We offer peer-to-peer support for parents whose teens and young adults are dealing with mental health issues. Attend one of our three monthly virtual meetings and discover a caring and comforting community.
Upcoming Support Groups
Parents of Teens and Tweens
Monthly Parent Support Groups
​​Saturdays: 2:00PM - 4:00PM (Virtual)​
Next Meeting Dates (click dates to register):
Parents of Older Teens and Young Adults (18 to 38 years)
Monthly Parent Support Groups
Tuesdays: 7:00PM - 9:00PM (Virtual)
Next Meeting Dates (click date to register):
We usually suggest a $10 donation for Family Sanity Meetings to help cover our administrative costs. Please contact founder Lisa Scimens to request financial assistance lisascimens@gmail.com.
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Family Sanity is truly a volunteer run organization. Our facilitators, our parent coach, and our founder all work without compensation. Our operating costs have increased dramatically this year, so please donate whatever you can.
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To donate via check, contact founder Lisa Scimens at lisascimens@gmail.com for the mailing address.
From Our Founder
The unseen emotional and relational work of raising a child quietly shapes the world they grow up in. And when our children face their own life-altering moments, as so many of them do, we are shaped too. We are broken open, actually.
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In the midst of the chaos, there is an invitation most of us miss: to shed the roles of mother and father and remember who we actually are. Not the parent who fixes, manages, and holds everything together, but the self beneath all of that.
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​This is what a spiritual path offers. Not religion. Not doctrine. Not a place of worship you may or may not feel at home in. Something older and quieter than that... a remembering. And this helps your child, your parenting from a new lens and perspective.
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On July 22nd, we are hosting our first podcast:
"Is There A Spiritual Side of Parenting."
This talk is for you if:​
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You've wondered whether there's something more sustaining than just getting through the week
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You're parenting a child or young adult navigating mental health challenges, and you're running on empty
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You consider yourself spiritual but don't know how to deepen it
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You don't consider yourself spiritual at all — and you're curious
You don't need more information. You need a path back to yourself. Come find out what that might look like.​
Hope to see you,
Lisa
Bay Area Parent Support Group Forum
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If you would like to communicate with parents like you about special programs,RTC’s, schools, etc. in between our Family Sanity meetings, there is a San Francisco-based group that provides a listserv that is very helpful. It is run by Lisa Eltinge (lisaeltinge@aol.com) and it is tied to NAMI. Just click on this link http://www.tinyurl.com/Bay-Area-Parent-Forum" or use the following QR Code to sign up:
Parenting Blogs
Motherhood as a Spiritual Path through Mental Health Awareness
by Shelley Karpaty
My search for healing and spirituality took flight in motherhood after my son's birth in 2002. Well, things never turn out how you’d imagine them to go, and he landed back in the hospital for a six-week NICU stay with a pile of medical ambiguity. And after the trauma was neatly tucked away somewhere in my body for many years, I learned and continue to learn how to manage the peaks and valleys of anxiety that motherhood brings.
I fought for my own identity alongside motherhood. And with a handful of tumultuous, heartbreaking years in many moments of fear and surrender in parenting, I have learned more about myself than I ever would have without him.
Something New!
Family Sanity, The Podcast
Wednesday, July 22, 6PM​​
On Wednesday, July 22 at 6pm, please join us for a very special, FREE, Family Sanity Event:
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“Is There A Spiritual Side to Parenting?"
(And would it help?)
Do you consider yourself spiritual? If not, do you think it might help you be a “better parent?” Or like some of us with– children/teens/young adults with mental health and other issues–do you feel you just don’t have the time or knowledge to be so?
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Would it help you as an individual–a parent/ spouse as well as your child and family–to be more spiritual? We aren’t talking about being religious, going to a place of worship, etc. Just being more spiritual.
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There are many ways to develop your spiritual side. Maybe it's by walking in the woods or exploring nature, journaling, or meditating. We hear a lot about “being mindful”, but what are the ways we can do this?
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Please join us on Wednesday, July 22 at 6pm for a special evening via zoom with Shelley Karpaty, Parent/Mentor/Certified Mindfulness Guide who will help us develop our spiritual sides of parenting. A regular Family Sanity meeting will follow from 7-pm. All parents are invited.
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*The event will be recorded and available as a Podcast later this summer. More details soon.
Keep Up-to-Date on our
Meetings and Special Activities
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Did you know Family Sanity has a newsletter? It comes out the first week of the month, plus we send a few reminders and updates about what’s going on. It’s a great way to make sure you don’t miss meetings or events like our upcoming walks and luncheons around the Bay. Also, if you want to introduce a friend to our group, you can simply forward it to them.
New! Mentoring Services
If you did not make it to our recent special event on Mentoring, you may want to visit our new Mentoring Services page in our Resources. The two mentors who presented at the event are listed along with a plethora of other ones. Some are Bay Area oriented and others work virtually with teens and young adults across the nation. A few actually mentor parents, as well. To find out more about mentoring, which is a very valuable service for many people, click here to visit this Family Sanity resource.
Testimonials
"Family Sanity has been a lifesaver for me raising 2 teenagers and now young adults as a single mom. I don’t have a great support system, and my siblings / acquaintances really have no idea about raising neuro-divergent kids."