🕊️ THE FINALE IS HERE.

Episode 11 of the Ask Mindful M Summer Spoken Word Series is officially ON WAX. 🎙️✨️

Our summer journey ends with Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel and a reflection on love, vulnerability, connection, and transformation through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy.

Eleven episodes.

One journey.

From climbing... to becoming.

✨ What has love made possible in you?

✨ What kind of love are you choosing to give forward?

Sometimes love doesn't change the story. It changes what becomes possible next.

🎧 Episode 11 is live.

Thank you for taking this journey with me. ❤️

Poetry that heals. Therapy that connects. Reflection that transforms.

🌿 Stay mindful.

Episode 10 is here. 🤎🎙️

Some things take time to understand.

Some experiences ask us to sit with questions before answers arrive. And sometimes, with distance, growth, and grace, we begin to see our stories—and the people within them—differently.

In “What We Understand Later,” we reflect on forgiveness, healing, and the possibility that understanding can arrive long after the moment has passed.

🎧 Listen now, reflect gently, and as always... stay mindful. 🤎

#AskMindfulM #Episode10 #WhatWeUnderstandLater #Forgiveness #Healing #MentalHealth

Episode 9 — What We Carry | NOW LIVE 🌳

Our stories don't begin with us.

This week on Ask Mindful M, the Summer Spoken Word Series continues with Margaret Walker's For My People, exploring identity, family systems, generational patterns, resilience, and the legacies we carry forward.

Families don't only pass down wounds. They pass down wisdom, strength, culture, survival, and love.

Through an MFT lens, we ask:

What did you inherit that you want to honor?

What did you inherit that you want to transform?

Because your history can inform your story without writing your ending.

🎙️ Listen to Episode 9 now.

Poetry that heals. Therapy that connects. Reflection that transforms.

🌿 Stay mindful.

🌸 Episode 8 — Give Yourself Some Grace

The Summer Spoken Word Series continues with Lucille Clifton's won't you celebrate with me.

In this episode of Ask Mindful M, we explore what it means to celebrate ourselves while we're still becoming—holding space for growth without allowing self-criticism to erase how far we've already come.

Through an MFT lens, we reflect on self-compassion, family messages, identity, and the stories we carry about who we're allowed to become.

✨ You don't have to be finished to celebrate your progress.

Reflection Question:

What part of your story deserves more celebration... and less criticism?

🎙️ Listen now.

Poetry that heals. Therapy that connects. Reflection that transforms.

🌿 Stay mindful.

Summer Spoken Word Series | Episode 7

Hope Is a Practice

Hope isn't always found in the extraordinary. Sometimes it's found in the quiet decision to keep showing up—for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

In this episode of Ask Mindful M, we reflect on Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy. Together, we explore how healing grows in relationships, why hope is strengthened through connection, and how even the smallest act of encouragement can make someone else's climb a little lighter.

As the Summer Spoken Word Series continues, this conversation invites us to move beyond personal healing and consider the hope we're creating for others.

Reflection Question:

What small act of hope can you practice this week that might make someone else's climb a little lighter?

🎙️ Thank you for listening to Ask Mindful M.

Poetry that heals. Therapy that connects. Reflection that transforms.

Stay mindful. 🌿

Summer Spoken Word Series – Episode 6

The Summer Spoken Word Series continues with Gwendolyn Brooks' timeless poem, We Real Cool.

In this episode of Ask Mindful M, we explore identity, belonging, and authenticity through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy. Together, we'll reflect on how families, relationships, and communities shape our sense of self—and what happens when the desire to belong begins to cost us who we are.

Join the conversation as we celebrate poetry that heals, challenges, and inspires.

Reflection Question: Are you choosing acceptance at the expense of authenticity?

Stay mindful.

🎙️ Episode 5 is Live!

Remember Who You Are

Inspired by Nikki Giovanni's Ego Tripping and explored through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy.

There are moments in life when healing isn't about becoming someone different...

It's about remembering the strength, dignity, creativity, and worth that have always been within you.

In today's episode, we reflect on identity, the stories we inherit, the stories we rewrite, and the freedom that comes from reclaiming who we are.

✨ This week's reflection:

What part of your story are you finally ready to reclaim as your own?

Thank you for continuing to build this Reflection Community with me. Your presence, your reflections, and your encouragement make these conversations meaningful.

Wherever today's reflection meets you...

we're glad you're here.

🤎 Keep Reflecting.

🤎 Keep Healing.

🤎 Keep Becoming.

🌱 Stay Mindful.

📚 After listening, I encourage you to spend a few moments with Nikki Giovanni's Ego Tripping and continue the reflection.

🌅 Episode 4 is Live!

The Courage to Rise

Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" Through the Lens of Marriage & Family Therapy

What happens after we've acknowledged our pain?

What comes after we've laid the mask down?

In this episode of Ask Mindful M, we explore Maya Angelou's timeless poem Still I Rise through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy, reflecting on resilience, healing, relationships, and the courage to begin again.

Together we'll consider how hope is often nurtured in connection with others, why healing doesn't erase our story but changes how we carry it, and how gratitude can become part of our journey forward.

✨ This week's reflection:

What part of you is quietly learning to rise again?

Thank you for being part of the Reflection Community.

Wherever today's reflection meets you...

we're glad you're here.

🤎 Keep Reflecting.

🤎 Keep Healing.

🤎 Keep Becoming.

🌱 Stay Mindful.

Read Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise":

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise

🎙️ Episode 3 | Behind the Smile: The Masks We Wear

What happens when the masks that once protected us begin to keep us from being fully known?

In this episode of Ask Mindful M, we explore Paul Laurence Dunbar's timeless poem, We Wear the Mask, through the lens of Marriage & Family Therapy. Together, we reflect on emotional protection, family patterns, authenticity, and the healing that becomes possible when we no longer have to hide.

This week's Reflection Card asks:

What masks have helped you survive...that you no longer need to wear?

There isn't a right answer.

Only an invitation.

📖 Featured Poem:

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/we-wear-the-mask

✨ Wherever today's reflection meets you, I am glad you're here.

Thank you for being part of the Reflection Community.

🤎 Keep Reflecting.

🤎 Keep Healing.

🤎 Keep Becoming.

🌱 Stay Mindful.

Hold Fast: Dreams Worth Keeping

In this episode of the Spoken Word Summer Series, we reflect on Langston Hughes' Dreams through the lens of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Though only eight lines long, Hughes' poem reminds us that dreams are essential—not only to individuals, but to families and communities. Together, we'll explore how hope is nurtured in relationships, how dreams become part of our legacy, and why holding fast to possibility is an act of resilience.

Whether you're a clinician, student, or someone simply seeking encouragement, this conversation invites you to pause, reflect, and consider the dreams that continue to shape your life.

📖 Featured poem:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/159534/dreams-5d8ab35e41e56