This episode focuses on mental wellness, with guest Denise Rickenbach MA LMFT LADC.

Denise is an Adlerian-trained Licensed Marriage and Family therapist as well as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC). Denise’s interests include addiction, codependency, family systems, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, grief, life transitions, and strained relationships. She was a speaker at the 2025 United in Hope conference and is the sister of PWSA | USA's beloved family support coordinator – Kristi Rickenbach.

Kristi and Denise both joined Carrie and Anne on this episode on mental wellness to talk about what addictive behavior may look like and why parents of individuals with disabilities are perhaps more likely to develop these. They also discuss caregiver burden, setting limits – why and how, negative comparison vs perspective taking, disenfranchised grief, and more.

Links to resources mentioned in the podcast:

Caregiver Burden and Alcohol Use in a Community Sample - PMC

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

The Anxious Generation — from a book to a movement

Addiction Expert, Speaker and Best-selling Author Dr. Gabor Maté