Ash Reynolds on Compassion Fatigue, Teaching Third Graders to Stop and Breathe,

What happens when a licensed marriage and family therapist who grew up in Los Angeles watching pastors, doctors, nurses, and high achievers give everything they had to the people around them while quietly neglecting themselves decides that the most important thing she can do is teach people how to refill before they run completely dry — and then extends that same mission to third graders who are still young enough to build those habits before they ever need to unlearn the bad ones? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ash Reynolds, founder of Modern Day Wellness Group, about the difference between regular tiredness and actual burnout, why compassion fatigue is particularly insidious in caregiving and service professions because the people most affected love what they do and would never think to slow down, and why the client who looks like a shining star on the outside — thriving academically, active in student government, playing sports — can be the one most deeply struggling in private. Ash also explains why pastors who preach vulnerability from the pulpit are still people who need rest, and why community is supposed to hold them so they are not the only ones responsible for their own restoration. They also discuss emotional regulation — what it actually means, why it affects everything from relationships to career trajectories to physical health, and how a 16-year-old's suicidal ideation gradually resolved as he learned to name what was happening inside him and trust that the people around him would lean in and listen — the Wellness for Kids program Ash co-created with Chelsea Ferguson that teaches third graders the stop technique, deep breathing, and the difference between bullying and tattling, including the moment yesterday when a little girl grabbed the microphone and told 50 students the right response to bullying is to fight back and the whole room cheered, and what Ash's five-year vision looks like — clinicians under her license, school districts running the program at scale, an app that makes emotional regulation tools available to every child regardless of whether their parents can afford therapy. Ash Reynolds is a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Modern Day Wellness Group in Los Angeles, California. Connect with Ash Reynolds: moderndaywellness.org Psychology Today: search Ashinee Reynolds Wellness for Kids: wellness4kids.org Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Ash Reynolds 00:55 Growing up in LA watching ministry leaders, doctors, and nurses run on empty — and realizing burnout was the problem she was meant to solve 01:51 How do I know if it's burnout or just regular tiredness — the difference in that feeling of going through the motions 02:42 Compassion fatigue versus burnout — why they are similar and which one is more specific to service professions 03:08 If you love what you do, how can you still have compassion fatigue — the nurse who forgets to eat 03:54 What Ash actually does with her clients — one on one, the basics people forget when they are too busy 05:08 Why pastors and ministry leaders resist admitting they are struggling even when they preach vulnerability 05:52 Her current practice — one on one therapy, the Wellness for Kids launch, and the workshop she hosted yesterday 06:58 What emotional regulation actually means and why it matters 08:03 Wellness for Kids — the curriculum, what it covers, and why it was created 09:38 The program components — emotional regulation, bullying versus tattling, physical wellness, and mindfulness 10:09 Bullying versus tattling — why both words sound pejorative and what the distinction actually teaches kids 11:14 A success story from individual therapy — the 16-year-old who looked like a shining star and was quietly struggling with suicidal ideation 13:09 How he ended up in her care — referrals, and why word of mouth is the best marketing 14:00 Yesterday's Wellness for Kids workshop — the little girl who grabbed the microphone and told 50 students to fight back 15:44 How the Wellness for Kids program reaches schools and who pays for it — right now nobody does 17:11 Is the goal to turn Wellness for Kids into a business or keep it as a sidelight 17:51 What the five-year vision looks like — clinicians under her license, school districts, an app, and parent training 19:14 Her own story — Belize, St. Louis, Los Angeles, being told she would never get into Pepperdine, and why she believes mentors change everything 20:41 Where Modern Day Wellness Group is in five years — Wellness for Kids as a subsector, referrals into therapy, parent training layered in 21:44 The compassion fatigue workshop at Harvard — what surprised her about how the audience received it 22:42 Healing expands when we work together — what that phrase actually means in practice #AshReynolds #ModernDayWellness #TrustcastShow #CompassionFatigue #EmotionalRegulation #WellnessForKids #BurnoutPrevention #TherapistLA #MFT #ChildWellness