The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Think of this podcast as your very own special needs mom support group--except it's helpful and fun! You will leave with the hope that you can have a super happy life even when your life includes parenting a medically complex child or a child with something like autism and ADHD.

You likely didn't ask to be the parent of a disabled child or to live portions of your life in the hospital NICU or PICU. Your story is unique; it’s hard to find a place where you belong or where you don't feel so isolated and alone. Your child might have a rare disease, be undiagnosed or experience something that almost everybody has heard of like Downs syndrome yet the weird thing is that whether your child has an intellectual disability or physical disability, the experience as a mother is so similar. So regardless of your child’s disability, we can all find a home in this community.

You find yourself managing everybody else's needs; your child, their siblings, and all the guilt that you have about that. All this has you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and dizzy---not knowing who to turn to or what to do next for help. This podcast is your lifeline, you’ll find encouragement and inspiration as we connect to other moms’ journeys. We’ll get practical and look at what it takes to stop feeling so stuck in your life.

You know this podcast is for you if you find yourself googling:

Overwhelmed special needs mom help

How to do self care as a special needs mom?

Dealing with anger as a special needs mom

How to manage special needs mom burnout and stress?

How do I deal with mom's guilt?

Help for myself as a special needs mom

How do I cope with a disabled child?

How do I manage the grief of my medically complex child?

How to keep from drowning as a caregiver

Support group for special needs mom or community for caregivers

I'm tired of taking care of my special needs child

Finding balance between my child’s needs and my own mamas needs

Respite and rest for special needs moms

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The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Together is the Only Way

January 01, 2025 • Kara Ryska

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As 2024 wraps up, I’m reflecting on my son’s incredible progress and the motto that’s guided me: “Together is the only way.” In this quick episode, I share the story behind it and why it means so much.

Looking for more connection in 2025? Check out:

Pathway to Peace Coaching Community – A paid, supportive space for real connection.
Community Huddles – Free, fun calls to meet and grow with others.

Details are at kararyska.com. Together really is the only way—let’s make 2025 amazing!

Connect with Kara, host of The Special Needs Mom Podcast:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespecialneedsmompodcast/
Website: https://www.kararyska.com/

Join the Community:
Pathway to Peace Coaching Community is currently open for enrollment. Instantly get access to authentic community and weekly coaching! Give yourself the gift of growing alongside moms who deeply understand you and will be with you in your joys and sorrows. --------> Learn More HERE

Speaker: 0:05

Hi, I'm Kara, life coach, wife and mom to four incredible and unique children. It wasn't all that long ago that my son received a diagnosis that had my world come crashing down. I lacked the ability to see past the circumstances, which felt impossible. And the dreams I once had for my life and family felt destroyed. Fast forward past many years of surviving and not at all thriving, and you'll see a mom who trusts that she can handle anything that comes her way and has access to the power and confidence that once felt so lacking. I created the special needs mom podcast to create connection and community with moms who find themselves feeling trapped and with no one who really understands. My intention is to spark the flair of possibility. In your own life and rekindle your ability to dream. This isn't a podcast about your special needs child. This is a podcast about you. If you are a mom who feels anxious, alone, or stuck, then you are in the right place. Welcome.

1:14

Hello and welcome to the Special Needs Mom podcast. Here we are. We have arrived at the end of 2024. It's always incredible to reflect on how much happens in a year, especially when it's paired with like how fast it all goes, you know, as I keep getting older. Keeps seeming like it's just speeding up, and it really is kind of a little bit jaw dropping when I look back and see, how much has changed in a year, most notably, I can think about, like, my son's journey with his mobility has been, thankfully, a story of a lot of recovery this year. It wasn't in 2023, it was the opposite. but that's really one of the things I've been reflecting on. And it's pretty incredible. So maybe you have your own process for reflection, maybe more formal, maybe less formal, but I do hope you'll do a little bit of reflection on the past year as you close it out. And actually I think even in the archives, some years I did a little bit more, did episodes that were based specifically on that. So if you're like, I'm in the mood, go back and look at what I have in the new year episode as I reflect and you know, even gather data. Spotify, actually, so you know, the Spotify wrapped how you get this cool little thing. And well, they give you a Spotify wrapped for creators. So Spotify sends me this cool, very brightly colored report, and it was all these different stats about the podcast. And the majority of my listeners don't listen on Spotify. But this report told me that of the Spotify listeners, 75 percent discovered me this year, me as in the special needs mom podcast. So if that's you, if you're like, yeah, I'm new here. Newish. Then welcome. Hello. Come say hello. You might not know. I don't always talk about it and actually I very rarely talk about it, but there is a feature that I have where you can text the show, also known as texting me, but it's actually not like directly through a phone number. So it is anonymous. So actually it can be a way of sharing anonymously, but also it's a great way to say hi. It's easy, right? We all know how to text. We can do this. So I do encourage you to drop me a quick little note. Say hello where you're listening from. Love to hear. I always love to hear. How do you find the podcast and you know, welcome to the community and that's kind of what I want to talk about in this very short episode. That is the aspect of community, but really more so a motto, a slogan, if you will, that I have gone so far as to printing on a t shirt. That motto is, together is the only way. This little saying, or the exact way that these words go, there's a little story that goes with it, and I'll tell you. We were in a really hard season. So this hard season for us was preparing for my son's third brain surgery for yet another brain tumor and also anticipating going into radiation. So we were, you know, in full blazing coach Kara intentional way, along with the encouragement of some really good friends, we decided to essentially have a launch party, a lunch party for Levi, but for our family. So this was a both of a sending off to Levi for doing some really hard things and also a fundraiser for our family. So I sent this email. to this guy named Chris. His name's Chris Lord. How great of a name is that? So I sent this to Chris and I said, I barely knew him. I had to get his email from somebody else and said, Hey, we're having this party. I know you've, you've DJed some a little bit. Would you be willing to DJ this party? And he wrote back an email, pretty, pretty quick response with the most generous response. And in the bottom, in all caps, he wrote, Together is the only way and I remember sitting here at my desk and reading the email and just being so moved and also so like, yeah, like the only way through this is together. Like the only way I can do this is with. other people. I can't do this alone. So it's been something that I've incorporated in. And if you've listened to the last couple community huddles, we've started using it as a chant at the end of the episode, which I particularly think is awesome. a little corny, a little dorky, and I'm all in. So today I ask you to reflect a little bit on this togetherness and actually, specifically how much togetherness you actually experience. Are you experiencing the level of community, aka togetherness that you want? Now, oftentimes when I'm talking on the podcast, I will relate to you as a community. And I think it's because I have a very different vantage point. Because some of you I think are listening, but I don't know that you're experiencing the gift of togetherness. As I was just saying, I have a different vantage point because I actually am in the community. You know, I get to meet with a handful of you every week. So I'm getting to have this togetherness that honestly I want for every single one of you. So, I'm taking this little New Year's Day. No, today actually would be New Year's Eve, but you might be listening on New Year's Day and I just wanted to take this opportunity to put out a very simple, easy to listen to episode, with some ideas on that together experience. So. so the first one would be the Pathway to Peace coaching community. I don't talk about this nearly enough. I'm going to be talking a lot about it in the coming months. And it is a paid community, paid, yet also what I think is very accessible and affordable. And I've been very intentional about that. And it's where we get to be face to face, back and forth conversation, real lives, real smiles, real laughs, real tears, real, you know, driving around together in each other's cars because sometimes guess what? you can't do the call from your house. And it is, I think, where the gift of this community really gets to bloom and blossom. Now, you might be like, Kira, that's a little too much, a little too soon. Alright, I'm not quite ready for that. And, for you, I have the Community Huddles, where you get to come, And I mean, if we were meeting in person, we would huddle. I would make us do it. I would make us put each other's arms around each other, hands in the middle, and we would do a chant in person, but we do the best we can virtually, but a community huddle. You might've listened to some of those episodes is where we actually get together. I host a call where we have conversations back and forth. I guide the conversation. We generally have a theme and it's super fun because we get to, You know, be with people we have never met, or maybe met a couple times and we get to experience the gift of, yep, being together. So those are free. And you might be like, how do I learn about those Kara? but the mystery of how to get on. Has not yet been revealed. Well, I'm revealing it now. I share with the people that are on my email list about these episodes. So wander on over actually for both of these, these things I've mentioned more information, details, links, all the stuff are in the show notes and also on my website. So Karariska. com, K A R A R Y S K A. com. that is how you put those ideas, the things you might've been thinking about as you close this year out and thinking, I want things to be a little different next year while I've given you two ideas, I hope you will consider, and if not these, then I do hope there's something else that you have in mind. And as we close out, as I close out 2024, I'll leave you with this thought. Together is the only way.