Conversations on Mental Health, Human Connection & Healing

What We Needed When We Were Hurting

Hello friends,

There are seasons in life when everything seems to turn a page at the same time. This feels like one of those seasons.

As I write this, our son is packing up for another year at UNC Charlotte. In a few days, the four of us will load up the car and make the drive to North Carolina together — one last road trip before another chapter begins.

This year feels different.

For the first time, he'll be moving into an apartment with roommates. There will be rent to pay, groceries to buy, dishes to wash, and yes... learning to keep an apartment clean. 😊 Life has a funny way of teaching lessons no classroom ever can.

He's also continuing his incredibly disciplined nutrition and training program as he prepares for his first bodybuilding competition on October 17th. Watching his commitment has been inspiring. Every meal has a purpose. Every workout is intentional. Every day builds on the one before.

As a parent, I can't help but think back to the years when depression made it hard for him to imagine a future at all.

Today, I watch him building one.

That is something I never take for granted.

And as excited as I am for him, I find myself looking at our daughter a little differently this week, too. She'll soon be the only teenager at home. Families don't just grow older — our dynamics change with them. One child steps into adulthood while another finds her own place in the family. It's a reminder that every transition ripples outward, touching everyone, not just the person at the center of it.

So this road trip won't just be about moving furniture into an apartment. It will be about making one more memory, together, before the page turns.

Building What I Once Needed

Another chapter beginning is one very close to my heart.

At Ellie Mental Health – Concord, we're preparing to launch the pilot of the Path To Hope™ Community Learning Series, starting with a parent support group.

This project has been quietly growing in my mind for a long time.

When I was navigating one of the hardest seasons of my life — supporting both of my children through their mental health challenges while desperately trying to help my sister — I often wished there was a place where parents could simply come together to learn. Not because we needed therapy in that moment, but because we needed understanding. We needed practical information. We needed a place to ask questions without feeling embarrassed. We needed to hear from professionals, but also from other parents who truly understood what we were living through.

Most of all, we needed to know we weren't alone.

That's the heart behind the Path To Hope™ Community Learning Series. It isn't meant to replace therapy — it's meant to complement it, by creating a welcoming space where families can learn together, connect with one another, and leave feeling a little more informed, a little more confident, a little more hopeful than when they arrived.

We'll begin with a parent group, listen carefully to our community, and let the series grow from there.

Because sometimes the best ideas don't come from asking, "What should we build?"

They come from asking, "What did I need when I was hurting?"

Becoming a Beginner Again

The Path To Hope™ Podcast continues to move forward, and I'm genuinely excited about where it's heading. My website is almost finished, and seeing everything come together under one vision has been incredibly rewarding.

I'll let you in on a little secret, though: hosting a podcast is stretching me in ways I didn't expect.

You'd think speaking on stages would make recording an introduction easy. It doesn't. I've rewritten it. Recorded it. Deleted it. Questioned my voice. Questioned whether it sounded natural enough.

Then I reminded myself: nobody is looking for perfect. They're looking for real.

Sometimes we have to be willing to become beginners again.

A few years ago, I had never owned a mental health clinic. Then I wrote my first book. Now I'm learning how to host a podcast.

Every meaningful chapter in my life has started the same way: "I've never done this before."

And somehow, that's become one of my favorite places to be — because that's where growth lives.

Before I Go...

This newsletter is called Path To Hope for a reason.

Hope isn't something we arrive at one day. It's something we build — one conversation, one relationship, one brave step into the unknown, one new chapter at a time.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. I truly look forward to sharing the next chapter with you.

Don't hesitate to reply to this email to reach out!

Until our next conversation,

Saroni
Author • Speaker • Mental Health Advocate

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

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