The Good Neuron

The Good Neuron Evidence-based mental wellness for real people with real lives. Mindset shifts & psychoeducation so you can feel more grounded, kind to yourself, and connected.

(Oh, and NCMHCE tips and tricks for counselors because even helpers need help sometimes) My name is Hannah Salazar, the owner and founder of The Good Neuron. I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Florida and a Certified K-12 School Counselor as well as Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Ohio. I specialize in neurodevelopmental disorders and pediatric mental health. I am also a mom an

d a military spouse. I have a passion for helping others succeed as well as advocating for the mental health space. Follow along for tips & tricks for the NCMHCE and my random babblings about the mental health field with everyday mom things thrown in. Looking forward to meeting you!

04/23/2026

A little PSA 📢

So our diagnostic manual (DSM) has been under many revisions over the last few years. This new version of a DSM would be the biggest change that we’ve seen probably since the DSM-IV to DSM-5 revision.

I think this type of look into mental health disorders would be so great, because we’ll be able to conceptualize very differently. We’ll be able to treat more effectively, and people may not end up with a laundry list of disorders from multiple different clinicians. 

What do you guys think!? Is this a step in the right direction? Bonus points if you look up the HITOP theory…because I like that one the best 🙂‍↔️
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I’ve been a licensed counselor since 2022 and I’ve been tutoring since then as well. I have met with counselors all over...
04/23/2026

I’ve been a licensed counselor since 2022 and I’ve been tutoring since then as well. I have met with counselors all over the U.S. and some outside the U.S. There are certain strategies that can help with an exam as big as the

Particularly, I see people lose points when they see a diagnosis and immediately jump to treatment.

But the NCMHCE LOVES to test: “Is this diagnosis actually correct?”

If there’s:

* Recent stressor
* Unclear impairment
* Missing criteria

You should be thinking DIFFERENTIAL — not treatment right away.

No two people will experience their symptoms the same. If you’ve met one person with MDD, guess what? You met one person with MDD. That is why it is so crucial to not only know criteria, but be able to see how someone’s lived in experiences directly contribute to their distress. Understanding > plain knowledge will hit harder every time.

Being able to conceptualize what is happening with the case is also very important, but that may need to be saved for a different post 🙂‍↔️

Save this for your next study session! If you have a particular fictional case you want me to break down, let me know in the comments! 💬

04/15/2026

When double guessing yourself on the NCMHCE, strategy comes into play.

1. Ensure that your answer choice is satisfying ALL components of the question. Double check that it is. Sometimes we can misread or read too quickly and miss relevant keywords that can alter our answer.

2. Check that the answer you chose is relevant to what is happening in the current narrative session. So many people miss this step and end up losing the plot because they’re not aware of the relevancy of the current session. Read, answer, read again. Always keep that in mind.

If double-guessing your answers still is an issue, consider test anxiety strategies. I have some videos on that and a test anxiety infographic on my website thegoodneuron.com

If you have any specific needs, feel free to write them in the comments! 💬

I think we’ve all been there. When everything is fine during the day, but the second your head hits the pillow…your brai...
04/13/2026

I think we’ve all been there. When everything is fine during the day, but the second your head hits the pillow…your brain decides to unpack your entire life. This can especially be true when the world is on fire and we’re taking in so much information every single day.

You replay conversations, overanalyze decisions, start questioning things that didn’t bother you 6 hours ago.

And suddenly… everything feels bigger.

At night, your brain has:
• fewer distractions
• more space to process
• less access to logic and structure

So your emotional mind (hiii amygdala!) gets louder
and your thoughts feel more intense. However…intensity doesn’t mean accuracy or truth.

That’s why the same thought that felt overwhelming at 11pm barely matters at 8am.

Same thought, different nervous system response.

There are ways to manage this that include:

• journaling during the day or before bedtime
• ⁠mindfulness/meditation to help process
• ⁠practicing good sleep hygiene (looking at you doomscrolling or just staring at the ceiling).
• reconnecting with others during the day
• therapy if impairing function

Processing at night isn’t inherently a “bad” thing. It’s more just learning how to mitigate it so that it doesn’t ruin our sleep…as that’s the most important part to mental health.

What helps you combat the overthinking nighttime sessions? 💬
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04/10/2026

Let’s talk verbal vs. non verbal communication and the mental status exam.

Nonverbal communication is about 90% of overall communication (facial expressions, gestures 55%, vocal tone 38%). Whereas actual words only constitute 7% (stats taken from Univ of TX). As clinicians, it is vitally important we understand the use of tools such as the mental status exam when meeting with clients. A thorough MSE can highlight functional impairments we otherwise would dismiss as normal human behavior or behaviors that we are accustomed to depending on our background. The categories like appearance, cognitions, speech, eye contact, affect, mood, etc... all help us to understand what our client may be experiencing. Then, that can inform our treatment protocols.

We also listen for:
-patterns
-contradictions
-emotional shifts
-avoidance

What’s not said is often where the most important work is.

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Hi!! If you’re new here my name is Hannah Salazar and I’m a licensed mental health counselor in Florida and a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Ohio. I specialize in neurodevelopmental disorders. I also have helps hundreds of clinicians pass their licensing exams (looking at you NCMHCE); as well as provided coaching on test anxiety.

I am also a mom & military spouse. Follow along if you want to learn more about “how to therapist” and complex psychological concepts (I nerd out from time to time🤪). So glad you’re here!!

04/01/2026

Two therapists. Same client. Different conceptualizations. That doesn’t mean one is wrong.

It means therapy is:
• interpretive
• theory-driven
• shaped by the clinician

This is why memorizing techniques won’t make you a strong clinician, buuut clinical reasoning will.

If you’ve ever felt stuck between two “good” answers (in real life or the NCMHCE)…this is why.

What theory do you find aligns better with you as a clinician? I personally love ACT, but also pull from CBT, play therapy, and behavioral when needed!

03/31/2026

What would you add to the ACA code of ethics? 👀

This is a great time to get involved and let your voice be heard! My personal opinion is that we need to have safeguards around A.I use in mental health care. We need to figure out how to work with it and not against it because, well, it’s not going away anytime soon.

Let me know in the comments!!💬

03/29/2026

Hiii!

So things have been wild over here but we’re making it! Being a military spouse is not something I often share on here but this deployment has been the toughest deployment and I’ve had days where I have not been okay. That’s okay to say because we all have days where it’s okay to not be okay. Thankfully things are looking much better now even if my husband’s deployment is extended. We are getting back into a normal routine over here. I am still seeing tutoring clients, but just kind of got thrown off my kilter for a little bit.

In other news, I will be stopping tutoring completely by the end of April unfortunately. We are gearing up to move overseas to Japan and I just have a lot of things going on that I have to focus on for that move. There will still be study guides, there will still be videos about the test, but just the live Zoom sessions will stop.

Let me know what you guys have been up to! I’d love to hear from you guys and see kind of where you’re at with your studying or if you need me to go over anything, just let me know! 🫶🫶

02/27/2026

What do you guys wanna see!? Help a girl out lol. I don’t wanna change the theme of this page but I also will have a completely new life pretty soon! Being a military spouse, I feel like we make new lives a hundred times and moving forward with the change is such a learning curve/process.

So, let me know in the comments 💬🫶🏼

02/27/2026

Paraphrasing and summarizing are not interchangeable skills. Let’s break it down.

Here’s the difference in plain terms:

Paraphrasing = restating ONE idea the client just said.
It’s immediate. It’s concise. It stays close to the client’s exact content.

Summarizing = pulling together MULTIPLE themes across time. It connects patterns and often shows up at transitions or before moving into treatment planning. It also uses direct quotes and words from the client.

NCMHCE Test tip:
If the answer choice reflects a single recent statement → think paraphrase.
If it weaves together several concerns → think summarization.

The NCMHCE is both knowledge and application. Learning into the “how/why” of things helps a ton!

What skill is challenging for you? Which one should I break down next? 💬 let me know in the comments!

Also, yes, my coffee cup is a paid actor.

02/18/2026

Alright, pull up a chair. Let’s talk confidentiality in couples counseling. Now, I’m not a couples counselor but I have worked with couples and families before. I dug into the actual ACA code of ethics to give you guys a breakdown. According to them, couples are considered a multi-client situation.

That means:

• Your primary responsibility is to both partners
• You must clarify who the client is
• You must define who holds privilege
• You must explain how records are accessed
• You must state your policy on secrets before treatment begins (intake)

The ACA does not require a “no secrets policy.”

But it does require that you clearly explain your policy in informed consent (A.2.a, A.8.b, B.4.b).

If you don’t clarify this upfront, and one partner discloses something privately, you could be an ethical issue.

✨ Clinicians — do you use a no-secrets policy? Why or why not?

Also, what setting should I do next? 👀

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