My journey isn’t just personal-it’s professional, too.
For 8 years, I worked as a mental health counselor and behavior specialist in schools, supporting students and families navigating crisis, trauma, and behavioral challenges.
I became a Certified Anger Management Specialist because I saw-both professionally and personally-how unprocessed anger destroys families when they lack effective tools. In military families, anger often masks trauma. In neurodivergent parenting, anger is a valid response to systems that fail our children. I don’t believe anger is the enemy. I believe lack of tools is.
I spent 8 years as a civilian with the Department of Defense, earning certifications in Army and Air Force resiliency programs. I trained service members and families on mental health, stress management, and trauma recovery-learning that military life creates unique pressures generic wellness advice can’t address.
But my deepest education came at home.
As the spouse of a combat veteran, I’ve lived through deployment, reintegration challenges, transition hurdles, and the secondary trauma military families rarely discuss.
As a parent of three neurodivergent children (two with autism, one with dyslexia), I’ve navigated the complexity of different IEP needs, advocated for multiple accommodations simultaneously, and learned that each child’s progress follows their own timeline.
Parenting multiple neurodivergent children means understanding that what works for autism doesn’t work for dyslexia. It means attending back-to-back IEP meetings with different goals. It means juggling speech therapy, occupational therapy, reading interventions, and behavioral supports-all while trying to keep your own mental health intact. If you’re raising more than one child with different needs, you know the unique exhaustion of being everyone’s advocate while rarely advocating for yourself.
I’m currently a doctoral student in traumatology and education, researching military family trauma and school-aged children-because I refuse to accept that our families should keep struggling in silence.
Mindmental was born from exhaustion, frustration, and necessity.
After years creating tools to survive my reality—journals that helped, templates that organized chaos, resources that validated rather than patronized-I realized: If I need this, thousands of other military spouses and neurodivergent families do too.
This isn’t theory. These are survival tools from someone still in the trenches with you.
How Mindmental Helps You Survive (and Thrive)
