Nice to meet ya :-)
Welcome to: From the Inside Out!
To be honest, I wasn’t leaning towards doing an official launch post until recently. I dislike drawing attention to myself in a huge way, but I figured that I already had an “about” section that was way too beefy. I also have already started to draft posts, so I might as well give you guys a formal rundown…
Throughout my personal and professional life, I've noticed how profoundly our inner worlds seep into virtually every area of our lives. As a mental health worker, I find it incredibly ironic how much emphasis modern society puts on self-improvement and wellness ideals while actual self-reflection and real growth get pushed aside.1
I created From the Inside Out (FTIO) because I was tired of the siloed, prescriptive, and dogmatic content saturating the wellness and mental health spaces. This content often ignores a truth glaringly obvious to me and many others: true well-being can't be neatly compartmentalized or sorted into convenient boxes.
The pursuit and maintenance of wellness—physical, mental, and emotional—is nuanced, dynamic, and messy. It involves dedication, intention, and care not only for yourself but for the people and environment around you. Wellness is deeply personal, yet it cannot be isolated from community and society at large.
As I'm growing through my twenties and learning more about the world, myself, and about everything I can, I feel a strong pull to share these insights with you. I've always adored reading blogs and have been avidly journaling since kindergarten—so creating my own blog feels like a natural next step!
What to Expect…
Though this blog will focus on mental health and overall wellness, the topics may bleed into other areas like culture, current events, books, cooking, gardening, nature, and other things that either relate to wellbeing or bring me joy.
My hope is that in reading this blog, you're encouraged to build a life you don't need to escape from and a self you can embrace.
Each post will be a bit of a wild card, but the general themes and content featured in each will look like this:
📝 Essays: Topics will range from creating community, self-care, and exercise to taking accountability or learning to love the in-between. These also may include personal reflections from time to time.
📌 Listicles: Roundups of current good news stories, recommendations from me, and more.
🛠️ Tiny tools: Reflection prompts, grounding practices, and low-to-no-cost resources that I or my clients swear by. It’s a chance for me to pass on practical knowledge and opportunities for reflection/grounding to you.
📚 Good reads: Articles and books I’ve been loving, and other wonderful content that I want to share with you—both on and off of Substack!
✨ Surprise posts: As much as I like the idea of planning the blog, there are a ton of topics that might not fit neatly into the niche of FTIO but still connect to well-being. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t write about them…
I also will refine the blog as I go into something more cohesive.
You can also expect 2-4 posts per month, on Sundays at 7am PST/10am EST. I’ll shoot for a post per week most times, though realistically, I want to give myself enough flexibility so that I can deliver :)
An important note: what you read here on From the Inside Out is not a replacement for therapy, psychiatric care, or any other professional health services. Think of this blog as a space for encouragement, a dose of entertainment/current happenings, and an invitation to deeply reflect on yourself. If you feel you need more personalized support, I highly encourage you to connect with a licensed professional.
Before you go, let me introduce myself…. 🫶
I’m Sophie, a 24-year-old living in the SF Bay Area! In the first couple years out of undergrad, I’ve worked in the mental health field as a residential counselor for a bunch of mental health facilities for clients with Severe Mental Illnesses (SMI).
I also am going to be starting graduate school to be a marriage and family therapist this year, and I can’t wait to hit the ground running! There’s so much progress that needs to be made in the field, and I’m honored to (hopefully) be a part of it someday. When I began working in the field, I had no intention of making a career out of mental health, but here we are!
Though my work is meaningful to me, it is absolutely not the center of my life! Aside from writing (duh), I love going on adventures with my friends and/or partner, hiking with my dog, cooking, and baking gluten free treats.
Anyway, thank you so much for checking the blog out, and I hope you’ll stick around <3
I’d love to find more small and fun Substacks to read—comment yours below :)
I’m open to anything! I’m a curious lady.
To get you started, here are some previous posts for you to peruse:
Life Lessons from the Yooper Mr. Rogers
If you know me, then you probably know of my Grandpa John—who is now your grandpa, too (I don’t make the rules). If you don’t, the cliff notes version of him is if Mr. Rogers had a long lost brother who was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (someone who’s from there is known as a
The self-care scaries.
With the trends of shopping hauls, skincare, and “that girl” morning routines, the era of “self-care” is in full swing. Open up Instagram Reels, Tiktok or Youtube Shorts, and you’re eventually bound to see bite-sized videos of elaborate morning routines, “restocking” (…of what?) and “runnings errands” (…to Starbucks and Target) from a variety of creator…
This isn’t even touching on my massive beef with the mental health/social services industrial complex, which I’m sure we will discuss later.
blessings to your writing/sharing journey :)
may you find that as God helps you "build a life you don't need to escape from and a self you can embrace," the process along the way can be a light to illuminate many others in the truths you find