Your First Therapy Session
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Your First Therapy Session

Therapy is a common recommendation when someone discusses stress, anxiety, depression, or relationship issues. As therapists, we love to see therapy being recognized as a valid treatment option, as well as normalized to reduce stigma. We love hearing people talk about their experiences in therapy on social media and in casual conversation. But what about those of us who have never been to therapy before? What is it like? How do we know it’s a good fit? Is every session like the first session? What is going to happen?

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Climate Anxiety
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Climate Anxiety

Climate anxiety can both prevent and motivate people to address climate change through action. Different levels of climate anxiety have effects on motivation levels to act, which can ease the effects or address the causes of climate change. Surprisingly, some anxiety about climate change can be helpful in pushing us to take action, although too much or too little may result in not taking action at all.

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Learning From Failure
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Learning From Failure

The reality is failure is an inevitable part of life.  Allowing children to fail early and often when they have your support prepares them to deal with failures as a teen and adult.  But in a world where there is so much pressure on kids to succeed, as parents, it can be difficult to allow them to fail. 

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Time Outdoors and Your Mental Health
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Time Outdoors and Your Mental Health

A study of 20,000 people in 2019 found that those who spent at lease 2 hours total per week outside in green spaces reported feeling healthy and a strong sense of well-being, across ethnicity, class, age, and abilities. Looking at nature or listening to natural sounds can help energize a tired brain in the middle of repetitive tasks.

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A Study in FOMO
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

A Study in FOMO

The fear of missing out has predated social media, but not by much. Social media has thrown FOMO into the spotlight since everyone can experience a daily dose of seeing the highlights of someone else’s day. In fact, the more that people use social media like Facebook morning, noon, and night, the more they tend to experience FOMO. But FOMO doesn’t originate from social media use alone. It also comes from general unhappiness and life dissatisfaction.

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Building a Coping Kit
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Building a Coping Kit

A coping kit is simply a list of skills and strategies a child can use when feeling anxious. It helps to practice these strategies when the child is already calm. Sometimes children can memorize their list of strategies but others may need to have them written down.

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Anxiety - 5 Lesser Known Ways It Might be Affecting You
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Anxiety - 5 Lesser Known Ways It Might be Affecting You

Anxiousness is part of the normal and healthy range of human emotion, and having a fear response is designed to keep us safe. It becomes a problem when it starts to affect your daily life, such as your health, relationships, work, or school.

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The Lowdown on Loneliness: Who it impacts, how to cope, and ways to build connections.
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

The Lowdown on Loneliness: Who it impacts, how to cope, and ways to build connections.

You may find that you feel lonely even when in a group of people, around family or friends, or in a familiar social environment. This may mean that – for one reason or another – you don’t feel as connected to those you are around as you would like to, you don’t feel a true sense of belonging in a certain social environment, or you may feel misunderstood by the people you are with.

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This is Your Brain (Walking) on Sunlight
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

This is Your Brain (Walking) on Sunlight

To benefit from sunlight, the World Health Organization recommends getting brief, direct sun exposure for 5-15 minutes a couple times per week. This will help you receive a vitamin D boost and regulate serotonin levels.

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Embrace the Healing Power of Laughter
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Embrace the Healing Power of Laughter

Laughter is not only a pleasant experience; it is also a good way to improve your emotional well-being. Let’s start your journey to discover how laughter can be a new way for you to improve your mental health and identify easy ways to incorporate more laughter into your life.

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School Refusal
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

School Refusal

School refusal is different from truancy. Children who are truant refuse to go to school because they want to do something else. They will often concoct elaborate schemes to avoid going to school. However, school refusal is related to anxiety about situations or expectations at school.

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The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adulthood
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The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adulthood

Trauma is an emotional reaction to a significant event that can happen once with intensity, a series of significant events that may have varied intensity and be ongoing, or a combination of both. Trauma affects our interconnected systems physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually.

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Laziness is a MYTH
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Laziness is a MYTH

For the most part, saying someone is being “lazy” is assigning a character judgment to them. This person has two options: either they continue saying that they’re just “lazy” because that has been determined as a part of who they are as a person, or they continue being labeled as “lazy” but they feel bad about it. This is a difficult pattern to break. By calling ourselves “lazy,” we are assigning the appropriate punishment for this terrible characteristic. By calling others “lazy,” we get the satisfaction of placing blame on them.

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Surviving The Holidays
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

Surviving The Holidays

During this time of year, there are less daylight hours, the weather is not as pleasant, and there are significantly more social, financial, and familial obligations and expectations. With a few tips, you can survive the holidays and enjoy them too.

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The Sunday Scaries
Champaign Counseling Champaign Counseling

The Sunday Scaries

Sunday evening can feel like time where you are just waiting for that inevitable moment when the weekend is over, but Sundays also have potential to be relaxing and fun.

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