The Special Needs Mom Podcast

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The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Kara Ryska

286 episodes

2 days ago

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Caregiving does not become overwhelming because we do not care. It becomes overwhelming because everything lives everywhere, and the mental load has nowhere to land. In this episode, Kara shares the system she built to organize medical information, providers, tasks, and caregiving knowledge into one flexible command center you can actually use. 👉 Read the full show notes and get your free download! If you are lo...

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Self-Improvement,

Health & Fitness,

All content for The Special Needs Mom Podcast is the property of Kara Ryska and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Caregiving does not become overwhelming because we do not care. It becomes overwhelming because everything lives everywhere, and the mental load has nowhere to land. In this episode, Kara shares the system she built to organize medical information, providers, tasks, and caregiving knowledge into one flexible command center you can actually use. 👉 Read the full show notes and get your free download! If you are lo...

Show more...

Self-Improvement,

Health & Fitness,

Episodes (20/286)

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

How to Finally Organize Everything You Carry as a Special Needs Mom

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Caregiving does not become overwhelming because we do not care. It becomes overwhelming because everything lives everywhere, and the mental load has nowhere to land. In this episode, Kara shares the system she built to organize medical information, providers, tasks, and caregiving knowledge into one flexible command center you can actually use. 👉 Read the full show notes and get your free download! If you are lo...

1 week ago

33 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

The Hidden Path to Feeling More Alive When Grief is Part of Your Story

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Grief does not mean something is wrong with you. In this episode, I share why grief is part of the special needs parenting journey and how allowing it can quietly lead you back to feeling more alive. 👉 Read the full show notes and reflections. If you are looking for more: Sign up for The Pathway to Peace Coaching Community Waitlist Get The Special Needs Mom Survival Pack free resource Connect with Kara, hos...

2 weeks ago

47 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Your Well Deserved Holiday Bonus

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This episode is a small way of saying I see you and I appreciate you this holiday season. Read the full show notes and access your holiday gift here. If you are looking for more: Sign up for The Pathway to Peace Coaching Community Waitlist Get The Special Needs Mom Survival Pack free resource Connect with Kara, host of The Special Needs Mom Podcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespecialneedsmomp...

3 weeks ago

9 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Reimagining Christmas When the One You Pictured Does Not Exist

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) There is often a version of Christmas we carry in our heads. Quiet. Cozy. Predictable. The kind that feels comforting but somehow never shows up in real life. In this episode, I talk about the grief that can surface when the Christmas you imagined does not exist and how common that experience is, especially for special needs moms. Between medical needs, disrupted routines, and the sheer weight of caregiving, the hol...

4 weeks ago

12 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Your Gateway Drug to Self Compassion

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This week I hit record while standing, which feels fitting because this episode has a little extra energy behind it. November was a lot for me — two ER visits for Levi, construction stress, holiday disruption, all the things. I sat down to prepare for work and realized I had been judging myself for everything I didn’t get done. In coaching, we talk about two paths: judgment or self compassion. And while there’s no w...

1 month ago

17 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

The Challenging Story is Not The Only Story

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This episode came from a simple morning walk and one very unexpected moment of wisdom from my teenage niece’s boyfriend. We spent Thanksgiving together and he shared something that stopped me in my tracks. It got me thinking about how the people we spend time with quietly shape our thinking, our habits, our emotional landscape and even our hope. As special needs moms we often forget how much this matters because our...

1 month ago

20 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Complex Gratitude

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This Thanksgiving week, I’m keeping it simple and talking about complex gratitude. The kind that feels messy, honest, and actually doable for special needs moms. I share a story from the early days after Levi’s surgery, when gratitude felt impossible and I fully wanted to shove the whole concept off a cliff. What finally clicked for me was realizing I didn’t have to be grateful for everything to be grateful for some...

1 month ago

17 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Coffee with Kara: Life Updates and Messy Realities

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Today’s episode is a cozy, casual chat. The kind you’d have over coffee with someone who gets it. I almost skipped releasing an episode this week, but connecting with you truly matters to me, even when life feels full. I shared why I’ve stepped back from social media, what prompted it, and how that space has led me to new things like watercolor (and letting go of perfection, one messy brushstroke at a time). I also ...

1 month ago

17 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Caring for Yourself When Behaviors Get Hard with Brittney Crabtree

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This week, I’m back with my friend Brittney Crabtree from Moms Talk Autism for part two of our talk on behaviors that include aggression: physical, verbal, or self-directed. In this episode, we answer the big question: “What now?” We walk through the framework of pre-game, game time, and post-game recovery. We discuss how to prepare, get through, and recover from the hardest moments as special needs parents. We shar...

2 months ago

1 hour 8 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Punched at Parties with Brittney Crabtree

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) In this episode, I sat down with my friend Brittney Crabtree from Moms Talk Autism to talk about something few of us say out loud, aggression in our homes. Brittney shares what life looks like parenting her non-speaking son with profound autism, while I share parts of our story with Levi, a brain tumor survivor with his own set of challenges. Together we explore what it’s like to navigate these moments, when love an...

2 months ago

56 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Why Fixing Feels So Heavy (and Acceptance Feels So Light) with Carrie Holt

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This week, I invited my friend and returning guest Carrie M. Holt back to talk about something that every special needs mom wrestles with, the difference between fixing and accepting our children. We unpacked what those energies feel like, how they show up in motherhood, and how they connect to deeper themes of fear, control, grief, and peace. We also talked about how acceptance doesn’t mean giving up. It means seei...

2 months ago

59 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Balancing Identities: Mother, Professional, Advocate, Woman with Cynthia Schulz

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This week, I got to sit down with the wise and feisty Cynthia Schulz, author of Shine On: Raising Our Children with Disabilities to Lead Bright, Happy Lives. Cynthia’s daughter is now 40, and hearing from a mom who’s decades down the road was such a gift. We talked about what it was like when she first received her daughter’s diagnosis, by mail, in the most abrupt and heartbreaking way, and how she decided early on ...

2 months ago

44 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Stepping Into Peace: The Power of One Hour a Week

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) Today’s episode is a little different. I’m pausing our regular programming to share something close to my heart: The Pathway to Peace Coaching Community. This podcast connects us week after week, and still, sometimes we need a space to go deeper to actually live out the things we talk about here. That’s what Pathway to Peace is. It’s part coaching, part community. A place for special needs moms to rediscover themsel...

3 months ago

23 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Things Will Get Better with Sara Davis

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) In this episode, I talk with Sarah Davis, a wife, homeschooling mom, and former librarian raising her 7-year-old son on the autism spectrum. We first met through The Courage to Raise, a collaborative book where Sarah shares her story of grief, hope, and faith. We talk about caregiver burnout, learning to accept help, and how faith and community make a difference. Sarah opens up about her son’s medical complexities, ...

3 months ago

53 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

What's Wrong with Me?

Send us a text (Note: we are not able to respond but LOVE to hear from you!!) This week, I’m talking about a pattern I see often in caregiving—the heartbreaking habit of turning on ourselves when life feels too hard. I share how our minds default to “something must be wrong with me,” and why the truth is simpler: hard things feel hard because they are hard. Inside the episode: The self-blame cycle so many of us fall into.Three ways to shift: accepting reality, noticing comparison traps, and r...

3 months ago

21 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

When Motherhood Awakens the Fighter in You with Nikki McIntosh

Send us a text In this episode, I sit down with Nikki McIntosh, founder of Rare Mamas® and host of the Rare Mamas Rising Podcast. Nikki is also the author of Rare Mamas: Empowering Strategies for Navigating Your Child’s Rare Disease, a book born from her family’s journey after her son’s rare diagnosis. We talk about the shock of those early days, the fight for treatment, and what it’s like raising one child with a rare condition and another without. Nikki shares how she turned pain into purpo...

3 months ago

49 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Nobody Else Has It This Hard

Send us a text This week I’m sharing a really personal story—not all the details, but the emotional experience of finding myself in a very sudden, very public, and really scary moment with Levi. It was one of those times where I could’ve spiraled, but something shifted in me. We’re talking about the sneaky nature of self-pity, how it isolates us, and how powerful it can be to not go down that road—even when things are objectively really hard. I reflect on how my work as a coach gives me daily...

3 months ago

15 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

What Happens When You Stop Looking for a Way Out with Catherine Marston

Send us a text This week on the podcast I got to talk with Catherine Marston—a mom, health coach, author, and 14-time Ironman triathlete (yes, you read that right…14!). Catherine’s story is one of grief, resilience, and learning how to take small, consistent steps toward healing and strength. She shares about losing her daughter Helen, how she processed that deep grief, and the ways she found power in self-acceptance and exercise. I loved how real she was about starting small—sometimes just 1...

4 months ago

33 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

From Luxury Estates to Special Needs Homes with Kelly Dixon

Send us a text This episode was such a treat. I got to catch up with my longtime friend Kelly Dixon—someone who knew me way back in my landscaping days (pre-leadership Kara 😅). Kelly has a fascinating background managing ultra-wealthy households, and while she’s not a special needs mom—or a mom at all—her systems-thinking brain totally applies to ourworld. We talked about what it looks like to run your home like a well-functioning operation: from checklists to communication, boundaries to bur...

4 months ago

56 minutes

The Special Needs Mom Podcast

Extreme Mothering

Send us a text I didn’t plan to end up emotionally fried by the end of summer... but there I was. I hit my limit. So, I did something radical (for a special needs mom, at least): I took myself to the beach. Alone. No kids. No caregiving. Just me, the ocean, and a much-needed van therapy session overlooking the waves. And wouldn’t you know it—while body surfing, I ran into a fellow special needs mom friend, totally by surprise. The odds were wild. We both chose the same beach, at the same time...

4 months ago

21 minutes