At the Mental Health Summit, Day 2 went deeper than symptoms. We explored the root. Most people think they have a learning, focus, or motivation problem. They don’t. What we uncovered is how conditioning, environment, and internal patterns shape performance long before effort even begins. This is where the shift happens—from fixing behavior to understanding the human system behind it.
Because nothing works until the system is ready.
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Listen to the podcast here
Mental Health Summit Day 2: Why Learning Isn’t The Problem… Your System Is With Toni Sartorelli
We just finished day two at the Mental Health Summit 2026, and we are in beautiful Banff, Alberta. It cannot get any better. We had so many conversations here, so many conversations.
You saw elk this morning?
I walked by four of them.
On the sidewalk.
They did not mind me. They were minding their own business, but I am in their house.
You should.
I did take photos of them from a distance. I did not disturb them. We want to talk about Day 2. I have Coach Tony with me. She was incredible. She stepped out of her own comfort zone big time. Congratulations. It is not easy coming to these events. It is not. I learned so much.
You are a different person. I am just leaving with ideas that I am going to need some time to process. Big ideas, lots of big ideas. I am tired in a good way.
It is just a good exhaustion.
Pioneers Looking For Solutions At The Summit
It is a good exhaustion, and it was a good stress, too. I had some conversations with the people that were at the booths around us. They feel like friends now. They really do. They were all very unique, interesting, individual people. Everyone had a story, and the story was fascinating. At the end of the day, I thought, “We are all here because we are pioneers. We are all here because we felt this. Our nervous system felt this before other people felt it. We were looking for a solution because we were feeling it too. We are a little ahead of the game. We are kind of canaries in a coal mine. We are all looking for the same thing, and we all appreciate each other and what we are doing.”
There was no competition in this at all. It is not a race against who is going to get it. It is more that we need to solve something that is so big and so much hurting and so many humans are suffering. There is a solution coming to this. I am just as excited as you are. The most important thing I notice is how much the readiness OS could be the foundation that can hold all the brilliant ideas here. It can hold all of it. It can contain all of it. It all came together.
Creating Paths Between Oases In The Desert
Even though we are in these beautiful mountains with all of this snow, the image that I am leaving with is that there is a desert out there. In that desert, there are a lot of people, and we are one of them. Each of those people is a little oasis in the desert, and it is hard to find, and it is life-sustaining. I think that what happened this weekend was we started to make some paths between those oases.
We started to find ways that people can ask, “Which oasis do you want to go to first, and then which one comes second? How can we work together to get all these people across this desert? Someday there is going to be enough that there will not be a desert anymore. It will be a world that is just in bloom. That is how I feel at the end of it. It was an amazing two days.
I love a garden. I love taking flowers. The mountains are going away. “Do not take the mountain away.” That is unfair. It is automatic. We cannot stop it. We have to let it go. You saw the view. It is still there. What was day two? What was your biggest takeaway on day two?
Everyone that I spoke to, no matter what role they were in, whether they were a private psychologist, whether they were a person who publishes, doing doctoral research, whether they were teachers, everyone, the conversation was never, "We do not think this is good." We did not have to prove it to anyone.
We did not come with that energy. I never had that. You did not have that.
The conversations were more about how can we make this work for us? A lot of people left with the thought, "How do we make this work?" We presented that, “What do you need?” I cannot tell you that until you tell us what you need. I think just like with holistic success codes, what you are going to do, I do not know. We are going to do whatever you need. That softened a lot of people and helped them realize that we are here for the same thing that they are.
Someone asked me, "Is this multi-level marketing?" No. That was the only time anyone ever experienced that. As soon as I started talking, she got that, “Oh.” That was one of the conversations where you were even asked, "Do we do this in French?" That was a barrier, and that barrier was easily crossed. Our conversations were not about "Is this something that we see value in?" Our conversations were about "How do we take it and go with it?" We will see what follows through from that.
Discussing The Challenge Of Scaling Solutions In Schools
With that same conversation, you told me that the lady asked about how the scale is. How do we scale it? How does it happen in a school environment? School is all about scaling. You have to show them how do you mass produce this. We have been about holistic and customization, individualization, and personalization. At the school level, those are usually hard to achieve.
We try our best, but they are hard to achieve. When someone is receiving how holistic our process is, and how involved it is, that is a question. How do we scale this? That is a job that I can take on completely because that is the challenge that I am built for. I love that challenge because, first of all, you remember day one. Those three boys came, and they said, "We will vote to have this in our school. Can we get this, and can we force them to do this?" Force them to have this in their school?
That says a lot about what they are used to, does it not? Can you force them to do something that is good for them?
Yes, that is true. In another way, yes. With them coming and saying that, and then when she asked, that is something all of our coaches, along with me, will make happen. It is going to make all these problems we have at hand dissolve, and we are going to get back into flow. The teachers who love the job that they do are going to go back and do the job they love in the space they love. Children are going to start learning, and we are going to eliminate behaviors, and school is going to become a beautiful oasis, a garden again.
A place that attracts teachers, not sheds them.
I just feel like everything came in a circle. For me, when she asked, I guess if that is your only worry, leave that to us, because that is excitement for me.
Can we make this work for 1.5 billion people?
Yes, we can. It all starts small, but it always works because that is the willingness rate. The teachers' willingness and the students' willingness. He said it, the boy said it. He understood what it was, and he is saying, "Why cannot we have this?”
It starts small—but it works when there is willingness.
“Why cannot you have it?"
If every one of these kids hears it and then they feel like, if we have this, we can all succeed. We all talk about reaching our full potential, but we do not have a way of reaching it. We get blocked, and we get stuck, and we suppress ourselves. We do not know how to express ourselves. If we can give them the Readiness OS to do just that, anybody can reach their full potential. Anybody, everybody, even with labels. Any label, it does not matter.
I am seeing it already in Flow Foundation's work for bringing teachers back to who they are, having them be able to tap into their situational awareness again, to be aware of the room, and see something happening and have hope that you can do something to change it. Choose something that you just learned to help yourself and to try that with your students. We did not have to teach that teacher to do that.
We just had to bring that teacher back to teaching, give her a couple of tools that she felt in her body. When she sees a student, she is naturally going to go in and see if that works for the student. When it does, they will start to make changes. We do not have to give them a program. “Try this.” As a consultant, I could have walked into her classroom and said, "You should try Responsive Classroom. Maybe you should have a morning meeting." That all feels like more. When we show her that, and she feels that, and she feels the help.
She is also returning to herself. First, we have to be returning here.
That is what I am saying. She is already returning to herself because she is already back to that hope, back to that care, back to that feeling that she can change those kids in her class. That feeling has gone for some teachers. That is just week four. Kohila, that is amazing. It is truly an amazing process.
I love it. I love seeing their face. Another thing that is a side effect. You can ask all the teachers who have gone through that. Your skin starts glowing.
I might have to do this.
Back pain and shoulder pain have been going from our Flow Foundation, and they go to massage, and the massage person says your skin feels different. It is no longer like this. It is not the stiff skin anymore that you had that "I cannot even work on you."
The photographer that was in Edmonton did not quite recognize me and did not quite know who was talking to you. I think I needed to do something with that picture that I have of myself from before we started.
That is your Flow Foundation.
A picture of myself now. It is like my before and after. I looked at it, and I look fifteen years older in that picture from four years ago.
Replacing Balance With Non-Negotiables And Boundaries
It is not only going to bring you back home. It is going to give you a new face that is going to look fifteen years younger. She just said it. I am not saying it. You are going to be happier, and you are going to serve anyone from an overflow. When you are depleted and serving from that, it is an empty cup, and it does not work. A lot of people talked about balancing.
I let that go so many years ago because I balanced it heavily in my life. I juggled lots of things at the same time when I was a single mom. I know balance never works. That is why I went to non-negotiables. Set non-negotiables in your life. They do not change because the day changed or somebody was upset or something happened. The non-negotiables are non-negotiable. That is why they are called non-negotiables. You cannot negotiate with them.
Time with your children. Time to rest.
What is it for you? Getting up at 3:00 AM is a non-negotiable for me. Why? Because between 3:00 AM and 8:00 AM, I have my whole day won. I win my whole day. The rest of the time is my time to serve, take care of myself, be with the loved ones, go volunteer, do whatever I like. I can do it. That is because I have created it. Am I going to recommend that is a non-negotiable for everybody to live by? No, that is my non-negotiable. What have you set up as a non-negotiable? Maybe spending time with your pet?
Non-negotiable for me. One of the reasons why I joined this is because I wanted to have time with my husband, and I wanted to have time with my dogs, and I wanted to be in my garden, and I wanted to enjoy life, and I wanted to travel.
Time, quality, non-negotiable times.
To be with people and not feel rushed all the time. Many relationships had just faded over teaching. People invite you, and you say, "I cannot because I have to write report cards. I cannot because I am teaching." Slowly over time, people just stop inviting. You find yourself. My non-negotiable is quality time with the people that I love. That is it.
Many relationships fade through teaching. People invite you, and you say, “I can’t—I have to write report cards, I have to teach.” Over time, the invitations stop.
Along with that, instead of balancing, we go to boundaries. I started drawing boundaries around certain things. Those two together are the equation to live a life that is fulfilling as you serve others. Serving, we cannot stop. Somebody has to be careful. Stop the serving part. It does not matter how tired I am. I will continue to do that service because it is part of the blood of many caretakers who are in this field of education. Caretakers, nurses. Anybody who is in that position, they cannot stop serving. It is their drive. That is not one of their non-negotiables. Service.
Also, another one of my non-negotiables is when I rest, I am going to rest, and I am not going to feel guilty about it.
Permitting to rest.
If my body is tired, I am going to rest.
I went, and after there were some other speakers, I did not come with you, because my body said, "That is it for you."
There were some things that I wanted to put on our table that were not on our table.
It is fine.
I decided I could do that, or I could rest. My body needs to rest. It was fine.
Also, we can get into the perfection of it, like "I do not have it, now this whole show is going to be not good," but instead we do not need to worry about it. Whatever we had was perfect on our table. That is the perfect table we could ever build. It was perfect, and everybody loved it. It is about those things, because every day we could stress about things that do not need to be that stressful.
We created it. Nobody else. For me, day one, just to wrap up here, for me, day one was those three boys. I will never forget that scene. It was God's end. I watched them talk to you, and then someone beside us, the lady, said, "You should be filming this." I did not want to invade their privacy, but behind the scenes, I took some photos of them. I heard you say, "Did you hear that?" I started crying when he said that.
Someone came up and talked to me after, and I started crying too.
It is the most beautiful, authentic, purest energy form of a human being who could say to us that this belongs in the school system. Let us get it. Can you force it?
From a junior high school boy. It does not get better than that. That is a tough audience.
One of them, and then day two is probably for me. Just sitting and watching you was very beautiful for me.
You sat and watched me?
I was so cross with you.
You told me you were not watching me. You told me you were working.
I know. As I watched you interact with people, I could see you go into the next energy level. I am a big energy jumper. I could see you flowing in that and just being free. Conversation after conversation. You did not just shut yourself down. I was just seeing you flourish. It was more like, "Look at her flow."
I felt so comfortable here. Everyone here, I kept hearing the conversations in this building, the people here. There was real energy in this building. That was amazing. It really was. It is hopeful. It is really hopeful.
What about for you? Day one to day two. What is the high?
Day one for me was the three boys. For sure. They were so adorable, and they know exactly what they need. They know exactly what they want, and they understood what is missing. They started connecting us to the teachers that they love and to the things that they like. They were connecting it to their own lives. They were not just listening. They were truly understanding. That "Can we vote for this?" came from a place where they understood what we were. It was not just cheeky. It was real understanding.
It is about perspective, and that is something that kids are so capable of. We leave it as if it is something we can develop on our own. At a young age, even kindergarten, we can start storytelling. Everybody loves a story. If we can start storytelling, what do you think this angle is? What do you think he is thinking? What do you think she is thinking? Where do you think that is happening? We will always think like that. All it takes is to think in all angles. You do not get stuck with "This is it."
How do we get to beating ourselves up? Just saying one story. If I am able to create 4 or 5 different versions of it, then I am just analyzing. I become an analyst toward it, versus I just create one, and I stick with it, and I loop it. That is it. “He is like this, she is like this.” This is what they are doing to me, or this is what is happening. If we say, "What about this angle? What about that?" Everybody will have a critical mind. That critical mindset will start so early. That is important, I think.
There were a lot of different perspectives in this room.
This was a full building.
I learned so much from some people.
That is one of our third-table down. She had a real bicycle.
She did. A tree and a book that she wrote about her son who had ADHD, about a boy who had ADHD.
She had a story. She wanted everyone to understand what ADHD is and how it is so that people can have perspective.
Also, we had a long conversation about how important it is to be seen in the world that you live in. I told her there is going to be someone who reads this book about a child who has ADHD and sees themselves in a mirror. For that child, that is everything. She has already experienced those children. For all of the people here from all of their diverse backgrounds and different perspectives, they all have something to offer. I learned something I did not know. I learned about the paper bag test.
It's important to be seen in the world you live in.
I do not know that.
What is a paper bag test? I do not know enough of it to speak about it, but a paper bag was actually used to decide who was going to come into the club. If you were too White, you could not come into the club. If you were too Black, you could not come into the club because that club was for the people who were not White or Black, because they were the children that were the result of the slave owners and their slaves.
They were not White or Black, and the white community did not want to know they were there, and the Black community did not want to welcome them. They made their own club. You would literally put your hand up against a paper bag to decide if you could be in that club. Those clubs are talking. You learn something, and you gain some perspective, and you gain some empathy and some understanding, and you talk, and they gain empathy and understanding from you. We all start to look more the same than we are different.
I only see humans.
I did too.
Explaining Soul Print Biology And Custom Coaching
That is why holistic human development, even this program over the years, started for children. It is now universal for all humans because we are always the same code. Same code, but uniqueness. It is filled with uniqueness, but the code of human beings is it is the uniqueness of those codes. That is why somebody was asking me, another thing that happened is somebody asked me, "What is soul print biology? You keep saying soul print biology. What is it?" Soul print biology is the uniqueness we have to look at internally. We all have a blueprint. We all have a fingerprint. We all have DNA that is unique to us. It is exactly like that.
No two people have the same fingerprint on earth.
We are going to have our own print of blocks because, however we experienced it, however we got conditioned, however we made stories of that conditioning, is going to imprint and suppress our systems so that when we are trying to express it to perform, we do not know what is suppressing us. We have all these words that we can put on it, but it is only from the external world.
What is happening internally? That is why we have to go to the soul print biology of it so that we can figure out what that print looks like. We can build a custom coaching program that is designed for that person. Now, is it scalable? Obviously, and of course it is scalable because we have machines, we have AIs, we have so many things coming out right now. That is not even a question. It is scalable.
We already saw that it was scalable. We had a teacher who has not even done teaching in flow. She is just in week four of flow foundations, and she is already doing teaching in flow because she knows it works and she cares about people. It is not scalable in one sense, but once people feel better, they want to tell people how they got to feel better.
It’s a ripple effect.
It is. That is scalability. Yes, that is natural scalability. These humans are thriving over there. They are more likely to survive, and they are more likely to tell other people how to survive. That is natural scalability.
Collaborating With Psychologists For Holistic Services
I want to say thank you for bringing this opportunity into my world. First, when you introduced it, I was like, "No, thank you." Again, in my space, I have to become aligned, and so then it became an alignment. I am here. Next year, will I come back? Of course. Will I be presenting? Of course, we are going to speak on stage. We are going to have a booth. We will be going to more of these because I think it is time for us to speak and share and collaborate.
I think so too.
Another big thing that happened, I have to say this, is that I have been saying to all of our coaches how compatible we are with psychologists, counselors, therapists. It was always a question, like, "How are we different?" Would we hold our own lane? They are professionals in their own ways. We do not cross lanes. We can implement everything they are trying to implement holistically. One of the problems even they face is having the time and the holistic intervention implementation. Implementation is a huge part of any process.
They feel the same way we feel. When they have a client, and they have done everything that they can do, and they do not have anything for that client, they are just as happy to see us because now they do not have to let that client go. Now they can help that client in a more effective way. Many people are talking about building wraparound services and buildings where there are occupational therapists and coaches, and building because you want to make it holistic.
You want to make it holistic. If you isolate everything, it takes a long time to get to the result. If it is holistic. That is another thing in our world. Many of our things have been done that way. Everything fragmented and segmented. We want to bring it all together. She is tired.
I am very tired. I do not recommend manning a booth for two days.
She actually shared a room with me, and I get up at 3:00 AM. I probably won’t let her sleep.
You are a bit exhausting. You just “Go, go.”
I did get up at 3:00 AM.
You are leaning in. I want to lie down.
I do not recommend that, but that is how my body works. Again, we want to serve 1.5 billion humans by 2035. By coming to Banff to this event in 2026, to the Mental Health Summit, I can say, you can say as well, that we are going to get to that number before it is 2035. There is no question. The ripple effect, it is going to happen. The collaborations are going to happen. We have so many people who want to collaborate with us, who see this as the foundation of what they want to build. They can feel it, I can feel it, you can feel it.
It is not "Do you want to collaborate?" it is "How can we collaborate?"
The question and the want and the need are already there. I am excited to come to this, but excited is the word and the feeling that I am leaving this place with and growth.
I am leaving this place with growth because I was just going to come here and listen to people and maybe introduce myself to a few. You put me in this position where I had to talk to people, and I would not have thought to do this by myself, but I am leaving here knowing that if there is another conference, I will ask to be an exhibitor, and I will set up our booth, and I will talk to people, and I will tell them, and that is scalability.
Mental Health Summit: I came here just to listen and introduce myself to a few people. I'm put in a position where I had to talk to others—and I wouldn’t have done that on my own. Now I’m leaving knowing that next time, I’ll be an exhibitor, set up a booth, and speak to people. That’s scalability.
High five. Thank you so much for joining us. If you have any questions, if you have any comments, if you are a counselor, if you are a district or any school board, just reach out to us. Let us see how we can collaborate. Let us see how we can come into your district and help your teachers really come home to themselves so that they can serve. You do not have to face all the absences. There is so much absence that teachers are taking because they cannot cope with it. Children are not learning. Let us fix it. We have solutions. In this room, in this building, we had so many people with solutions too.
What I have heard from so many people who are caregivers, and this includes teachers. The real source of the burnout and the disillusionment is that I think teachers naturally hold space. They hold space for students in hard times. They hold space for families in hard times. They make it safe to get messy. Now that teachers need someone to hold that space for them, and a lot of caregivers are at that point of burnout, and they just need someone to hold that space for them to make it safe to heal and give them tools to heal, and no one is there to hold that space for them. We are ready to hold that space for them and teach them how to hold that space for other people.
That just that in itself, just saying to a teacher, "We know this is going to be a process and we want you to be you again. We are going to do this for you," and to hold that space and give them the time to go through the messy, ugly parts of really looking at yourself and understanding why these things are happening and how do I change them? That is not easy. They need someone to hold them there and make it safe. Instead, they are being told, "Maybe you are done." I think just the act of holding that space for staff, even if they do not, they are going to feel like someone cared, as someone valued them. That alone is going to make teachers want to work at your school.
Who does not like that?
That is better than any benefit plan.
Thank you. If you guys have anything, anybody tuning in, send me a DM, send us questions, and we will answer them. We are going to move forward with our ripple effect and serving 1.5 billion humans by 2035. Thank you.
I believe that is going to happen more than ever.
I love it. Thank you, Tony. Thank you for coming with me here.
Thank you.
Thank you.