SSRIs can be helpful, even life-saving, for some. But for many others, their negative side effects and lack of efficacy leave clients feeling stuck - staying on them doesn’t make them feel better but when they try to get off they feel worse.

Mona Adamszek, psychiatric nurse practitioner, specializes in ‘deprescribing’, the process of slowly titrating along with lifestyle changes to help you get through the withdrawal symptoms. Adding nutritional and nutraceutical changes, with guidance from Cyndi, can make this process easier.

The topic of psychiatric medications doing harm continues to be ‘taboo’ in the mainstream media which is why I was surprised, in a good way, to see the New York Times write a front-page article (that appeared on-line on Sunday August 28, 2022) titled “This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone: Increasing, anxious and depressed teens are using multiple, powerful psychiatric drugs, many of them untested in adolescents or for use in tandem” by Matt Richtel. He weaves in stories from several people who were prescribed a ‘cascade’ of pharmaceutical combinations as teenagers along with statistics and evidence around the increase in psychiatric medication prescribed for adolescents and teenagers even though they have not been formally approved by the FDA for this age group.

It is estimated that 15 million Americans suffer from depression. If you’re one of them, you may be surprised to know that diet plays an important role in mental health. So much so, that is has inspired an entire field of medicine called nutritional psychiatry. And the gut plays a key role.

When the time and resources came up to redesign the website and logo I found Shaina Longstreet of Dawn & Delight through a referral and, in my opinion, she did a fantastic job of capturing and showcasing Flourish’s essence, values and holistic approach to mental wellness.

Our goal with the website is the same as our goal for mental wellness treatment - we want you to feel seen and heard while also attuning to and nurturing the signals your whole body is sending you.

At Flourish we encourage our people to be mindful of the fats that show up in their food as not all fats are good for your body and brain. For instance, most conventional fats are seed oils and high in Omega 6 fats which can be inflammatory to the brain and body.

The dressing recipe below is an ideal way to incorporate healthy fats into your diet. The dressing is easy to make and delicious! It’s also helpful in eliminating toxic oils like canola, corn, soybeanwhich are found in most store bought dressings.

If you have found yourself in the cycle of trauma, indigestion and eventual microbiome imbalance, you can reverse this cycle. A big part of rebuilding our microbial health lies with food. Our food choices choices can relieve our symptoms as they also reshape our gut microbiome and trauma response.