The Just A Mom Podcast

The summer 2025 season concludes with a great conversation with Lynda Gargan. Lynda shares some of her personal story of raising a son with mental health challenges, as well as her professional journey that led her to The National Federation of Families (NFF, https://www.ffcmh.org/ ). We discuss the importance of listening to our children, advocating for them, and mental health education. Lynda do...

Iuri Melo was inspired to look for a solution to a rash of teen suicides in his community in Utah seven years ago. SchoolPulse ( https://schoolpulse.org/ ) is a proactive, text-based student support service available throughout the United States that texts students evidence-based, cognitive behavioral skills and strategies twice a week. This approach provides students with anonymity, confidentiali...

I heard Cheryl speak at the National Federation of Families Conference ( https://www.ffcmh.org/ ) in November of 2024, where she very vulnerably shared her experience of losing her son, DJ, to suicide seven years ago. On this episode, Cheryl talks about what a gifted athlete and student DJ was, and how she and her husband had no idea that DJ was struggling. Cheryl candidly discusses the hours, day...

Kelly Jackson shares more in-depth about her personal journey of parenting a child with mental illness in the second part of my conversation with her. Kelly discusses how she had to adjust her dreams and expectations for her daughter, and how she had to stop trying to make her daughter just like herself. While there have been many ups and downs in their journey, Kelly shares how her daughter is le...

Kelly Jackson is a mom who has vast personal experience with family members experiencing mental illness. In this episode of The Just A Mom Podcast, Kelly candidly shares her journey as a parent with a child with mental illness.  Kelly’s daughter started exhibiting symptoms of mental illness after she fell out of a swing and suffered a concussion as a second grader. Kelly chronicles her daughter’s...

This episode is a don’t-miss for all. Kim is passionate about all kids belonging, particularly in church settings. But Kim’s book and principles apply to all of us, and we ended our time together by saying, “Just be a decent human being.” While this can seem so simple, Kim helps us understand the ways that we don’t do this well and how we can do it better, especially with kids and adults who have...

Don’t miss this summer kick-off episode of The Just A Mom Podcast featuring Anna McCasland. Anna has an incredible and unique journey as a person with lived experience with PANDAS, which is short for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections.  PANDAS is a rare autoimmune condition that can occur in children after a strep throat infection, and is chara...

Don’t miss the final episode this spring featuring Debi Roberts of the OLLIE Foundation ( https://theolliefoundation.org/ ). Ollie is an acronym for One Life Lost Is Enough. The Ollie Foundation was founded in 2016 by three UK parents who had lost their teen sons to suicide. OLLIE is devoted to empowering individuals and organizations to reduce suicide in their communities through education, inter...

In the final of a three-part series, Holly continues chronicling the unconditional love she and her husband have shown their son.  Holly shares that after her son attacked both her and her husband, her son was taken by ambulance to the emergency room. Holly then shares about her injuries from the attack and the permanent problems she has as a result. Holly tells us that while she and her husband d...

*Trigger warning: This episode contains conversations about sex and pornography addiction and sexual abuse. This is the second of a three-part series with Holly Miles. In this episode, Holly discusses some of the behaviors her adopted son started exhibiting after she and her husband adopted him. Some of these behaviors included inappropriate sexual behaviors and pornography use, sexual abuse, and...

Don’t miss the first of this three-part series featuring Holly Miles. Holly has quite a story of her own mental health journey, her work as a psychiatric nurse, her journey with the foster care system, and her eventual adoption of her son, Jacob. Holly shares her personal and professional experiences that led her to her present work as the Executive Director of NAMI Greater Kansas City.  Holly alw...

Since 2008, Stephen and Mary Pruitt have been making truly independent, Hollywood-quality feature films that both entertain and inspire. This episode of The Just A Mom Podcast highlights their recent film, State of Grace, which, Mary says, is a film about “fentanyl, foster care, and a family of strangers.” This must-see movie chronicles the journey of the main character, Erin, and her struggle wit...

I knew I wanted to do something different and special to celebrate the 100th episode of The Just A Mom Podcast. It seems only fitting to have three of my closest friends interview me. On this episode, Debbie, Jen, Toni and I take a walk down memory lane where they ask me questions about my journey as a parent of a child who struggles with mental illness. We also talk about the inception of The Jus...

This is the continuation of the previous episode. Cindy chronicles her daughter, Chase’s, journey with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in 2022.  Chase was part of a clinical trial, which accelerated all TMS treatments into a few days, as opposed to the traditional model that spans multiple weeks. Cindy notes how quickly Chase improved and how she became herself again.  Chase is now a pre-med jun...

Don’t miss the first in a two-part series featuring Cindy Elkins and Dr. Martha Koo. I met Cindy at the 2024 NAMICon ( https://events.nami.org/namicon/ ). Cindy shared some of her daughter’s story with me, which included being part of a clinical trial for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS, and being featured on The Today Show ( https://www.today.com/video/how-magnet-therapy-can-help-treat-...

Join this informative and engaging conversation with Diana Partington, licensed professional counselor in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of DBT for Life. Diana shares the philosophy behind Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and how every person can benefit from DBT. DBT was founded in 1993 by Dr. Marsha Linehan and became popular around 2010. Diana shares how DBT is a powerful treatment for suicidal...

This episode of The Just A Mom Podcast features a conversation with parent and advocate Laura Craciun. Laura shares her journey as a parent of an adult child who suffers from a serious mental illness and how difficult it is for families of adults to help their loved ones receive the treatment they need.  Laura’s son’s journey started right before he turned 18, at which time parents are no longer a...

In this powerful episode, I am joined by three amazing guests—Kayla Solomon, licensed clinical social worker, along with Allies in Recovery family members Carolyn and Kenneth. Carolyn and Kenny outline their journey with their son’s addiction, which included a suicide attempt, overdoses, developing an eating disorder, and their discovery of Allies In Recovery. Carolyn and Kenny share how Allies ha...

In this final episode of the three-part series with Doug and Stacee, Stacee continues sharing about her in-patient eating disorder treatment. She emphasizes how important it was for her to make the choice to stay when many in the program left, and how she didn’t want to leave a legacy of not fighting. Stacee talks about the importance of moment-by-moment surrender.  Doug and Stacee also reveal tha...

Doug and Stacee continue sharing more about Stacee’s suicide attempt and subsequent hospitalization.  They also talk about their family and how Stacee’s struggle impacted their daughters. Stacee says she couldn’t be the mom she wanted to be and had journals full of self-hatred writing in them. Stacee’s eating disorder returned, which resulted in the church where Doug was a pastor asking them to le...

This is the first in a series of three episodes with Doug and Stacee Goetzinger.  Don’t miss this incredibly raw, honest conversation with my high school classmate, Doug, and his wife, Stacee, about Stacee’s lifelong battle with mental illness. In this episode, Stacee shares about her childhood that was full of family dysfunction. Stacee talks about her disordered eating in college at Dallas Bapti...

You don’t want to miss the last episode of this fall with Lora DeMello, mom, writer, educator and President of We Are Brave Together ( https://www.wearebravetogether.org/ ). I knew immediately when I read Lora’s story in the book Becoming Brave Together ( https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Brave-Together-Extraordinary-Caregiving-ebook/dp/B0D123VCRS ) I wanted to share her story on The Just A Mom podc...

Meredith is the mom of five kids, four of whom are adopted, and three of these are biological sisters. Additionally, Meredith is the founder of James Trail, an organization that seeks to come alongside families and organizations impacted by trauma.  Meredith talks about the different types of trauma and the services James Trail provides, including social media posts, blogs, a podcast, and newslett...

This episode is a continuation of my conversation with Stephanie. Stephanie’s daughter struggles with ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder), anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder.  In this episode, Stephanie shares about her daughter’s six-month residential stay at the Eating Recovery Center in Dallas ( https://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/ recovery-centers/dallas) followed by two...

This is the first of two episodes with Stephanie James.  Stephanie’s daughter battles an eating disorder, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Stephanie shares candidly how her daughter’s illness started her freshman year when she started skipping lunch and was losing weight. Stephanie took her to their family physician, who said she needed to be hospitalized immediately because of her weig...