Roots, Craft, and Connection

When I was a kid, I ran a school newspaper advice column called Macaroni and Cheese. The name felt just right: warm, familiar, and a little cheesy, just like the advice. Now, Macaroni and Cheese is back, with a grown-up twist. This monthly feature is a space for reflection on mental health and wellness. My hope is to offer something useful, grounding, and maybe even a little comforting, because life is hard and we all need a little warmth. 

 Hi there, 

If you're reading this, thank you for your support of the Hope+Wellness community. You may be thinking, "But I'm the one here to receive support!" And yes, that's true. But by choosing Hope+Wellness for your care, you're also helping make it possible for this practice to exist as a place of hope not just for you, but for others during times of need. So thank you!

I recently took a step back and was struck by how diverse our team is, one of the most diverse across the entire Washington DC region. Hope+Wellness is also led by me, a first-generation Taiwanese American woman, which is rare. It's only with your support that this is possible in our community. So thank you for helping create a place not just of hope, but of possibility.

A few reflections this month:

Ancestry

I've never thought much about my ancestors before. But as the world feels more and more chaotic, I find it grounding to remember who we deeply are when everything around us is challenging it.

My ancestors survived the Chinese Civil War. They were entrepreneurial, sea-faring merchants for many generations, so when war came, they fled China and started up new businesses in Taiwan and the Philippines. My father then came to America from Taiwan in his 30s with nothing but a dream, $5,000, and a relentless work ethic, all to give my siblings and me a better life. This kind of attitude, the ability to face things head on, to start over, to be led by dreams, the resilience to overcome whatever comes, is something I'm proud to embody. I imagine many of you have similar stories.

The Tao Te Ching says, "The highest good is like water — it benefits all things without striving." We talk so often about inherited trauma. But what about the gifts you innately carry within you, the ones you don't have to strive for? The quiet sources of strength from your ancestors that have always been there? What would it be like to explore and honor them deeply?

Interconnection

I am fascinated by the hidden interconnections between us, the ones we may not even realize we have. For example, the story above of my ancestors is connected to yours. Mine led me to establish Hope+Wellness, which you are now connected to. Yours had to happen the way it did, just as mine did, so that they would intersect here. There is something bigger happening in our lives than any of us realize.

The late Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh called this interbeing, the idea that nothing exists independently, that we are always in relationship with something beyond ourselves. As he wrote, "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness."

But staying in touch with that takes a lot of intention, because so much of the world we live in now works against it. One thing I've been practicing is simply slowing down and noticing the people around me, really seeing them. Or spending time in nature, just to be part of something older and bigger than myself.

A client's mother once said to me, "It takes a village to raise a child." She thanked me for being part of that village. Recently, someone else said to me, "It takes a village to heal." It occurred to me then that we are perhaps meant to be village people, and that modern life has disrupted this. It's important for us to remember that we need each other and our healing and lives are interconnected in important ways. 
Excellence

I have been meditating on excellence lately. What is it exactly? The older I get, the more I believe it is not a destination, but a practice, a life philosophy, a continued commitment, one that may be naturally borne out of passion. 

I am passionate about excellence in mental health care. I once told a client's father, "I created this practice for your child before I knew they would need it, just in case they would." Because I know what it's like to feel unseen and misunderstood, to need someone you could really count on and not know where to find them. That's why Hope+Wellness exists.

With this in mind, I am leading a retreat in Florence, Italy for senior members of our team. I chose Florence because I want to understand wellness not just from books or research, but from actual life. How do Italians understand wellness? How do they live so slowly and unhurriedly? What can we learn from them and bring back here?

Florence is also a city built on craft, and there is a craftsmanship and artistry to therapy that I believe is important to uphold. As psychologists and therapists, we are the keepers of work that is sacred. What did excellence mean to the artists of Florence? How do we keep that level of craftsmanship alive in our work? These are questions I am committed to exploring, because I am not interested in just good mental health care, but mental health care that is truly exceptional. I'll keep you posted on what we learn!

The world at large

Many things are happening in the world. I've been spending a lot of time trying to process it all. How have you been feeling about everything?

Throughout my career, I've responded to feelings of overwhelm the same way: by bringing people together to talk, to generate new ideas and connections. At the University of Maryland, I founded conferences inviting top scientists to share research on diversity. At the NIH, I organized scientific workshops to advance translational science. This is part of my lineage as a clinical scientist. I was trained at world class institutions, and in science, this is simply what we do. We call it shaping science.

So now, with everything going on, I've been doing the same, gathering scientists, clinicians, artists, and everyday people on my innercalling podcast to hold conversations about what is happening and what we can do about it. I'm particularly interested in AI and its impact on young people and the developing brain, and in what healthy leadership actually looks like, the difficult internal work it takes, and what gets in the way psychologically.

Something that has stayed with me from these conversations is that although we may feel overwhelmed, we each still have the power within us to create the world we want to see. Recent guest Dr. Nancy Wadsworth spoke about what it means to hold a healthy, grounded, quiet power that comes from knowing who you are, not power over others, but showing up in a way that empowers the people around you. This resonated deeply with me because so much of mental health is really about learning to inhabit yourself fully, so that how you show up in the world is a genuine and authentic reflection of who you are. This is the kind of power that is important to model for young people.

These conversations are continuing at innercalling.org. Upcoming guests include Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the NIH; leadership expert Dr. Margaret Wheatley; and Hope+Wellness clinicians Dr. Kayleigh Hale, Chris Kovacs LCSW, and Dr. David Wen.

Thank you for being a part of our community here. Your trust in our care and making this a therapy home and a space means more than words can say. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime at victoria@hope-wellness.com if I can help in any way. Whether you are a current client or a past one, please know we are all thinking of you and wishing you well.

Best, 

Dr. Victoria Ranade, PhD, MBA, ABPP

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, 
Board Certified in Behavioral & Cognitive Therapies

Founder + President, Hope+Wellness