We’re Teton Valley’s teachers and construction workers; farmers and nurses; restaurant servers and realtors; fishing guides and government employees. We believe our valley is stronger when we prioritize our mental health and talk about it openly without any shame or fear. Our individual minds are all threads of a different color, but woven together we form the strong fabric that is ONE VALLEY.

I practice mental wellness by prioritizing activities like getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, exercising, spending time in nature, and practicing mindfulness.

I originally began prioritizing my mental health at the behest of my then partner, as it had been having detrimental impacts on my relationship at the time. At first, I was doing it for somebody else and not myself. Moving to the Valley in 2021 certainly helped me climb out of a depressive slump, but even though I was in a good place (physically and mentally), I made a point to find resources and supports here in the Valley as taking care of your mental health involves caring for yourself even in the best of times. Prioritizing my mental health consists of getting outside to run or just being in the great outdoors, eating healthy, and spending time with good people. More recently I've gotten into a better routine of taking time to write down my thoughts and taking time to breathe and center myself. It's all a work in progress. 

I learned at very young age that if my mental health and well-being is not good, then I cannot help anyone else.

After the suicide of my oldest son I began prioritizing my mental health, which for me meant setting a lot of goals for myself and enjoying my work. Someone in every county and state needs to know they are listened to!

I lacked any and all coping skills to handle my best friend's murder in a foreign country in 2014. I found the absolute bottom of life. Thankfully, I found the right therapist to help me learn coping skills to move forward. Now I start the day with a powerful routine. In order, I wake before sunrise, drink a huge glass of warm lemon water, walk with my dogs and cats and see the sunrise (a lot of research is backing this practice), make a latte, meditate and then journal. Every. Single. Morning. I also go to bed at the same time every night and put my phone down at least an hour before bed. Additionally, I see my therapist twice a month and am not afraid to say NO to what doesn't resonate with my higher self.

After my first year of college, I realized that I did not like the feeling of staying up all night, drinking too much and feeling like crap. I decided to take a semester on a NOLS course in Baja. This taught me the importance of being outside in quiet, remote spaces. It helped me regain confidence and respect for my mental health. Even now, when I feel unbalanced, I go outside, by myself and simply exist without interruption. It is my medicine.

When I first experienced anxiety and depression it took me so long to deal with it because I didn't want to be seen as weird or crazy. But finally addressing it was the best thing I ever did, and life became a LOT better once I learned how to deal with it and make the necessary changes to be healthy. Now I spend lots of time with friends and family, I exercise and explore outside, and I've worked hard to create a career that I love to get up for every day. 

Every day I prioritize my mental health by pausing to close my eyes and focus on my breath... even if only for 60 seconds at a time. Every thoughtful and intentional breath helps!

I love my job working as a first responder, but it’s had its sobering moments over the years. We respond to people in some of their worst moments. Those calls can be hard to process and have a lasting impact on us throughout our careers. Living in this small community, we’ve had some big losses - moving forward from some of those experiences early on required a lot of work and focus on how I process hard things and restore my own mental health when life isn’t feeling easy.

My mental health can often times have an even bigger impact on others than on myself. My family are the most important people in my life, and their health and wellness can directly depend on my own and how I may be affecting them. That’s incredibly important to me, so I work hard to stay on top of it.

I lost a dear friend to depression and didn't recognize the depth of her mental suffering. I vowed to be better prepared to help others. When stress threatens to get out of control, I try to focus on a pressing task and get it done. Then I reward myself with a walk or ski in a favorite natural setting away from other people.

My son dying was a turning point in choosing to prioritize mental health. Now I go to counseling, attend church, read, take baths, exercise, and try to not avoid difficult conversations. 

A few years ago I came to terms with the fact that I was in bad shape. I was tired all the time, apathetic, had low self esteem, and was constantly comparing myself to those around me. After talking to my doctor, and some close friends, I started on a low dose of medication. It's hard to explain how it changed the gears in my brain, but the biggest difference was that I started to feel OK with who I was. I felt comfortable in my own skin - almost as if a switch had been flipped from negative thought patterns to positive ones. I have become a huge advocate for de-stigmatizing mental health in our culture. If you break your arm, you'd probably go to the doctor to put it back together. If you have high blood pressure, chances are you're taking a medication to keep it in balance. Why then, when the chemical balance in your brain is out of whack, do we feel a hesitancy to approach it in the same manner? Life is hard, but we don't have to go it alone. Here's to asking for help, and here's to feeling good about who we are, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.

In the midst of raising three kids, I am aware - now more than ever - of the importance and necessity to actively tend to my mental health. My best self will help foster their best selves. In this season, that looks like working outside the home, planning lots of date nights, getting outdoors, making time to read, deepening my friendships, growing as a musician, and exercising daily mindfulness. 

I prioritize my mental health so I can be a calm, kind and productive mayor and citizen in our community! 

I prioritize me mental health by living each moment with purpose and attempting to live a virtuous life. Prayer, horses and family also help!

Realizing/having it pointed out that I’m High Functioning Autistic was a turning point for me. Understanding that I’m not typically even aware of the emotions I’m having, let alone how I’m expressing them, or that I can’t read other people very well all has given me an amazing tool box for better navigating the world and my relationships. I take time through my day to consciously think about what I am needing and feeling. I also have a career that allows me to do what I genuinely love every damn day!

I prioritize my mental health by making sure I do less "shoulds" and more "would love to! It's a choice that gets made, challenged, and made anew every day. The more we choose to actually be in and for our community this way, the easier it is for everyone to find joy and solace in the course of every day encounters. 

Meaningful relationships, physical activity and prioritizing working with a mental health professional on a regular basis all help me maintain positive mental health. It's important for our community to remember that asking for mental or emotional help shouldn't be any more complicated than asking for a tug out of the snowbank.

Mental health is a key component of overall wellness. I believe it means that it means we are balanced in our emotions, cognitive processes, social interactions, and perceptions. One does not have to be happy all the time to be mentally healthy. Just like dietary health, variety is key. I practice mental wellness by saying no when I don’t have any more bandwidth and by preventing myself from comparing myself to others. 

The first time I was acutely aware that I needed to attend to my mental health was after my mom's death when I was twenty-two. Seeing a counselor, which was not something my family did, changed the course of my life. I'll always be grateful for gathering up the courage to get professional help. 

Stress and trauma lead to a point where anxiety was stopping me from living the life I wanted to on a daily basis. Through a great support system I got the help I needed and was able to get back on track to a healthy mental life. I couldn't have done it without prioritizing mental health. I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without it. I usually do mindfulness exercises daily, both morning and night. Taking time for it every day, just like eating or sleeping, is really important to me.

La salud mental es muy importante en nuestra comunidad de Teton Valley. Pero más específico nuestras comunidades más vulnerables cómo son las comunidades Latinas. 

During the first year of marriage living together with the love of my life I was irritable and crying a lot and unable to put words to my huge feelings. And then the struggle to regulate emotions in places where it was appropriate to regulate them, i.e., crying at work. During these different turning points, the state of my mental health interfered with work, school, and/or my relationships. I realized if I didn't seek help I would lose these very important parts of my life. Finding the right mental wellness practices and treatment that work for me has taken a lot of trial and error over the years. My toolkit has grown and what I use doesn't look the same every season. Medication, therapy, vitamins, accountable friends and family, moving my body, proper rest, sunshine and Trader Joes are all part of my toolkit. We don't have to pretend like we have it all together. I grew up thinking that and have come a long way and put in a lot of work to compassionately show up for myself when life is hard.

I see Teton Valley as a metaphor of the mental health pressures and risks of my profession. Veterinarians handle a lot of daily pressure and stress while also being very alone and isolated when it comes to others understanding the pressures we face. We have huge school debt, low profit margin, emotional drain, long work hours and everyone wants us to always be at our very best. Teton Valley is full of go-getters who are often the type of people that seek challenging adventure, excelling at sports, independence and the tenacity to live in an isolated and harsh climate compared to other communities. We all love it here and everyone expects us to, just like in my profession. This leads to what I see as an above normal risk of feeling alone or feeling like a failure purely by the type of people that this community harbors. Also we are supposed to not just be happy but be tough so nobody wants to admit their struggles. Remembering that we are all human if we can see how our own mental health is affected we can acknowledge the benefit of it's importance within ourselves and try to help others do the same to make our whole community healthier. I try very hard to stay aware of this in my profession as well. I can't expect others to cut me a little slack unless I'm doing that for them sometimes as well.

Living in a mountain town can come with a sense of adventure, wonder and implication that life is great because you've chosen to live here.  While this can be true, it also comes with harsh realities like isolation, high living costs, housing shortages, limited career opportunities and suicide rates that are higher than the national average.  I find that I feel most connected to my community when I am able to talk to my friends, coworkers and neighbors about all the feelings that come with living here. I'm usually reminded that others feel the same pressures that I do. Being part of a community means that on some level, we can all connect on the good things and the bad things. Being able to talk honestly about both is what has allowed me to feel seen and understood by the people in life and the Teton Valley community as a whole.

For those of us who work in Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, and healthcare, we are too often called upon when life becomes so overwhelming for someone that they can't see a way forward. Life is hard, winters are long, spring can seem so far away in life and this Valley.... having a Community-based approach to providing mental health resource in Teton Valley is paramount in helping all of us be resilient and feel supported in difficult times.

I prioritize my mental health by choosing to love where i live, lots of hobbies, curating strong inter personal relationships, staying in touch with my family, being outside, pets, and having a career I’m passionate about. We are a small community that needs to be able to help support itself and the community within. Lots of folks moved here to have more space and independence, but we’re all human and need connection and support sometimes.

It's not always going to be easy, but being realistic with myself and those around me regarding what capacity for challenge and tolerance for adversity I can sustain has led me to feel rewarded by accomplishments and put my failures in prospective to learn from them. Some of the ways I take care of my mental health are: appreciating the amazing people and places we have around us, supporting and asking for support when things are going well, being honest and talking about challenges openly, and breaking down daunting problems into component pieces and celebrating milestones along the way.

I grew up in a family with loving parents who provided me with so many opportunities to thrive in life and also struggled with myriad aspects of their own mental wellness - depression, anxiety, suppressing emotions, substance abuse, addressing their own traumas in life. Mental health was something we started talking about early in my life. Prioritizing mental health has been a lifelong journey and evolution for me with numerous experiences and incidents that have helped define the path.

At some point during a very hard life transition that involved a lot of change, I realized I wasn't going to be able to think my way out of my worries and problems. I sought out counseling and it changed everything about my self awareness and gave me the skills I needed to make changes without being so stressed and anxious.

Shortly after I graduated from college in 2017, my older brother passed away unexpectedly. I spent the next several years working through the deepest grief I had ever experienced, working relentlessly to find my way back to a healthy mental state. A few years into my work on that grief, my partner and I had a difficult but necessary check-in: I felt like I was in a great place, comparatively, to where I had been – but my partner knew that I still had a ways to go. In a very supportive and loving conversation, he told me "You're doing a lot better, but I think there is still work to do for you to be your best self."  Having that check in from someone that I knew supported and loved me unconditionally was invaluable. It was the conversation that made me realize that I did have work to do, and that I needed to keep working on my mental health not only for myself, but for the people that I love. In the years since, I've come to embrace mental wellness as a part of daily life – not a practice that's reserved for getting through hard times. Practicing and caring for my mental wellness in my every day life is a large part of what gives me the fortitude and strength to withstand the difficult times. 

In mountain towns and particularly in rural America, many people have the "do it yourself" mentality and pride themselves on self-reliance. While self-reliance is valuable, it is just as valuable to lean on our community – both our immediate community and our community at large – when we are in need. 

A turning point in choosing to prioritize my mental health was experience with acute compassion fatigue (a variant of PTSD). I use every available resource to practice me mental wellness, such as a balanced diet, regular exercise, avoiding drugs and alcohol, mindful meditation, having a balanced workload & a lot of playtime. Be cognizant of warning signs for anxiety, depression & be honest & willing to utilize available resources. 

Realizing one day that I could not physically get off the floor was a turning point for me. I was able-bodied, going to work and raising kids. However, when I had time to myself all I could do was lay on the floor. The side effects of depression (anger, exhaustion, imposter syndrome etc..) was limiting my ability to connect with my family and friends. I knew that how I was acting/feeling was effect my parenting, my relationship with my husband and my ability to excel at work.  life is short and I knew if I didn't figure "this" out, I would get to the end of life and know I wasted it. Now I physically move my body every day, add veggies to every meal, and making sure I connect with my family and friends even if I don't "feel" like it.

I started thinking about my mental health when I noticed that the mental health challenges I was experiencing were negatively affecting my romantic relationship and my relationship with my own self worth. I realized the best path forward was seeking professional help. Talking to an unbiased individual has been pivotal in helping me understand myself and how to move forward with creating healthy relationships all around. So much of the Teton Valley community prioritizes physical health. I would argue that mental health is equally, if not even more important for our longevity as happy humans. 

A turning point for me in prioritizing mental health was experiencing post-partum depression. In my experience, Teton Valley is unique in having an abnormal amount of tragedy and trauma. Thus, mental health is important in Teton Valley because it helps us to come together in community and strengthen our resilience so that we can navigate life’s curve balls and create positive life experiences. I practice mental wellness by eating lots of vegetables, enjoying the outdoors, prioritizing rest, connecting with close friends and having alone time.

We lost our daughter in a tragic accident 15 years ago, a month later the stress of the event took a toll on my health. It was then that I learned to start managing my stress and to sort through what really mattered and what was just excess baggage that could be left behind. It helped me focus on the people and experiences that were important in my life. I prioritize my mental health now by staying active AND by recognizing when I am not have a good day. Rather than sitting back and dwelling on what is not going well or on what I have lost, I will challenge myself to move forward. To push myself to reach a new goal. And sometimes by just cranking up some Joe Cocker tunes loud enough to rattle the windows in the house. 

I started to prioritize my mental health when I truly became aware of my anxiety. Receiving a diagnosis of prenatal and postpartum anxiety was incredibly helpful in allowing me to recognize and name my experience, and I was able to then seek out the support I needed. I take medication to help with my anxiety and make it a priority to spend time doing things that fill my cup, which is often being in nature or spending time with people who support me (ideally both at the same time!).

Getting very sick after graduate school and realizing that my perfectionist way of doing life was not sustainable anymore was a turning point for me. I now have people in my life who support me, go out in nature, don't over-load myself by saying no.

My turning point directly correlated with the traumatic brain injury (TBI) I suffered after crashing my mountain bike in 2019. Weeks after my crash I slowly started slipping into a severe state of depression, anxiety, and panic. As the months wore on, vision, executive functioning, memory, gut health, and emotional regulation issues piled on. I was caught in a massive downward spiral and am still amazed and grateful every day that I managed to slowly dig myself out of it. Since I have recovered, I take my mental health and brain health very seriously and have put that at the top of my priority list on a daily basis. I know how dark it can get and never want my brain to get that sick again. Now I try hard to do whatever I can to keep my brain healthy these days: get enough sleep, allow myself to rest, eat health anti-inflammatory foods, exercise, limit stressful interactions with others, regulate what kind of things I read or watch on TV, invest time in a strong community of friends, and go to therapy to help process my emotions. 

Fitness/ & outdoor exercise used to be my primary tool for managing my mental health; however in older years and especially thru rehabbing injuries I had to learn (in some cases thru quite a lot of set backs) that I needed a much broader tool box to keep my mental wellness in good shape. Things like Meditation Apps, writing, gardening, learning a musical instrument, cooking, and THERAPY! 

I feel breaking down stigmas especially in Resort Towns about Mental Health is very critical. Often times we/I beat ourselves down by feelings of I don't know why I feel this way, I live in a Vacation Town that everyone visits. The reality is that these feelings affect everyone and I think with just a little bit of awareness it can really help open the aperture of vulnerability and seeing humans as we are -- imperfect but all unique and with different skills to offer the world. Especially in a ski town! 

I practice mental wellness in a few ways. I spend time with people I appreciate, I meditate, I exercise or do physical labor, I talk about the things that are challenging me and the things I want to accomplish, I spend time outdoors, and I bake. I try to make all of these daily practice… sort of like caring for my mind just as I care for the other parts of my body (like brushing my teeth!). None of it has to be long or arduous, but often a bonus if it is.

A turning point in my mental health was reaching a point in my life where I felt numb to life and was experiencing what was a cumulative effect of not dealing with my mental well being. I now practice balance between work and home and try to do things that are healthy for my mind. I work on being present for those around me. 

The turning point in choosing to prioritize mental health for me was when my anxiety and panic disorder really came to a head. I was suffering from multiple panic attacks a day and medication alone wasn't helping. I needed to talk to someone and was recommended to a therapist who directed me to her partner. EMDR and therapy absolutely saved my life. After moving to the Valley after a horrible heartbreak during the midst of the pandemic, I found myself yet again in need of assistance in addressing my mental health issues. Luckily TVMHC was recommended to me and they were able to help provide me with a connection and 6 free sessions with a fantastic therapist who has helped me in this next step of my journey with my mental health. Every day I have to make the choice to prioritize my mental health. I'm so grateful for the resources available in this Valley to support me in doing so.

My father committed suicide and never got the help he needed. When I lost my own husband in an accident, managing grief in healthy ways became essential to avoid the pitfalls of my own family's history. Seeing a mental health counselor is no different to me than going to my physical therapist when I need to manage a physical injury or my general practitioner if I am having any medical issues. It's all just part of getting support as we navigate being human in order to live a full and healthy life! 

Going through a health crisis when my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer was a turning point for my mental health. Part of my response was wanting to curl up into a ball but I was encouraged to keep exercising, keep walking my dog. Those simple actions didn't solve anything, but helped me feel better and gave me time to rest my mind. Taking care of my physical self goes a long way in feeling mentally well. Prioritizing regular exercise, nutrition and rest are part of my wellness routine. Also taking care of my dog with regular walks outside is a huge benefit mentally.

There were a variety of moments that caused me to take my mental health seriously. When I was a young woman and needing to better understand who I was and who I wanted to become while learning not to own someone else's "stuff." When I was a mother and needing to better understand how to manage the challenges of a challenging kid so I could better support him instead of us both losing our minds, and then as a married couple, as we grew older and our relationships and priorities change, learning how to better listen and move through challenging family dynamics in more healthy, supportive ways. 

My mental health journey began through experiencing a depression for a first time at the age of 55. I now make my mental health a priority by practicing appreciation, compassion and awareness.  

Voices of mental health in Teton Valley

Allison Michalski

Tim Gruber

Sue Heffron

Rex Portman

Boots Knighton

Anna Gunderson

Phil Mollenkof

Alex Bontecou

Becca Parkinson

Allie Mollenkof

Michael Whitfield

Carla Corum

Andy Harlan

Rebecca Vanderhorst

August Christensen

Adam Williamson

Brian White

Ginny Newsom

Tony Ferlisi

Melissa Wilson

Sara White

Gabe Wilson

Monica Carrillo

Alyson Harlan

Maura Connolly Anderson

Sophie Howk

Ed Schauster

Daniel Nagy

Cory McGrath

Jaime Musnicki

Faith Dixon

Katie Cooney

Bob Foster

Charis Schreiber

Rebecca Yaguda

Christina Heilman

Ron Razzolini

Emily Erickson

Lori Lloyd

Lindsay Nohl

Erin Pashley

Caitie Quinn

Mike Maltaverne

Christina LaCombe

Erica Linnell

Erin Burnham

Jeannette Boner

Lucyna Shefter