Ask an Expert: Milk + Honey’s Meredith McDaniel

In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re highlighting different mental health resources in our communities each week.

Today, we’re sharing thoughts from Meredith McDaniel, licensed clinical mental health counselor and founder of Milk + Honey Counseling in Davidson, NC — just north of Charlotte. She’s a mom to three and author of her debut book, In Want + Plenty.

Meredith says she gardens, writes and kayaks when she can for her own form of soul care. Skin care is something she recently started focusing on in her mid-thirties — since it’s our largest organ, she feels it’s time to start making it a priority to steward it well.

What we take in matters.

Speaking of stewarding our bodies well — what we take in matters. Whether it’s the content of the morning news or the latte we are sipping while we drive to work, everything we consume has an impact on our body, heart and spirit.

It doesn’t take long for our lips to chap and our skin to break out to realize that we may not be drinking enough water. Similarly, the people we surround ourselves and the storylines we believe about ourselves have a deep and lasting impact on our way in the world.

As a therapist who deeply values the concepts found in narrative therapy, it is our mission at Milk + Honey to help others find the people and content that lead to flourishing for your body as a whole. Part of this process is sitting down with one of our clinicians to see where you might feel stuck in your story and trying to find some movement. Many times this includes considering what you’re investing that may be harmful versus helpful and assisting you in editing the parts of your story that need to shift. We approach therapy from a holistic perspective and always ask: 

• Are you drinking enough water?
• Do you eat colorful, healthy foods?
• Do you take vitamins or supplements?
• When do you take time to be still?
• Do you write, paint, create, sing or dance?

These questions are helpful to indicate if you’re making your whole body a priority.

We all could use a new narrative.

Many of us spend our day-to-day just chipping away at our to-do list without considering if what we’re investing our time in is actually life-giving to us and helping others in a way that brings us joy.

We need to be asking ourselves this question often! Part of my own story-work is every semester or quarter asking myself what needs to stay on my plate and what needs to go? This directly contributes to my well-being and state of mental health.

Finding my own therapist again during the pandemic has been where I’ve had my own safe space to consider what new narratives I need to write in my life — otherwise, I’ll be swept up by the mindlessness of moving through my days without intention and purpose. I wonder what it might look like for you to find an unbiased listening ear who can help reflect back to you the false scripts you might be getting stuck in your life?

• What makes you feel alive? What brings tears to your eyes?
• What are the gifts that you are withholding from the world?
• Where do you see yourself in two years, five years, a decade?

RESOURCES:

Milk + Honey has two clinicians and four interns who are ready and willing to serve the greater Charlotte area. They also offer a vast array of resources — from book lists and quotes to referrals for trusted counselors and centers — that’ve been carefully curated.

Interested? Please inquire at office@milkandhoneycounseling.com.

Or find Milk + Honey online at milkandhoneycounseling.com.