Conversations on Mental Health, Human Connection & Healing

Sometimes We Need to Find Our Own Path

Hello friends,

Well... I did it.

I recorded my very first Path To Hope™ Podcast interview. 🎙️

After months of planning, building the website, figuring out equipment, recording and re-recording my intro, inviting guests, and talking about this podcast... I finally sat down in my little home studio and had the first conversation.

And I couldn't have chosen a better person to begin with.

I also can't ignore the timing of it all. September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and this is always the season I think about my sister the most. Last September, during this same month, I published my first book, Hope Starts at Home. And now, a year later, in this same month, I recorded my very first podcast episode — and it turned out to be a conversation with someone whose own mother had once attempted suicide. There's something I can only call synchronous about that. It feels less like a coincidence and more like a quiet nudge.

This month has been harder than usual, too. Within our clinic family, a few of our therapists have had a suicide loss and a suicide attempt within their own families recently, and it's been a heavy reminder that this isn't something we're moving past — it's still happening, more than most people realize. That's exactly why this work matters, and why I'm grateful this podcast exists to keep having these conversations.

My first guest was my dear friend Lela.

Lela and I share a faith and spiritual practice, but what I've always admired about her is the remarkable life she's lived and the many paths she's taken to become the person she is today. A Yale graduate, from a illustrious career in finance to running a Montessori school to finally coming back home.

During our conversation, she spoke openly about her family, the mental health struggles her mother experienced — including suicide attempts — the hurdles she herself has navigated, and the work she's done over the years to understand herself.

What stayed with me most was the way that inner work eventually shaped her relationships with the people around her. She learned to connect more deeply with herself. That helped her connect differently with her mother. And over time, she and her siblings were able to come together to support their mother through the end of her life.

I knew much of Lela's story before we sat down. But hearing it unfold as one complete conversation felt different. There were moments when I almost forgot I was supposed to be interviewing her. 😊

I was simply listening to my friend.

And perhaps that's exactly what I want this podcast to be — a place where we slow down long enough to hear how another human being got from there to here.

Because nobody's path is straight.

Another collaboration I'm very excited about...

This week I also had a wonderful collaboration session with Ethan Levy of Dork Dancing.

Ethan founded dorkdancing.org and has been building it, tirelessly, for the past six years. His style of dance is fun, unfiltered, a little crazy in the best way — completely different from my own lyrical, expressive approach — and that's exactly what makes this collaboration exciting to me.

We're working on something together involving Dance for Mental Health™, and I'm going to be annoyingly mysterious and leave it there for now. 😊

But I will say this: I'm so grateful Ethan has agreed to bring his years of work and his own dance philosophy into this with me. The more people I meet who believe in movement, creativity, connection, and mental wellbeing, the more possibilities I see for what Dance for Mental Health™ could become.

More to come on this one.

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Path To Hope™ Learning Corner

CONNECT — beginning with yourself

Something happened during my conversation with Lela that I wasn't expecting.

I started seeing the Path To Hope™ framework reflected back at me through her story. One part in particular stood out: Connect.

We often think connection begins with another person. But listening to Lela reminded me that some of our most important connection begins internally.

She had done the difficult work of understanding herself — her experiences, her reactions, her family history, and the things she carried. That deeper relationship with herself helped change the way she related to her mother. And that connection extended outward to her siblings, eventually helping them come together around someone they loved.

Self → family → community.

That's something I've been thinking about ever since we stopped recording.

Connection with ourselves doesn't automatically fix our relationships. And understanding another person's mental health struggles doesn't erase difficult history. But self-awareness can change what we bring into those relationships.

Instead of only asking, "Why is this person behaving this way?" — we can also ask:

"What is happening inside me when they do?" "What am I carrying into this conversation?" "What do I need?" "What might they need?"

That is a very different place from which to connect.

And perhaps that's why my conversation with Lela meant so much to me. I created the Path To Hope™ framework from everything I've lived and learned. Then I sat across from someone I love and watched pieces of it appear naturally in the story of her life.

I didn't go looking for it. It was simply there.

And that made me trust what I'm building just a little bit more.

Until our next conversation,

Saroni
Author • Speaker • Mental Health Advocate

P.S. If this week's Learning Corner made you think of another parenting or mental health question you'd like me to explore, reply to this email. Some of those questions may even become conversations on the Path To Hope™ Podcast. 💛

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

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