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YCG About Us
About Us

We Built the Support We Couldn't FindA team of clinicians, advocates, and parents โ€” walking this road alongside you, not ahead of you.

Your Cultural Guide started with one family's search for answers, and grew into a resource for every parent who's been told to wait, told it's probably nothing, or simply left without a map.

Read Our Story Meet the Team
Clinical expertise Lived experience Real support
Our Story

It Started With One Family โ€” and Too Many Unanswered Questions

Your Cultural Guide began with our founder, Caren Diane, and a search no parent should have to face alone.

  1. The Search

    For years, Caren searched for the right diagnosis for her oldest child โ€” and felt unheard at nearly every turn.

  2. The Pattern

    Along the way, she saw the same thing happening to family after family: confusion, frustration, and no clear guidance anywhere.

  3. The Mission

    Drawing on her work in psychiatric nursing and childhood education, she built YCG to give parents what she wished she'd had at the start โ€” simple, practical support to understand what's happening, take the next step with confidence, and feel less alone.

Our Mission

Support That Fits Real Life

We create accessible, easy-to-digest parenting tools that help families navigate their child's mental health needs โ€” blending professional expertise with lived experience, humor, and inspiration.

What we bring together

Professional expertise Lived experience Humor Inspiration
So parents gain

Knowledge

Clear, accurate information so you understand what's happening and what comes next.

Confidence

The tools and language to make decisions and advocate without second-guessing yourself.

Community

The reassurance that you're not navigating any of this alone.

Who We Serve

Wherever You Are, We Meet You There

Families come to us from very different starting points. Pick the one that sounds like you.

Parents of newly diagnosed children

We support parents who feel overwhelmed right after a new diagnosis.

What we provide

  • Courses explaining conditions, causes, treatment options, therapies, and medications
  • Guides on navigating healthcare, insurance, and school supports
  • Books, workbooks, and videos with practical strategies and personal stories

Parents who suspect something's wrong

We support families who see the signs but don't know where to start.

What we provide

  • Clear explanations of mental health conditions
  • Symptom breakdowns for home, school, and social settings
  • Guides explaining the roles of different mental health professionals
  • Step-by-step navigation of the behavioral health system
  • Roadmaps for accessing care, working with schools, and seeking evaluations
  • Communication strategies to describe symptoms clearly to professionals
Our Team

The People Behind Your Cultural Guide

A multidisciplinary team of clinicians, advocates, educators, and creators โ€” many of whom bring lived experience to the work alongside their professional expertise.

Caren Diane, Founder of Your Cultural Guide Founder

Caren Diane

BA, MA, MSN* โ€” Founder of Your Cultural Guide LLC

Caren is a medical anthropologist, public health and child/adolescent psychiatric nurse, educator, and mother. Her passion for this work is deeply personal: her oldest child was diagnosed with a severe mental illness at age 12, after years of misdiagnosis. Navigating a system with few real resources for parents, she and her son learned together through trial, error, and perseverance.

That experience, combined with her clinical work, sparked her lifelong mission โ€” to give parents accurate, practical, and compassionate guidance for raising children with ADHD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders.

Featured in Many Pathways by Stephanie Greer, PhD, and in Authority Magazine

Serving YCG in an educational role only.

Scott David

Scott David

Medical Consultant ยท Child, Adolescent & Forensic Psychiatry*

After a distinguished 34-year career, Scott retired as the most senior psychiatrist in the U.S. Army.

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He provided care for children, adolescents, and adults across both inpatient and outpatient settings, and served as Program Director of a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program.

Recognized for his expertise, he has testified as an expert witness in both military and civilian courtrooms.

Serving YCG in an educational role only.

Iz

Iz

Patient Advocate Consultant

A lifelong learner living with Bipolar 1, ADHD, C-PTSD, anxiety, and DID โ€” whose lived experience offers rare insight into childhood through young-adult challenges.

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Alongside extensive personal research โ€” particularly on bipolar disorder โ€” he shares perspectives on prodromal symptoms and techniques for reducing episodes in addition to traditional treatment. He is working toward a degree in neuropsychology.

Elliot "Axiom" Miley

Elliot “Axiom” Miley

MAT SpEd, QMHP, QDDP ยท Content Editor & Special Education Consultant*

Elliot brings deep hands-on experience across classrooms, inpatient psychiatric facilities, correctional settings, and leadership roles in mental health and special education.

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He holds a Master's in the Art of Teaching Special Education and a BA in Psychology, and has served as a Qualified Mental Health Professional and Qualified Developmental Disabilities Professional โ€” counseling in alternative high schools, supervising youth in group homes and day schools, and directing student services.

He co-founded a youth male mentoring program that gained statewide recognition, and is trained in P.L.A.A.Y. (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth) by Dr. Howard C. Stevenson, as well as Nonviolent Crisis Intervention and Crisis Prevention.

He is also a nationally acclaimed spoken-word and teaching artist and a champion slam poet, using creativity and expression as tools for understanding and healing.

Serving YCG in an educational role only.

Kaleo

Kaleo

Social Media Assistant

Based in Hawaii, Kaleo brings creativity, adaptability, and a strong grasp of social media โ€” helping our content reach and connect with parents across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

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He previously managed social media for a local business, developing skills in content creation, copywriting, graphic design, video editing, and digital marketing.

Kaleo is currently studying toward a future career in mental health care, and combines his technical skills with lived experience navigating mental health challenges โ€” approaching the work with empathy and authenticity as we grow and support more families.

There's More

Want to Hear More From Us?

You've seen who we are and why we do this. If you'd like to hear more โ€” the real, everyday moments parents and families share with us โ€” our stories are where the conversation keeps going.

Read the Stories