HOPE IS HERE

Happy New Year from Finding Hope Wellness Center!

As we close the chapter on 2025—a year truly filled with adventure and valuable experiences—we hope your holiday season was abundant with joy, love, and peace. The team at Finding Hope Wellness Center is excited to welcome 2026, a year offering infinite possibilities and renewed HOPE!

Check out some of our stats from the year, that was made possible because of our amazing clients:

• We saw and brought HOPE to over 900 clients and families in 2025! Over 900 scheduled and confirmed visits!

• We had over 150 new clients!

• We added 2 insurances we are in network with!

Important Insurance Updates for the New Year

January is a common time for insurance plans to refresh their coverage details. To ensure a seamless transition for your care:

For Established Clients: If your insurance plan has updated for the new year, please email us the front and back images of your new insurance card at your earliest convenience. This allows us to promptly verify your benefits for 2026 and ensure you are not fully responsible.

For New Clients: We are pleased to announce that for 2026, Finding Hope Wellness Center is accepting new clients with United Healthcare and Aetna insurance plans.

**A Friendly Reminder:** Please note that not all insurance policies renew in January. If you are uncertain about when your specific plan begins or ends, we highly recommend contacting your insurance provider directly to confirm your coverage dates.

January is Mental Well-Being Month.

As the new year begins, it is important to make time to prioritize the crucial role of mental health in leading a fulfilling life. January is often recognized as Mental Well-Being Month, providing a dedicated opportunity to raise awareness of mental health, share evidence-based resources, help end the stigma surrounding mental health, and encourage proactive measures for maintaining psychological well-being. Recognizing the value of mental health on an individual level ultimately contributes to the creation of healthier and happier communities, reinforcing the idea that every small effort makes a significant difference. So don’t forget to celebrate the small wins too!

Tips for Enhancing Mental-Being:

• Self-Care: Consistently engaging in self-care such as practicing gratitude, journaling, meditating, reading, and engaging in a hobby can help your mental well-being and overall mood.

• Setting Goals: January is often the time people create New Year’s Resolutions, or goals, but sticking to them can be challenging at times. Setting realistic and attainable goals can lower feelings of being overwhelmed while fostering a sense of accomplishment.

• Practicing Mindfulness: Engaging in mindfulness practices like meditating, breathing practices, or playing calm games like “I Spy” can help reduce stress and improve emotional regulation.

• Staying Active: Regular physical exercise is not only good for our physical health, but also our mental health. A good goal to strive for is at least 30 minutes of rigorous activities most days of the week as this is will help boost your moods, energy levels, and of course overall health.

• Getting Enough Sleep: Creating and maintaining a consistent sleep routine and schedule is vital for mental health. One way to improve sleep quality or to help you go to sleep is by making a relaxing bedtime routine and to not stay up too late.

• Limit Screen Time: Lowering the amount of time you spend staring at a screen or using electronics (computers, phones, TV’s, tablets, etc.) can help decrease stress. Limiting social media usage as well is important for not only lowering stress levels, but also lowers levels of anxiety and depression.

• Professional Support: If you still need or want help with your mental health, even if it’s just for assistance with enhancing and maintaining mental well-being, contact a mental health professional. Seeking help for your mental health shows how strong and self-aware you are, and it’s the first small step into making a big change!

Activities & Events

Here are some activities and events near the Tampa and Lutz area related to wellness and mental-wellbeing:

• A Bottle of Calm: This workshop allows you to create a calming bottle as a practical tool to help manage stress. Jan 22 | 3:00 pm | Ruskin, FL

• Mindful Freeform Drawing: This event utilizes drawing and breathing exercises to practice mindfulness. Jan 15 | 5:00 pm | Land O’ Lakes, FL

• 2026 Vision Board Workshop $: Here you can create a vision board to inspire purpose, focus, and goals for the new year. Jan 9 | 6:00 pm | Brandon, FL

• LiveWELL- Mind, Body, & Soul $: This even hosts an evening that is dedicated to health, wellness, and overall well-being. There will be healthy snacks, access to wellness services, and vendors specializing in nutrition and wellness. Jan 15 | 5:30 pm | Tampa, FL

• Let’sCo! Oldsmar- Health & Wellness Fair: Here you are able to explore local health and wellness vendors, discover resources, enjoy giveaways and raffles, and more! Jan 23 | 2:00 pm | Oldsmar, FL

~In life threatening situations or injuries, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room

MENTAL HEALTH SPOTLIGHT:

Benjamin Hatcher

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

Refuge Therapy Services

During the pandemic, my practice saw a noticeable increase in clients from caregiving professions, including nurses, teachers, clergy, and other therapists. I loved helping helpers, but saw a common theme: the very skills that make caregivers excellent, like empathy and being other-focused and sacrificial, also can make it challenging for them to recognize when they need help and to prioritize their own care. There can be an unspoken expectation in helping professions: you should be strong enough to handle it. But caregivers struggle and need a safe space to process what they carry.

For many, asking for help feels like failure, especially when their identity is tied to helping others. Many work in close communities where boundaries blur, and without a truly private space, they suffer in silence. Without a safe place to process, caregivers can face compassion fatigue and burnout, struggling to maintain empathy and patience. Many leave their professions, not from lack of caring, but because the toll became unsustainable.

Think of a chef working with dull knives, or a musician playing an out-of-tune instrument. The harder they work, the less effective they become. Caregivers are instruments of healing and support for others, but instruments require maintenance. Without regular tuning, sharpening, and care, even the finest tool loses its effectiveness.

This is why confidential, professional support is so essential. It offers a space free from judgment, expectation, or the need to maintain a role. A place where caregivers can name the doubts they are afraid to voice elsewhere, and process the grief and frustration that comes with their work. A safe therapeutic space can help caregivers reconnect with the truth, beauty, and goodness that drew them to their work in the first place. It reminds them that needing help doesn’t make them less capable; it makes them human.

If you are in a caregiving profession, consider this New Year as an opportunity to invest in your own care, so that you can continue to care well for others. You were never meant to carry the weight of your work alone. See below some tips for caregivers.

5 Tips for Caregivers:

1. Listen to your body: Are you getting signs that you need rest or rejuvenation? Can you see this not as weakness, but as wisdom?

2. Find ways to prioritize connection with truth, beauty, and goodness. This might be through nature, music, close relationships or pets. What are you doing or focusing on when you feel most alive? Can you do more of this?

3. Avoid relying on “quick fix traps” like increasing social media scrolling, sugar, caffeine, or alcohol consumption.

4. Stay connected and open with the trusted relationships in your life.

5. Reach out for professional therapeutic help when you need it.

Click HERE to learn more about Mr. Benjamin Hatcher and

Refuge Therapy Services

Dr. Frey’s podcast, Mental Health Without Borders The Global Wellness Podcast, Season 1 is coming to a end. But don’t worry because there was still an episode released this month!

December 4: Dr. Frey meets with Dr. Michael Smith, PhD in this special episode, who was our raffle prize winner from Finding Hope’s Networking Event this past summer. Dr. Smith is the partner and co-founder of Family Psychology Associates. His career of psychology spans nearly 5 decades! Dr. Smith shares the extraordinary arc of his professional journey, beginning as a VISTA volunteer and evolving into a respected clinician, evaluator, leader, and educator. His work has touched children, emerging adults, families, couples, executives, and large-scale community programs. Together, Dr. Smith and Dr. Frey explore themes of resilience, emotional intelligence, special education, family systems, and the changing landscape of mental health services for children and young adults. An episode you truly don’t want to miss!

And to make sure you don’t miss another episode or surprise Bonus episode, subscribe and download Dr. Frey’s podcast today! Click HERE to subscribe and listen to previous episodes. And stay tuned for the next episode and season!

We HOPE you have a great 2026!

Contact us to schedule an appointment now at:

admin@findinghopewellnesscenter.com

Make sure to follow us on our socials to stay up to date on Finding Hope Wellness Center, information about mental health, events, and more!

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