Skip to main content

KUOW's Swimming Upstream

caption: Tynikki Arnold kisses her 5-year-old daughter Vay’s cheek while playing outside of their apartment on Friday, July 15, 2022.
Enlarge Icon
Tynikki Arnold kisses her 5-year-old daughter Vay’s cheek while playing outside of their apartment on Friday, July 15, 2022.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

KUOW's three-part series "Swimming Upstream" details the mental health-focused journey of one Seattle-area family through crisis. This series is part of a collection of stories about children’s mental health solutions.

Part 1: A family’s mental health journey out of crisis

caption: Tynikki Arnold sits with her 1-year-old son Messiah, and 5-year-old daughter, Vay, at their apartment in Lynnwood on Friday, July 15, 2022.
Enlarge Icon
Tynikki Arnold sits with her 1-year-old son Messiah, and 5-year-old daughter, Vay, at their apartment in Lynnwood on Friday, July 15, 2022.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer


As parents, Tynikki Arnold and her partner Sean have set a clear goal to give their kids a more loving and protected childhood than what they experienced, and to break cycles of trauma that contributed to deep emotional wounds and a mess of bad decisions.

Tynikki and Sean know it will be a prolonged and challenging effort to reverse some of the childhood trauma of their daughter's early years, and they’ve come to understand how she’s at a critical age for forming her coping responses, to both past and future stresses.


Part 2: Breaking a cycle of generational trauma

caption: Sean holds Vay, 5, as they wait for the school bus on the first day of school on Monday, September 12, 2022, outside of their apartment complex in Lynnwood.
Enlarge Icon
Sean holds Vay, 5, as they wait for the school bus on the first day of school on Monday, September 12, 2022, outside of their apartment complex in Lynnwood.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer


Lynnwood couple Tynikki Arnold and Sean became parents to their two children without much of a roadmap, if any.

Now, they’re working to break the intergenerational cycles of trauma that scarred their childhoods and seeped into adulthood.

Part 3: A family’s newfound resolve is tested — again

caption: Tynikki Arnold and Sean prepare ramen noodles for dinner for Vay, 5, and Messiah, 1, in their room at a Motel 6, on Friday, August 26, 2022. The family is staying at the motel after a fire tore through their apartment complex.
Enlarge Icon
Tynikki Arnold and Sean prepare ramen noodles for dinner for Vay, 5, and Messiah, 1, in their room at a Motel 6, on Friday, August 26, 2022. The family is staying at the motel after a fire tore through their apartment complex.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer


Tynikki and Sean spin through a cycle of scattered thoughts about what will happen to their family next following an unexpected loss.

Tynikki is especially pained to see her 5-year-old daughter revert to some of the same fears and questions she had a year ago, when they reunified after a nearly two-year separation.

For moms in recovery, these home visitors offer a lifeline

caption: Toni Gardner, lead case manager at Sound Pathways, talks with a mother on her caseload while working on Friday, September 23, 2022, in Everett.
Enlarge Icon
Toni Gardner, lead case manager at Sound Pathways, talks with a mother on her caseload while working on Friday, September 23, 2022, in Everett.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer


The pandemic left a lot of job vacancies in voluntary home visiting programs that assist parents with complex needs, including many who struggle with substance use or mental health.

Advocates are making a big push for the state to invest more in this workforce and expand capacity for families.

Reporter's notebook: tending to childhood scars in a pandemic, both old and new

caption: The author's grandfather Rotchley Jones (left) and father Aaron Jones (lower right) around age two, likely photographed in Portland, Oregon in 1947.
Enlarge Icon
The author's grandfather Rotchley Jones (left) and father Aaron Jones (lower right) around age two, likely photographed in Portland, Oregon in 1947.
Courtesy of Aaron Jones



For most of my life, I’d wondered about the adversity my dad faced as a child, including substance abuse in the home and time he spent in foster care. The questions got louder during the pandemic, as I started a reporting project about children’s mental health.

I knew I needed to rope my dad into an uncomfortable conversation — uncomfortable for me anyway. His response surprised me.

Reporter interview: The roots of mental health start younger than you think

caption: Vay, 5, rides a bicycle outside of the apartment complex where she lives on Friday, July 15, 2022.
Enlarge Icon
Vay, 5, rides a bicycle outside of the apartment complex where she lives on Friday, July 15, 2022.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer


Reporter Liz Jones discusses this series with Soundside host Libby Denkmann.

Why you can trust KUOW