The Summit Ranch

05/25/2026

This week. Mental Health KC Conference, May 28 and 29.

Program Director + Lead EF Coach, Katie Black, is presenting "The Both/And Brain: Understanding AuDHD from the Inside Out."

The contradictions that are not actually contradictions. The brain that sees every possible outcome at once and gets called an overthinker. The brain that can build a clinical framework from scratch but cannot move the laundry between floors.

This presentation isn't just a trait list. The goal is to get the room as close to being inside it as possible.

If you work with neurodivergent clients or love someone whose brain works like this, we would love to see you there.

Johnson County Community College, Overland Park.
Registration: mentalhealthkc.org

05/19/2026

It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and most of the conversation is about adults.

So here's what it sounds like from the other side of the kitchen table.

"Just try harder."
"You're so smart, you just need to apply yourself."
"I know you can do this if you really want to."

And the kid is sitting there thinking: I am trying. I tried to get my shoes on when you said it was time to go. I tried to start the homework when nothing in my brain would grab onto the first problem. I tried to hold it together when my sister got the cup I wanted and it felt like the end of the world and I know that doesn't make sense. I tried not to cry when you got frustrated with me and I didn't know how to explain what was wrong.

When every adult in your life tells you to try harder and you're already at capacity, you don't think "I need better strategies." You think "something is wrong with me."

That's the mental health conversation we miss with kids. Not crisis. Not diagnosis. The slow, daily accumulation of trying your hardest and being told it isn't enough.

The kids who hear this the most are usually the ones working the hardest. They just happen to have brains that do the work differently than everyone expects.

05/15/2026

Our Program Director and Lead Executive Function Coach Katie Black is presenting at the Mental Health KC Conference on May 28 and 29 at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park.

Her session, "The Both/And Brain: Understanding AuDHD from the Inside Out," draws on her own experience as an AuDHD adult and her clinical work with neurodivergent kids to challenge how we think about the intersection of autism and ADHD.

This is not a lecture about traits. It is a conversation about what changes when we stop treating the AuDHD brain as broken and start asking whether the systems around it were built for a different kind of brain entirely.

Registration: mentalhealthkc.org

05/12/2026

I don't need to take a bath and light a candle (ok maybe I do). But what I need most is a plan that will help.

And you're thinking: I don't need generic self-care advice. I need someone to explain why my kid is sobbing every morning before school and then the teacher says they're "fine" all day. I need someone to tell me whether this is ADHD or anxiety or just a phase or something I'm doing wrong. I need a plan that works past Wednesday.

Caregivers don't need more self-care advice. They need information. They need strategies that actually work in their house, with their kid, on their schedule. They need someone to say "you're not imagining this, and here's why it's happening."

That's what Mental Health Awareness Month should sound like for families.

05/12/2026

It's Mental Health Awareness Month, so let's talk about what mental health actually looks like at 4pm on a Tuesday.

Your kid spent the whole school day managing transitions, filtering noise, holding their body still, tracking instructions, navigating social dynamics, and suppressing the urge to move or speak at the wrong time.

By 4pm, their brain is done. The part that handles planning, prioritizing, and getting started on a hated ("non-preferred") task — executive function — is running on empty.

So when you say "time to do homework," their brain hears "do the hardest thing your brain does, right now, with no fuel left."

We call that defiance. Their nervous system calls it empty, drained, and depleted.

The timing, the environment, and the approach matter more than the lecture about responsibility. A snack. Ten minutes of chosen movement. A predictable routine that doesn't start with the hardest thing. These are strategies that work with their brains instead of against them.

05/11/2026

You already know your kid is different around animals.

The shoulders drop. The breathing slows. The kid who was wound tight all day just... settles.

Then Monday hits and they fall apart by third period.

That is not a coincidence. There is real science behind what happens in your kid's body when the environment matches the brain. Cortisol drops. Oxytocin rises. Self-regulation kicks in. Not because the animal is magic, but because the communication is direct, the feedback is immediate, and there is no social performance required.

Your kid is not avoiding hard things when they go straight to the cat. Their nervous system is finding the fastest path to regulation.

New on the blog: why that matters, what the research says, and what it means for this summer. Link:

Your kid comes home and goes straight to the cat. There is real science behind why animals calm neurodivergent kids when nothing else does, and it matters more than you think.

05/08/2026

ADHD at Home: A Parent Workshop Series at Summit Ranch.

4 weeks. Small group. Therapist-led. Part teaching, part real conversation.

When: Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30pm, June 2, 9, 16, 23
Where: Summit Ranch, 18555 Johnson Dr, Shawnee
Cost: $200 per family (covers two caregivers, so both parents can attend)
Led by: Chrissy Waters, LPC, ADHD-CCSP

No diagnosis needed. No prior knowledge required.

Limited to 8 families to keep the group small.

Register at www.summitranch.org/classes or email [email protected]

05/07/2026

New at Summit Ranch: a 4-week ADHD parent workshop series.

Led by Chrissy Waters, a licensed therapist who specializes in helping parents understand how ADHD actually shows up at home and what to do about it.

This isn't a lecture. It's a small group of parents working through the real stuff: why your kid escalates so fast, why common discipline strategies backfire, how to reduce power struggles without giving up on expectations, and how to build routines that actually stick for an ADHD brain.

Week 1: Understanding how the ADHD brain works (and why that changes everything).
Week 2: Creating calm and reducing daily battles.
Week 3: Strengthening connection so your kid can actually hear you.
Week 4: Building systems that work for your kid's brain, not against it.

Each session is part teaching, part honest conversation with other parents who are in it with you. You'll leave with something to try that week AND the feeling of being in a room where nobody has to explain why bedtime takes an hour.

You don't need a diagnosis to join. You don't need to have read every ADHD book. You just need to be raising a kid whose brain works differently and want practical strategies from a therapist who gets it.

Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30pm. June 2-23. $200 per family (covers two caregivers). Limited to 8 families.

Registration at www.summitranch.org/classes. Or email [email protected]

05/06/2026

These are not petting zoo field trips.

Dr. Ashley Baker, DVM is leading three hands-on animal science programs at Summit Ranch this summer. Every session happens on our 100-acre property in Shawnee with real animals, real clinical tools, and groups small enough that every kid gets hands-on time.

Animal Explorers (ages 8-11): Animal safety, handling, teeth across species, legs and movement, first aid. Four Tuesdays in June. $150.

Animal + Plant Sciences Lab (ages 12-15): Biomechanics, biomimicry, digestion and bacteria culture, hydroponics. Four sessions in late July/early August. $200.

Vet Sciences Lab (ages 16-18): Clinical wellness exams, equine dentistry with live horses, endocrine-to-laminitis case study, emergency scenarios. Four Tuesdays in June. $250.
We built these for the kids who learn best when the subject is alive and in front of them.

Register at summitranch.org/classes or email [email protected].

04/29/2026

You walk in not sure you belong.

Maybe your kid has a diagnosis. Maybe they don't, but you've been Googling "why does my kid melt down every day after school" for six months and nothing has actually helped.

There are 8 other parents in the room. Within five minutes, someone describes your exact Tuesday night. The homework spiral. The bedtime negotiation. The part where you end up apologizing for yelling even though you promised yourself you wouldn't.

And then something shifts. Because it's one thing to read about ADHD on your phone at midnight. It's a completely different thing to sit across from someone who gets it and hear a therapist say: here's what's actually happening in your kid's brain when they refuse to start homework. And here's what you can do about it that isn't "try harder."

That's what this is.

Details coming this week on our ADHD Parent Workshop.