Sam Peters, LPC

10/16/2026

My favorite question in a first session with a kid comes right after I explain what stays private in the room.

"Okay, but what if I robbed a bank?"

I tell them we'd have to talk about that one, and we'd make a plan together so they'd know before mom and dad know. They nod. Then they get creative. What if I threw the money out the window? What if the SWAT team was already there?

That isn't just a kid being silly. That's a kid checking whether the rules are real. If the adult can laugh and still hold the line, the room is safe.

And the one secret I tell every kid is okay to keep: a surprise birthday party. An adult who asks a kid to keep any other kind of secret is looking out for themselves, not for the kid.

Every kid has at least one "what if." What's one you’ve heard at your house?

10/15/2026

Somebody rear-ended me on the way to the office. Nobody hurt. I saw clients all day, fine. That night I walked back through the day and found it sitting there like a receipt in my pocket. Turns out getting hit by a car makes me angry. I'm checked in with other people's feelings for a living. I'm not always checked in with mine.

Full video and the written issue: link in bio

10/15/2026

In yesterday’s issue, I talked about two sentences you're likely to hear or deliver at your conferences this month. Some of you were brave enough to reach out and say you thought it would probably be, "not so great." First of all, thank you for sharing. Second, I know that you may be heading into one of the most difficult situations a parent can face. Here’s the play, so you’ll be ready!

Before you say a word at that table, identify which of these you’re heading into:

- Same kid at home: the struggle shows up everywhere, and you and the teacher are looking at the same thing.

- A different kid at home: school sees one kid, you see another, and the gap between those two readings is the most important thing in the room.

- It feels like they want to place it on you: "what's going on at home?" arrives with a look, and the cause gets moved off the school's desk and onto yours.

Each one needs a different first sentence. Knowing which one you're in is half the meeting. If you need the full play, I’m putting the link in the first comment. Godspeed!

If you know a parent walking into a "not so great" conference this month, send them this.

10/14/2026

When the teacher says they’re doing great, when the teacher says they’re not doing so great, and the one number the school can’t get without you.

If you know one parent with a conference this month, send them this one.

When the teacher says they’re doing great, when the teacher says they’re not, and the one number the school can’t get without you.

10/13/2026

The easiest person at your work might be paying the most.

There's somebody at your work who's easy. Never a problem. Everybody's favorite. And you might be the safe address for one of them.

You might be the one who gets to say, once: you don't have to be fine around me.

10/12/2026

Every ‘no, don’t’ is a transaction. Don’t interrupt. Don’t get up. Don’t let your face do that. Everybody else tosses a quarter at that gate. You pay a ten-dollar toll, every time. The calm they praised you for was borrowed, not built. Same mechanism as the kid. Same bill.

10/11/2026

A disconnected nervous system reads a request as an attack.

A connected one reads it as coming from somebody safe. So when the lock is showing up a lot, the fix isn’t better wording. It’s ten minutes in the room together with nothing required.

Then ask.

Full video and the written issue @ link in bio.

10/09/2026

You can Google questions for a parent-teacher conference. You’ll get as many as you want. The list isn’t the problem.

I built the Conference Kit for the whole 15 minutes: what to send before, how to be in the meeting, and the follow-up after, so you and the teacher walk out with a plan you can both work from.

Two pages are free. And every kit has a shelf, so if money’s tight right now, just ask.

Shop link is on my profile.

10/09/2026

Your teachers said you were fine because, by everything they could see, you were. You were never fine at school. You were expensive at school, and nobody was reading the meter. A diagnosis didn’t create that. It handed you the receipt.

October’s ADHD Awareness Month, and this is the part that gets missed most: the kid who looked fine in class. Teachers, the quiet ones count too.

The full video’s on my YouTube.

10/08/2026

“I’m spent. It’s got nothing to do with you. I need twenty minutes and then I’m yours.”

That hands the people you love information instead of fallout. And in the driveway, the version that sounds ridiculous and works: Sam’s pretty overwhelmed right now. The distance is the point. Full video and the written issue at link in bio!

The shop’s open: two printable kits for conference season, plus two free pages for your kid’s teacher. Link in bio.