stop.

Podcast recordings were canceled. Meetings moved. Plans changed.

Part of me started thinking, How am I going to keep building Path To Hope™ while being fully present for my daughter through this?

My husband listened to me and reminded me of something incredibly simple:

They're one and the same.

And he was right.

What exactly am I building Path To Hope™ for? Families navigating mental health. Early awareness. Knowing what to do when something changes. Finding the right help. Creating connection. Learning how to walk alongside someone we love without pretending we can fix everything for them.

I'm living the very thing I'm talking about. My mission doesn't require me to choose Path To Hope™ over my daughter.

She is part of why Path To Hope™ exists.

That realization took some pressure off. It also helped us find a practical middle ground.

Maybe I don't record four podcast conversations in a month right now. Maybe I record one — one meaningful conversation each month while my daughter moves through this stage of her healing.

I can do that.

So I'll begin reaching back out to the wonderful guests already waiting in my pipeline and start scheduling conversations again — slowly and intentionally.

The podcast isn't going anywhere. Neither am I. We're simply adjusting the pace.

Building something I wish I'd had

There's also exciting progress happening at Ellie Mental Health – Concord.

We're preparing to pilot our first Path To Hope™ Community Learning Series parent program toward the end of October. The vision is becoming clearer as our clinical team develops it. We're exploring an eight-week, DBT-informed structure built around practical skills parents can learn and apply in their everyday lives, and considering how the program can support parents raising neurodivergent children more broadly, rather than focusing exclusively on ADHD.

One thing we're being very thoughtful about is that parents don't all need the same kind of support. Some may benefit from a clinical group with specific treatment goals. Others may be looking for education, practical tools, connection, and a better understanding of how to support a child who may already be receiving individual therapy. Those are different needs — so we're exploring complementary clinical and non-clinical pathways, drawing from similar concepts but serving different purposes.

We're still shaping the model carefully, and I don't want to get ahead of our clinical team. But I can tell you why I'm so invested in it.

I keep thinking back to the years when I was desperately trying to understand what was happening with my own children. What am I looking at? What do I say? What shouldn't I say? When do I intervene? What kind of professional help does my child actually need? And how do I take care of myself while trying to take care of them?

I would have benefited enormously from a place where parents could learn these things before everything reached a crisis point.

That's what we're trying to build. And I cannot wait to see where this first pilot takes us.

And then we received some pretty wonderful news...

Ellie Concord was recently identified by Ellie Mental Health's franchisor home office for best-in-class performance, including having some of the highest clinician productivity across the franchise system.

With more than 200 Ellie clinics across the country, I'm going to allow myself to be pretty darn proud of this one. 😊

But what makes me happiest isn't simply the recognition. It's what sits behind those numbers. We have worked very hard to build a clinic where clinicians can do meaningful work, clients can access quality care, and the business itself can remain strong enough to continue serving our community. Mental health clinics cannot fulfill their mission if they aren't sustainable.

So this recognition belongs to our entire Ellie Concord team, especially our clinic manager Amanda! They've earned it. 💛

Dance for Mental Health™ keeps moving too

Meanwhile, Ethan Levy and I continue building the new Dance for Mental Health™ platform.

We're designing the website around a much bigger vision than one person or one style of dance. I want this to become a place where many different forms of movement can belong — dance, Dork Dancing, cultural movement, free movement, whatever helps someone step outside their head for a moment and reconnect with their body, music, joy, and other people.

Yesterday, Dork Dancing held a wonderful gathering at Forest Park, and watching people simply dance carefree for mental health was such a beautiful reminder of why this idea matters.

And on October 10, World Mental Health Day, we're planning to come together again in the city. I can't wait.

I'm ending this week's letter with something very simple.

Path To Hope™ Learning Corner

Sometimes moving forward means changing the pace.

This week's lesson isn't clinical. It's personal.

When life interrupted everything I had planned, my first reaction was frustration. I thought slowing down meant I was falling behind.

It doesn't.

Sometimes circumstances change, and the healthy response is to change with them. That might mean canceling something. Asking for help. Doing one thing instead of five. Being present with someone who needs you. Or accepting that the timeline you created when life looked one way may no longer make sense when life looks another way.

The destination doesn't necessarily have to change. Sometimes we simply take a different path to get there.

And perhaps that's why my husband's words meant so much to me.

I have a daughter who needs me and a mental health mission I'm trying to build.

They're not competing stories.

They're part of the same one.

And this week, that realization gave me a little more room to breathe.

Until our next conversation,

Saroni Kundu
​Author • Speaker • Mental Health Advocate

🌐 www.saronikundu.com​

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis in the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If there is immediate danger or a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.

Founder, Path To Hope™
Owner, Ellie Mental Health Concord, MO
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