About Doré Frances

Doré Frances is a retired educational consultant, mental health advocate, and founder of Mental and Health Awareness—a platform dedicated to empowering individuals and families with compassionate, accessible resources. With decades of experience supporting young adults, caregivers, and behavioral health programs, Doré now focuses on community engagement and promoting meaningful change through education, storytelling, and collaboration. Known for her direct yet deeply empathetic approach, Doré brings a lifetime of lived experience to her writing, blending professional insight with personal reflections on resilience, trauma recovery, and personal growth. She is especially passionate about youth advocacy, emotional wellness, and amplifying the voices of those often unheard. When she's not writing or connecting with like-minded advocates, you can find Doré exploring the beauty of Colorado with her service dog, Aspen. Let’s build a more understanding, mentally healthy world—one story at a time.

Whispers To The Soul –The Simplicity of Being True – Series

Let me confess something. As I stumble along my own path, I find that I must learn the same lessons over and over again ~

not because I have failed, but because each return reveals a deeper truth.

Learning no longer feels like moving in a straight line. It feels more like ascending a spiral staircase. With every turn, I revisit familiar places, yet I see them from a higher vantage point.

Each step draws me deeper into the life of my soul.

What does this teach me?

In a complicated world, we are often led to believe that living simply is naïve.

Yet I have come to see that simplicity […]

No One Can Make You Feel Anything Without Your Consent

One of the greatest discoveries we can make is that while we don’t always choose our first emotional reaction, we do have far more influence over our emotional lives than we often believe.

Yet how many times have we heard someone say, “I can’t help the way I feel,” or, “You make me feel…”?

When you stop and think about it, “You make me feel…” is a remarkable statement.

It hands another person ownership of our inner world, as though they control our thoughts, emotions, and peace of mind.

Both of these phrases—“I can’t help the way I feel” and “You make me feel…”—quietly rob us of one of our greatest strengths: personal responsibility.

The moment we believe someone […]

Beneath My Silence – The Grace to Become – Series

Over the years, I’ve learned not to keep people imprisoned by who they once were. We all have versions of ourselves that no longer belong to us ~

choices we regret, lessons we had yet to learn, and seasons when our own wounds shaped the way we moved through the world.

It’s easy to remember someone by their hardest chapter. Much harder to notice the quiet work they’ve done since. But people are not meant to remain the same. Life has a way of humbling us, refining us, and inviting us to become more compassionate than we once were. I’ve watched hearts soften. I’ve seen restless souls find peace. I’ve witnessed people who once […]

Sometimes the Bravest Thing We Can Do Is Pause

Why I Stepped Away from Writing—and What I Found in the Silence

Three months ago, I closed my laptop and walked away. I didn’t make an announcement. I didn’t tell my readers I was taking a break. I simply stopped writing. At first, I wondered if I was losing a part of myself. Writing has been woven into my life for decades. It has helped me process childhood trauma, the loss of people I have loved, and the long, winding journey toward healing. Whenever life became difficult, I wrote. Whenever I discovered something worth sharing, I wrote. But this time felt different. For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t need to find the words. I needed […]

Notes from George: The Search for Peace and Purpose – Series

For George, serenity was never especially appealing. Peace of mind seemed, to him, a little too quiet. He wanted to grab life by the horns. He wanted to leap with joy, grieve deeply, and fight for what mattered.

Yet something inside him was always searching.

By his early twenties, the weight of our childhood had begun to catch up with him. The intensity we had lived through left both of us feeling untethered. We didn’t know how to live with peace because we had never known it. We felt disconnected from the world and uncertain about where we belonged. George wasn’t interested in therapy. His inner world remained restless, and his thoughts rarely […]

Beneath My Silence – Between Two Worlds – Series

Some days, it feels as though I exist between two worlds.

There is the person everyone sees ~

calm, capable, smiling at the right moments, moving through each day as though nothing has changed.

I answer questions, keep my commitments, and wear composure so naturally that few would ever think to look beyond it. Then there is the quieter life I carry within. A place where sorrow settles gently into my bones, where thoughts remain unspoken, and emotions are too deep for ordinary conversation. There are wounds no one can see, questions I cannot answer, and an ache that follows me even into moments that should feel light.

Living […]

Beneath My Silence: A Poem About Missing Someone in Silence – Series

Missing someone you cannot speak of is its own kind of silence. Not because the feeling isn’t real ~ but because it isn’t something the world would understand. So you carry it inward, like something sacred. No messages. No reaching out. No words to give it form.

Only the quiet dialogue that never leaves your heart. They return in subtle ways—
in a passing breeze, in dreams that linger, in the stillness of moments no one else notices.

You don’t miss them out loud. You miss them in the spaces between ~ between what is spoken and what remains unspoken.

And somehow, it is in that silence that they continue to exist.

The Girl Left Behind – Childhood Trauma Survivor – Series

Picture a girl sitting alone on a rock in a campground, her face streaked with tears. She is fourteen, though her thin frame makes her look even younger.

She could be pretty—with her green eyes and long blonde hair—but her face is dirty, and there is a taste in her mouth she knows she will never forget.

She has been hurt before, but not like this. A breeze passes through the oaks above her, and the dandelions around her stir. She wipes her tears, trying to steady herself.

What would it feel like, she wonders, to matter?

Then she sees the truck. White, worn, moving slowly toward her. She recognizes the man behind the […]

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