The future of the mental health panel at the Outside Circle Show is being shaped less by ambition and more by intention — and the 2025 event made that clear. By allowing the panel to stand on its own for the first time, organizers didn’t just expand their efforts; they clarified purpose.
Justin Reichert and Nicole Grady joined forces to pave a trail for authentic cowboy connection at The Outside Circle Show in Elko, Nevada, to address the mental health crisis in the cowboy community. The cowboy music and poetry show, which has since 2014 featured cowboys who live the lifestyle, included a mental health panel beginning in 2023.
Honesty set the tone for the 2025 panel. Rather than presenting recovery or mental health as a fixed destination, the conversation acknowledged reality: people stumble, communities adapt, and support must remain flexible.
“Sobriety sometimes is fluid, and sometimes we have friends that fall out of their sobriety, or are struggling with sobriety,” Grady says.
With honesty and flexibility in mind the decision to restructure the event played a major role in how the panel was received. Knowing the stigma cowboys may struggle with, in year’s prior Reichert and Grady had set up the event in a way that allowed attendees to fly under the radar.
“I intentionally scheduled the [cowboy gear trade party] afterward, because it’s a natural draw and it gives people a reason to come up to that floor and be there without being obvious,” Grady says. “By allowing the mental health panel to be before and having the trade party after, the people in the panel can kind of mill around, and people can very inconspicuously come up and talk to them.”
In 2025, Grady set to address mental health and substance abuse in the cowboy community with intentionality and honesty head on.
“We moved the trade party this year,” Grady says. “It was very much everybody who was meant to be there, was there. It was as busy as it has been.”
The results were immediate and visible. Even from her vantage point as the moderator Grady says the response was striking.
“When I looked over my shoulder at one point to do a time check, I was shocked at how full the room was,” Grady says. “Justin said it filled up pretty quickly.”
By giving the panel its own space, Outside Circle allowed its core community to reassert itself.
“The younger generation of cowboys is starting to kind of trickle in,” Grady said. “The older generation of cowboys showed up both weekends.”
The panel also became a hub for deeper storytelling hosting podcasts with Jeremy Morris of Wild Courage, and including panelists Britton and Milli Collum.
Looking forward, growth isn’t the goal for growth’s sake. In 2026, the Outside Circle will host its 4th annual Open Panel Discussion on Mental Health & Addiction in the Cowboy Community January 24, in Elko, Nevada.
“Now that we have a little room to grow, we’ll just kind of continue to slowly, try to organically, keep growing it like we have,” Grady says. “Hopefully we can keep it to where… we do our thing and it stays that family, cowboy, like minded group of people.”
In a world often driven by noise and numbers, the Outside Circle mental health panel is choosing something quieter and more durable. By protecting its space and its people, it’s building a future where showing up — fully and honestly — matters more than simply being seen.
Find more on the Outside Circle Show’s 2026 mental health panel here.
Will CEU’s be available for therapists that attend?