Speaking Life Into Motherhood ~ Systems, Special Needs Parenting, Rhythms, Child Development, Autism, ADHD, Neurodiversity, Disabilities

46// When You Know Something's Wrong But Don't Know Where to Start

• Season 1 • Episode 46

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Are you stuck in analysis paralysis?

How many tabs do you have open right now researching your child's symptoms? How many times have you Googled "is this normal?" this week? If you're nodding your head—if you KNOW something's off but don't know where to start—this episode is for you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Why exhausted moms don't need more information (they need clarity)
  • My story of fighting for answers when providers dismissed my concerns about my son's sleep
  • The 3-step CLARITY Framework you can use RIGHT NOW to get unstuck
  • How to know if the Priority Plan Clarity Coaching is right for you

The CLARITY Framework:

  1. Collect the Data - Write down all symptoms, what you've tried, and your gut instinct
  2. Look for the Patterns - What keeps showing up? What's impacting daily life most? What's your gut screaming about?
  3. Commit to One Next Step - Choose ONE thing to move forward (not five, not ten—just one)

Announcing: The Priority Plan Clarity Coaching

60-minute one-on-one session where we systematically walk through your child's needs and create a personalized action plan—so you finally know what to do first.

What's Included: ✅ Pre-session detailed questionnaire
✅ 60-minute strategic clarity call
✅ Written Priority Plan with specific next steps
✅ Provider scripts and advocacy tools
✅ 2 weeks of Voxer support

Special Pricing for Podcast Listeners:

  • Normally $197, now $147
  • Limited spots available

Enroll now: speakinglife.co/clarity


While you're here, please leave a quick rating or review! I pray this episode blesses you! Remember, you don't just have to survive mama- you can thrive!

Ready to stop spinning your wheels? If you're stuck in analysis paralysis, exhausted from appointments that aren't helping, or dismissed by providers who won't listen—the Priority Plan Clarity Coaching is for you.

What you get:

  • 60-minute one-on-one strategic clarity call
  • Written Priority Plan with specific next steps
  • Provider scripts & advocacy tools
  • 2 weeks of Voxer support

Normally $197, now $147 with limited spots available. Learn more & enroll → www.speakinglife.co/clarity

Connect with the host: Elyse Scheeler

Elyse Scheeler (00:01)
Hey there, mama. Can I ask you something? How many tabs do you have open right now researching your child's How many times have you typed, this normal, into Google this week? How many providers are sitting in your inbox that you haven't called yet because you don't know if they're the right ones? If you're nodding your head right now, if you're stuck in that place where you know something's just not quite right or maybe something's a little bit off, but you don't know where to start, this episode is for you.

Today I'm going to give you a simple three step framework that you can use right now to start getting unstuck. And I'm also going to share something that I've been working on for moms who are exhausted from those dead end appointments, who've been dismissed by providers and are desperate for someone just to tell them, just start here. So grab your coffee, take a deep breath, and let's talk about what it looks like to move from analysis paralysis to actually knowing what to do next.

Welcome back, mama. Before we dive in, I want to let you know that I am so excited to be reopening my coaching program. It is called the Priority Plan Clarity Coaching. There will be limited spots available and what this is is a 60 minute one-on-one session where we systematically walk through your child's needs together and create a personalized action plan. So you finally know what to do first. If you've been stuck in analysis paralysis,

exhausted from appointments that aren't helping or dismissed by providers who won't listen, this is for you. It's normally 197, but I'm running a special with the new year for 147. Spots are very limited. If you want to jump straight there, go to speakinglife.co backslash clarity right now. But stick around because I'm going to give you a free framework you can use today and I'll tell you more about the coaching later in the episode.

As we get going, let me tell you a quick story. When my son was somewhere around 18 months old, I was exhausted. My husband was exhausted. My son had never slept through the night, not once. We were exhausted, we were desperate, and I knew something was wrong. I knew something was going on. Every provider that I talked to dismissed me. Get him a clock, establish a routine, he'll grow out of it.

I think you're too sensitive. He needs to cry it out. Those are all the things that I heard. But I knew. I knew something was going on. I knew in my heart that he was stopping breathing at night. And after months of fighting for answers, I finally found a provider who specialized in airway health. And within five minutes, she confirmed what I'd been saying all along. Enlarged adenoids, tongue tie, airway issues. I had been right.

If you've heard me share this story before, you know how hard that journey was for me. The dead-end appointments, the wasted money, the sleepless nights, the constant second guessing. But I've realized something through that experience and this is what I want you to hear today. Exhausted moms don't need more information. We don't need another blog post to read. We don't need another Facebook group opinion. We don't need another, well, have you tried suggestion.

What we need is someone who will listen, someone who will look at the whole picture, and someone who will tell us what to do first. I shouldn't have had to fight that hard. I shouldn't have wasted all that time and money on providers who couldn't help. I shouldn't have spent months second-guessing myself. What I needed was someone who could look at the whole picture and just tell me where to start. And that is exactly what I'm offering you today. But before we get to that,

Let me describe what I see happening over and over again in our community. Here's what I hear from moms all the time. That they know something is off or something is just not quite right with their child's development. Maybe it's sleep, maybe it's feeding, maybe it's a speech delay, sensory issues, meltdowns, or behavioral concerns. But these moms don't know which provider to call first. What evaluation do I get? Do I wait and see or do I act now? Is this just a phase or is it something more?

So you do what we all do. You Google. You join Facebook groups. You ask your pediatrician. You get 47 different opinions. And you end up more confused than when you started. So you do nothing. Because doing the wrong thing feels scarier than doing nothing at all. Does this sound familiar? But remember, doing nothing has a cost, too. Every day you stay stuck in overwhelm is another day your child isn't getting what they need.

It isn't... ⁓ It's another day you're drowning. Another day you're researching at 2 a.m. instead of sleeping and resting. And I don't want that for you anymore.

What you need to remember is you don't need more information. You need clarity. You need someone who can look at your child's specific symptoms, your family's capacity, your available resources, and just tell you, start here.

Let's talk about some practical things that you can do this week to get started on that clarity.

Before I tell you more about the coaching program, I want to give you something you can use right now. Even if you never work with me, I want you to walk away from this episode and all of my episodes with a framework or an understanding of things that will help you get unstuck. Today, we're going to call it the clarity framework, and it has three simple steps. Number one, collect the data. The first thing you need to do is get everything out of your head and onto paper. Here's what I want you to do this week.

Take 15 minutes, I know that that feels impossible at times, but I promise it's worth it, and write down three things. First, all of your child's symptoms and struggles. Sleep, feeding, speech, behavior, sensory, social, everything. Do not filter it. Don't worry if it's important enough or not. Just write it all down. Second, what you've already tried. Have you done therapies? Have you done some interventions, strategies, appointments?

What have you done? What worked? What didn't work? Next, your gut instinct. What does your mama gut tell you? Even if providers have dismissed it, even if you're not sure, what is your instinct saying? This step alone will give you so much clarity because when it's all in your head, it feels overwhelming and chaotic. But when you see it on paper, patterns start to emerge. That leads us right into step two. Look for those patterns.

Now that you have everything written down, I want you to ask yourself three questions. The first one, what keeps showing up? If multiple providers have mentioned the same concern, that's a clue. If you keep noticing the same struggle in different contexts, that could be a pattern. Next, what's impacting your daily life the most? And I really want you to think about this, not what sounds the most serious.

not what other people think you should address. What is actually making life hardest for your child and for your family right now? Number three, what's your gut screaming about? I am very serious on this one. If there's one thing you can't stop thinking about, that's probably where you need to start. Here's an example. Maybe your child has speech delays, is a picky eater, and has sleep struggles. All three are concerns.

But if you look at the pattern, you realize that the sleep struggles are impacting everything. Your child is exhausted, which makes eating harder and communication harder. And mom has a more difficult time getting through the day and supporting her kiddo because she's not sleeping well either. Well, then that's your starting point, sleep.

Third, commit to just one next step. This is where I know I have gotten stuck and many moms get stuck.

You've identified the problem, but now you're overwhelmed by all the things you could do. But here's what I want you to do. Choose one next step. Just one, not five, not 10, one. Maybe it's calling one specific provider, getting an evaluation scheduled, trying one accommodation at home, asking one specific question at your next appointment. That's it. One step forward.

Because remember, you don't have to have the whole plan figured out. You just need to know what to do first. And once you start taking that first step, the next step will become even clearer.

I knew I threw that at you really fast. Take some time this week, re-listen to the episode to go through those three simple steps and see if you can come up with one next step.

Now, if that seems tricky...

which often it does, and you're thinking, I can't do this by myself. I need someone who's gonna walk through this with me, someone who understands child development, who can see the patterns that I'm missing, who can tell me which providers to call and what questions to ask. Well, that's exactly what I'm offering.

in our priority plan clarity coaching session, which I'm limiting to just a handful of families right now so I can really give you the personalized attention you deserve.

you will find that clarity. will work through it together to help you figure out those next steps. Here's how it works. Before our call, you'll complete a very detailed questionnaire, like set aside some time for this, mom. I definitely was very thorough in setting it up. The questionnaire is going to help me understand your child's symptoms, your concerns, what you've tried, and what resources you have available. Then we'll meet for 60 minutes virtually, and we're going to go systematically through what your child needs together.

I'm gonna help you identify what to prioritize because we can address everything at once. We'll look at the patterns that you might have been missing. We'll create a very clear action plan for what to do first, second, and third. And you'll feel like you know which providers to contact and what to ask them. I also want you to be able to feel very confident advocating without being dismissed as you move forward.

After a call, you'll receive a written priority plan with specific next steps, provider recommendations, advocacy scripts you can use when you're talking to doctors or therapists, and then you get two weeks of voxer access to meet. So you can ask questions, get encouragement, and troubleshoot as you start implementing your plan.

So who is this coaching for? If you are stuck in that analysis paralysis and you don't know where to start, if you are exhausted from appointments that aren't helping, if you've been dismissed by providers who won't listen, if you're spending hours researching and you feel even more confused, if you know something's off but you're not sure if it's quote unquote serious enough, or if you're ready to just stop second guessing and start moving forward, this is for you.

This coaching might not be for you if you've already got a clear plan and you're making progress with the right providers. If you're not ready to take action and implement the next steps,

or if you want someone to tell you that everything is fine when you know it's not.

So what makes this different from other coaching? Well, I'm not just a coach. I'm a speech-language pathologist with training in child development. I've sat in hundreds, if not thousands, of IEPs at this point. I understand typical versus atypical development. I know how to write goals, track progress, and identify what's within normal range and what needs attention. But I honestly feel what's most important is that I am a mom who has been there. I've been dismissed by those providers.

I've wasted money on dead end appointments. I've Googled at 2 a.m.

I know what it's like to feel crazy. So I bring both clinical experience and lived experience.

But here's what I want you to know. I am not the perfect parent. I do not have all the answers to every situation.

But what I'm really good at is looking at the big picture, analyzing what's happening and supporting mamas with empathy to figure out what's next. I'm not going to tell you what worked for my kid and expect it to work for yours. I'm going to help you look at your child's unique symptoms, your family's capacity, your resources, and create a plan that works for you. That's my gift. Seeing patterns, asking the right questions, holding space for your concerns, while helping you create a clear path forward.

I really feel strongly about utilizing the gifts that God has given us for His glory and for His good.

And after a year of doing this podcast and providing support, I really truly feel that I now have clarity and know exactly what I'm supposed to do to minister to those other Christian moms, to lift them up in Jesus' name.

I pray that even if you don't take advantage of the one-on-one coaching, that you have gained something from listening to these podcasts that you feel like you can take and better yourself and your family with. So, what's the investment?

Normally the coaching is $197, but right now I'm offering it at a special discount of $147. The thing to remember is that right now spots are very limited. I can only work with a handful of families at a time because I want to give each family my full attention. I have a full caseload in my private practice as well, and I really want to be able to provide the absolute best for each and every family. I don't want to have to rush through calls. I don't want to give you a cookie cutter plan.

I want to really understand your situation and create something that works for you. So when the spots are gone, they're gone.

If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and finally get the clarity that you've been desperate for, go to speakinglife.co backslash clarity right now and enroll. You'll be able to fill out your questionnaire, schedule your call, and we'll work on getting that priority plan all created for you.

Before we go, I wanna leave you with this.

James 1 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. God has been giving you wisdom this whole time. That mama gut? That instinct that something's going on? That's God speaking to you. You are not crazy. You're not overreacting. And you don't have to figure this out alone.

Whether you enroll in the Priority Plan Clarity Coaching or not, or just use the framework, I want you to take one step forward this week. Just one.

You deserve clarity, mama. Your child deserves the right support. And your family deserves to stop living in overwhelm. Let's make 2026 the year you move from chaos to clarity, from overwhelm to action. You've got this. And if you need me, I'm here. Until next time, keep speaking life.