My 2026 Predictions for the World of Mental Health

Mental and physical health will be highly tailored to your needs and what works best for you. And then we can be much more preventative with it instead of reactive.

Hey there and welcome to let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter, A space to talk honestly and get real about mental health, therapy and all things wellness. I'm Lori, licensed therapist, speaker and your host, here to bring you insights, tools and information you can actually use. Whether you're navigating anxiety, healing your relationship with food, or trying to figure out which techniques will work for your life. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive in and let's talk about it.

Welcome back to another episode of let's Talk About It.

I'm a therapist.

I create content. I have this podcast, but I pretty much do both full time. I don't just see a handful of clients each week and then focus the rest of my efforts on social media and educating and extracurricular stuff. And this podcast I see 30 plus clients a week and often see trends, themes. And between my client load and spending time on the interwebs, I've really been thinking about what's transpired over the past year or two and where I think things are headed in 2026 because it's always cool to hear what people in their industry are thinking is coming. You know, finances, the housing market, all of that. But I haven't seen anyone kind of predict or reflect on what they're thinking is ahead for the world of mental health and well being in the terms of what I do. So I've been thinking about it and when it comes to my own business and my own content, you're gonna see a lot of things shift in the next year and it'll be really exciting because you're gonna see a lot of things become available to you with what I'm creating. But I think the world of mental health in general, there's gonna be shifts and there's gonna be some things that I think in terms of my predictions are gonna come true. So I'm kind of excited to go through this. At the time that I'm saying all of this, I'm putting the final touches on my course, stop eating your feelings and that's going to launch soon. So that's been in the works. The people who have already gone through it are loving it and have been able to implement changes immediately and they're seeing results and I'm so freaking excited, it's ridiculous. So even the things I'm doing, I'm excited about and Again to like see how the world of mental health and well being transpires over the next year. It, I'm excited about it because this, this is my bread and butter. Like this excites me, but I also think it's going to be really good for the people consuming content and the ones in therapy or the ones who are wanting to get started on their healing journey or really work on their wellness or their nervous system. These are obviously Lori theories, what I always call kind of like my own thoughts. But from everything I've seen with my own clients and online, I venture a guess that these thoughts are pretty accurate and I've really thought a lot about it and I'm here to share them with you. So the first one is because AI has exploded, we have everything at our fingertips. My first prediction is we're really going to see people take ownership over their lives and invest in themselves. You might think, well, people already do that and yeah, they do, but, but because of the increase of ease to access to whatever info we want, people are going to take their lives by the horns and really use the info they have to create changes that they've been desiring on a much grander scale. I think for a lot of fence sitters, more people are going to take charge and create plans for themselves and invest in smaller offers like my course to get really the most bang for their buck. Especially in this economy. It's how do I take care of myself and move my life forward in the most efficient way possible. And these things that we have access to are going to expedite that process. The second thing is on the flip of the explosion of AI and the use of our Internet, I truly think we're going to see a huge increase in community driven events and in person stuff. Stuff. During COVID I never stopped seeing clients in person. I always did with whoever wanted to continue. Whoever was comfortable with that, I was okay with it. As the world like opened up, we saw a slow shift of people returning to work. And now we're seeing a lot of companies going back to requiring people being in person, if not all of the time, a lot of the time. And of course there's going to be companies who are remain fully remote and that's totally fine. We're always going to have outliers in different ends of the spectrum. But we are seeing this shift now in terms of work and I'm seeing a strong desire from clients and people online wanting to make in person connections again, whether it be a mentor or a therapist or a coach. Or even seeing their doctor. They're looking for in person connections. And I think especially events like we want to be around like minded individuals, local events or restaurants that are maybe device free and they kind of promote that atmosphere. I really think we're going to see a growing demand of that in person connection. It's almost like this desire of community over solo care kind of preference. And, and I think there's always going to be a place for online stuff that's just the world we're living in. But I know many people are craving those real life interactions more and more these days and we're going to see it much more available in order to achieve that, in order to create those connections. So on my end you might want to keep your eye out for local community events that I'm planning this year. But I think we're going to see a big explosion of that stuff because so many people are desiring in person connections over online where possible. The third prediction I have is that if you've been following me for a while, you've heard me talk about the nervous system. Something I've seen a lot in almost the two decades I've been a therapist, are that each thing gets their time in the sun. We've seen amazing techniques like EMDR go mainstream and be talked about by celebrities. We've seen words like narcissism become almost overused and applied to anyone who presents as selfish. And what I'm getting at is that as I watch and see these trends and themes and specific terminology really get pushed into the limelight because of the beauty of social media. So the way I'm looking at it is while you have to be discerning about where you're getting your info, I predict that 2026 will be like the year of the nervous system. People are going to be learning about how to take better care of their nervous system as they realize how much of a driver it is for our health and well being and the importance of properly managing it through things like intentional breathing, body based practices and other methods. Again, while I've been teaching this stuff for years, people are really going to gain a big understanding that a healthy nervous system has the potential to boost your cognitive functioning, your immune system, your digestion, your mental health, your emotional stability. It is the driving force behind a lot of our well being. And if you want to know more about this, let me know. I do a ton of this stuff with my clients and I know I'm going to be one of the people very much contributing to shining the light on the nervous system in 2026 as well. And kind of a bonus prediction I've been thinking a lot about this too, is that I think we're going to see a lot more availability when it comes to like highly personalized care. I have several clients who have done gene testing to see what medications will work best for them. It's wild when I've looked at these reports and read them with my clients and it's fascinating to see what kind of information comes up and the benefits they get from a personalized approach to something like medication management.

So.

So other things like mood and menstrual cycle based workouts are already slowly becoming more and more mainstream. But we're going to see so much more of whole person root cause care, which I already focus on. But it's good because mental and physical health will be highly tailored to your needs and what works best for you. And then we can be much more preventative with it instead of reactive. I think this drive toward exploring these ways to create highly personalized care can be really, really powerful and impactful. I'm excited to see what these other industries do with it and I think it's going to make a really big difference in someone's healing journey, forward motion achievement of their goals, whatever it might be for them. I want to know what your thoughts are. What do you think? What trends have you mean in general, but especially in this world of mental health and well being, are you already working on some of these things? It's fun to see what is going to come of all of this and revisit at the end of next year, at the end of 2026. And in the meantime, definitely keep your eye out for the happenings over here on my pages. And you're going to see a lot of current info on Instagram, but my TikTok now is very current. LinkedIn threads kind of wherever you are, you'll see a lot of my stuff in my podcast episodes and more video based stuff available on YouTube. So that's like my contribution to getting this stuff out into the world and what I see as important and what I know helps my audience. I just think this is a big shift for my business and my content in the best way possible. And I think some amazing things are in store for you when it comes to your mental health and your well being. And I'm really excited for what 2026 has to bring in terms of your wellness. And I think you're gonna see a lot of this stuff really be pushed into the limelight in the best way possible, and I'm excited for what it's going to be able to do to help people and have such a positive impact. Until next time, take care.

Thanks for hanging out with me today on let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. If this episode resonated with you, it would mean so much if you'd leave a five star review and share it with a friend or come say hi on Instagram loristreeter. Your support will help this podcast grow and I so appreciate you being here today. I want to help people just like you, feel like they're not alone and gain the tools they need to grow. Until next time, take care.