Alicia Hans LCSW LLC

10/17/2025

🎃🧠 Food for Focus (Even During Halloween Season!)

With Halloween season in full swing 🎃, sweets and colorful treats are everywhere — and let’s be honest, it’s hard to resist!

For kids (and adults!) with ADHD, what we eat can significantly affects focus, energy, behavior, and mood. Emerging research continues to highlight the important connection between nutrition and ADHD symptom management. Balanced nutrition — rich in proteins, fruits, veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats — supports attention, emotional regulation, and overall brain function.

Meanwhile, sugar, processed snacks, and artificial dyes can make symptoms worse. 😵‍💫This is especially true for kids, whose capacity for self-regulation is slim to none.

🍬This Halloween season, the kids (and you, and me) may find it especially difficult to avoid extra temptations for sweets! Don’t be too hard on yourself if candy or colorful treats make their way into your home (or are a regular part of your child's daily diet🫣). Just be mindful that you are likely to see a few extra energy spikes, emotional ups and downs, or bedtime battles.

Small steps toward balance make a big difference. A few mindful meals, extra water, and good sleep can go a long way in keeping things on track. Progress, not perfection, matters most. 💛

We could all use some encouragement and suggestions for improving our health. This "Brain Food" 📸 Graphic from ADDitude is a great reminder for what foods help ADHD brains🧠 function best!

10/10/2025

🌍💚 World Mental Health Day 💚🌍
Today serves as a global reminder that mental health is essential to overall well-being—and that access to compassionate, quality care matters.

Our team of clinicians is dedicated to supporting children and families as they navigate life’s challenges with resilience and hope. We believe that caring for your mind and leaning in to mental health is an act of strength—not weakness.

Together, we can continue to reduce stigma, promote understanding, and make mental health care a shared priority.

Let’s keep showing up for each other and our youth—with empathy, curiosity, and kindness and normalize conversations about mental and emotional health. 💬💛

10/09/2025

We love our downstairs neighbor, New Directions Chiropractic 🌱💜 Balanced nervous system = healthier, happier kids (and families)! 😁

10/07/2025

🌿Office Update 🌿

We want to thank you for your patience with our team over the last few weeks as Ms. Alicia has been out sick, trying to take time to rest and recover. 💜 We know this has meant some delays and changes, and we truly appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.

As Ms. Alicia focuses on her health, we want to gently remind all of our families that taking care of yourself is an important part of caring for others too!

Here are a few simple ways we can all practice good health hygiene and self-care this season:

🌿 Wash your hands regularly, especially after coughing, sneezing, and before eating.

🌿 Cover coughs and sneezes using your elbow, or even into your clothing. Use lots of tissue. Wash hands or sanitze after!

🌿 Stay home and rest when you’re not feeling well. We can't stress this enough! We have a lot of traffic coming through our office and want to do our best to prevent the spread of illness. We will never charge a fee for canceling sessions due to illness. We want you to heal and we don't want to risk others getting sick.

🌿 Nourish your body with water+electrolytes, healthy foods, vitamins, and good sleep. We like Vitamin D + Zinc and Magnesium.

🌿Listen to your body - rest, rest, rest. 💜

If you have reached out to our office recently and have not received a response, please feel free to send a gentle (friendly😁) nudge or follow-up via email to aliciahans.lcsw@gmail.com. Or contact us through our website www.aliciahanslcswfdl.com.

Thank you for your grace and understanding, and stay healthy this season! 🎃

09/12/2025

Thank you Fond du Lac County for promoting mental health resources and information on your social media page this month! 💜🩵💛

Our team partners with Fondy Cares and ROOTS school-based programs to increase youth access to mental health services.

If you're hoping to connect your child with a therapist, though are concerned about transportation or scheduling conflicts, consider asking your school care team about the school-based mental health services available at your child's school. 💜

09/12/2025

Join our mission to break the stigma, end the silence, and spread hope! 💛💜🩵

September is Recovery Awareness AND Su***de Prevention Awareness Month - two important causes we are committed to supporting in our daily work and beyond.

Stop by our office to grab your awareness stickers and bracelets (available even during closed hours).

Wearing a sticker or bracelet might seem small—but it can mean a lot. 💜🩵 Whether you're honoring your own journey, supporting a loved one, or standing up for awareness, you're reminding others:
It's okay to talk about it, and no one has to go through it alone.
So wear it proudly. Speak kindly. Listen openly.
Together, we can break stigma and end the silence - one conversation at a time. 💛

This month we have teamed up to support NAMI Fond du Lac Step Up to Prevent Su***de awareness and fundraising campaign. Don't let our low mileage be a reflection of our dedication to the cause!😆💜 Our team will be Stepping Up to raise awareness and funding to support mental health education and supportive programming in the FDL community. Visit our campaign page to support our team! https://givebutter.com/wpUsBC/ms-alicias-step-up-squad

Looking for ways to connect with others in our community who support recovery? Meet us over at the Gratitude Club this Saturday, September 13th for the 3rd Stigma Awareness Event! 💜🩵 There's a raffle basket with your name on it (and mine 😉). 1-5pm.

Your story is not over. Your life matters. Keep going... one day at a time. 💜

If you or someone you care about is struggling, reaching out can make all the difference.

📞 In Fond du Lac County, you can call the Crisis Line at (920) 929-3535 anytime.
📞 Call or text 988 to connect with the Su***de & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.

It’s always okay to ask for help. 💛

***dePreventionMonth

09/04/2025

Celebrate Recovery!💜

08/28/2025

Let's talk about an incredibly difficult topic - the risks associated with media use.

In a few days, we will begin recognizing September as National Su***de Prevention Awareness Month.

Every day we have conversations with parents to educate them about the detrimental effects of unsupervised access to media and internet content. And every day, we learn that parents have no real idea what their kids are able to access and are exposed to, despite having parental control settings turned on.

The dangerous reality is that most of the media content kids are accessing are simply not safe. And not just in terms of "but I didn't tell them my real age or where I live" - which is a typical response we hear from kids when parents learn that they are talking with people in the chat rooms in Roblox games. "But I have the settings to disallow chat rooms, how is that possible? " we hear from parents who are shocked to learn the details of what's actually happening when their child plays Roblox. The sad reality is that the creators of these games are not invested in protecting your child.

The only way to really know what your child is doing online, is to see for yourself.

Handing a child a device that can connect to the worldwide web is like dropping your child off at a toy store in the Mall of America and telling them you'll be back in a few hours, driving home to clean your house, and returning to pick them up - and probably facing a tantrum when you say it's time to go because they just need a few more minutes (sound familiar?).

Kids lack the maturity, intellectual context, and judgment to recognize the risks and make responsibile choices. And when they do accidentally come upon inappropriate content, or get involved in a chat that takes a scary turn, they're afraid to tell their parents because they don't want to get in trouble. Their young, vulnerable minds (including teenagers, by the way) are carrying around images, ideas, fears, temptations, and pressures you would be shocked to learn - because of what they are walking into, often unintentionally or unknowingly - and they don't have the skills or maturity to cope. Nor the ability to restrict themselves.

Sit down with your child and ask them to open up Roblox and give you a tour. Watch the games - ask questions. Pull up YouTube and look at their video history. Ask what they are entering into the search bar and stay for a while to watch. Browse the internet history and visit sites your child accesses. ChatGPT, for example, saves all conversation threads by a single user. Entire transcripts that don't disappear after opening (cue our grumblings about Snapchat - another incredibly dangerous media free-for-all).

The attached article mentions the child having a paid subscription to ChatGPT - for which a credit card is required. Anytime your child is making purchases on a credit card for media use should be a red flag to pause and look closer - together with your child.

Parental control settings are simply not enough. Plus - most kids as young as 4 (yes, 4 - sometimes younger) know how to work around the controls and access forbidden content without you having a clue anything is wrong. Trusting that your child is going to "make good choices" using media is like trusting your 4 year old is able to walk a mile to school by himself. He may tell you he knows how to get there because you told him directions, but once he leaves the house, all bets are off.

We are begging parents to pay closer attention and be accountable for keeping their children safe from the detrimental effects of media access. If you choose to hand your child a device that has the ability to connect to the internet, you are responsible for keeping them safe.

You aren't alone and we aren't here to judge or shame. We are here to help parents better understand the complexities and dangers of what children are exposed to and getting themselves involved in online to better protect youth 💜 Because more times than not, we know (and your kids know) you have no idea. It's a very scary and sad reality.

To better understand the risks associated with media use, we recommend picking up the book, "The Anxious Generation" by Jonathan Haidt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/technology/chatgpt-openai-suicide.html?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMb7oxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHrc74CjnZwd-CgCQbhaT8J07mG6_1bzLZMIIa-Ctiom638Z01A-CIdmPPH3E_aem_3rgbDxRGNXNMKZqugWWuZQ&sfnsn=mo

More people are turning to general-purpose chatbots for emotional support. At first, Adam Raine, 16, used ChatGPT for schoolwork, but then he started discussing plans to end his life.

08/07/2025

Special News Bulletin 📣

Ms Madison is returning to our office September 2nd following her maternity leave - and we couldn’t be more excited!! 🥳

Back to School Season is in full swing. And while we are certainly sad to see the end of summer coming so soon, we are also very happy to have Ms Madison back in a few short weeks. :)

We also wish to express deep appreciation for Ms Leslie, who stepped into a Counseling Associate position this summer to provide services for Ms Madison's patients and extra support (and companionship) for Ms Alicia at the office. 💜

We are so grateful to have her on our team.

Join us in welcoming Ms Madison back this September! 🥰🥳

08/06/2025

We LOVE this advice from Synergetic Play Therapy Institute! 😎👏💙

Play. Play. Play!
Unstructured play is essential to your child's well-being. Play is how they process the world, how they develop emotional regulation, how they improve their fine motor and gross motor skills, how they have experiences that are worth flexing their linguistic skills about, how their sensory systems make sense of the world around them, how they experiment and reason and explore cause-and-effect and a bajillion other things.

08/04/2025

This summer🌞has been unprecedented in terms of addressing childhood mental health. When we typically see an ease of acuity and decreased need for services from June-August, we have instead seen an increased need for services*. 🥵💔

We have also seen a significant increase in families struggling to meet basic needs—like housing, food, transportation, medical services, and childcare - which, unfortunately though unsurprising, has a positive correlation with increased mental health needs.

Stressors associated with making ends meet undoubtedly affect the whole household, and impact kids’ sense of safety, emotional regulation, school performance, and overall well-being. (Think, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs**).

When basic needs are unmet, mental health suffers.😔😵

As a team of Social Workers, we understand that treating childhood mental health involves supporting the whole family - with compassion and without judgement. And sometimes that means spending time connecting families with community services and resources.

When we support families in meeting basic needs, healing becomes possible.

With this in mind, we want to share a few resources that we use regularly to support families.

🔅 211 Wisconsin is a one-stop, free, and confidential connection to the local services people need, such as utility assistance, housing, food, elder care, crisis intervention, alcohol and other drug recovery, and much more. Talk with a live person who will listen with compassion and help connect you with services that will help. Or use the Search database online to find services avaliable to help with your needs.

📞 Dial 211 (or 877-947-2211)
📱 Text your ZIP code to 898211
💬 Chat online
🔎 Search for services at https://wisconsin.communityos.org

Whether you're looking for food pantries, housing assistance, mental health supports, or crisis help—211 can guide you.

🔅 ADVOCAP,Inc Opportunity Center in Fond du Lac is a new, in-person, "one-stop-shop" where individuals and families can get assistance navigating the complex service systems that tend to quickly become overwhelming. Parents, you can bring your kids with you if you don't have childcare (we called and asked!). Just make sure to call ahead so they can be sure there are staff available to provide childcare if needed. 💜

You are not alone.
Help is out there.
And you deserve to receive it.

*Our clinic data demonstrating increased need for services at this clinic location:
May 1 - Aug 1 completed patient appointments
2023: 223 (waitlist at 0 by Aug 1, 2023)
2024: 211 (waitlist at 6 by Aug 1, 2024)
2025: 279 (waitlist of 20+ on Aug 1, 2024)

**Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Someone struggling with basic needs—like food, housing, or safety—is unable to prioritize or address other needs, such mental and emotional health, school/academics, building relationships, or personal growth and responsibility.).