How I Spent My Summer "Vacation."
It wasn't very relaxing, but it was very fulfilling! Click to see why.
This morning we got the notification of my son’s first grade teacher, which means it’s officially official: summer is coming to a close. I feel like the transition in seasons is a great invitation to look back to see the progress made over. Since it’s also been a been a minute (or two) since I last shared an article on this platform, there’s a lot to recap! Apologies for that, but I swear, I have a good reason:
I passed the Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist exam!
I can’t remember if this is something I’ve written about, but I submitted my application at the beginning of April, heard back that I had been approved mid-April, and applied to take the exam at the end of April, and gave myself exactly two months to do it.
Immediately after we concluded the 2nd annual Diabetes + Mental Health Conference, I spent the majority of my working + waking hours glued to my study materials.
And now here I am, a CDCES, LMFT, T1D. That’s… a lot of letters.
But wait, there’s more!
I also spent this summer attending two diabetes conference that I had not gone to in-person in nearly a decade: the ADA Scientific Sessions in San Diego and the ADCES Annual Meeting in Houston. I’ll have more of an update on these conferences soon! I am still catching up on some sessions that I missed via the on-demand feature.
At the ADCES conference, I had the privilege of speaking on diabetes and mental health at two separate sessions and exhibited on behalf of the Diabetes + Mental Health Conference, with my friend and colleague Anna Sabino. Anna is an expert in adolescents and families coping with diabetes. We gave one session on how CDCESs can support mental health within a diabetes clinic appointment, and a second session on the newly diagnosed transitional period (you’ll be hearing me talk about this more!).
(Yes, it’ll be back next year! Yes, you should join the registration notification list!)
It was so wonderful to see so many friends and colleagues after so long. It was also very validating to hear from other professionals about how they see mental health impacting their patients and clients.
My experiences at the conferences this summer and my time studying for the exam continued to help shape the kind of work I want to do as a CDCES with a mental health background. But it wasn’t until I was recently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear that something synthesized in my brain.
I was reading the introduction and he described his book as an “operating manual.” And I thought, that’s exactly what I need to work on. But not just another how-to book keeping blood sugars in range. A real how do I live with this book!
A “how do I live with diabetes, with all the ups and downs, all the frustrations, all the changes, all the factors and variables, all the emotions, all the stuff.”
So you may have noticed that, in an attempt to better align with my values and my mission, this corner of the diabetes online universe was renamed to “How to Live with Diabetes.”
Emphasis on live.
My goal is to make this newsletter more active again, with weekly newsletters on a variety of “how to” topics. If you have an idea for “how to” do something or navigate something, please send me the suggestion!
Half of the newsletters will still be free, and the other half will be for paid subscribers. Monthly subscriptions are $5, and a year subscription is now $30. Subscriptions help to support the work that I do here and on Instagram, as well as support some of the free webinars I’ll be hosting.
My first webinar on Wednesday, August 23 is “How to Build Your T1D Toolbox” where we’ll talk about identifying all of the D-tools, what they do and the best ways to use them. If you have registered, you can do that here!
If you need support in living with diabetes, I do have opening for virtual diabetes education and coaching. If you don’t live in Minnesota, I can’t be your therapist, but I continue to provide diabetes education and coaching. There is no requirement to commit to a package, so you can feel confident knowing that you’ll only pay for what you need. Reply to this email to book a session or click here.