Kelley Counseling and Wellness

Do you constantly worry about the needs of others?  Are you so flexible with your schedule that it leaves you with absolutely no free time? Do you constantly feel like you are running from one place to the other with no breaks? Do you skip breakfast because you are too busy to eat?  Are you sacrificing everything for your friends, family, job, education, etc.? If so, it is time to learn what the word "self-care" means.   Self care is defined as "care for oneself" (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.).  That seems simple enough, however, after considering all of the examples above, are you really doing a good job of taking care of yourself?   Self-care is also defined by what you consider to be important for your own well-being. This can be broken down into basic areas of concern. The following chart is a great representation of some of the various aspects of self-care.   So after looking through those aspects of self-...

Love, Time, Patience When I was on vacation I received this fortune of sorts with my dinner, immediately I thought of how perfectly this ties into counseling. Making the decision to begin counseling can be an overwhelming and scary time for many people. We would all like to reach our goals and solve our issues with the wave of a hand but unfortunately it is not that easy. Attending counseling on a weekly basis and taking an honest look at your pain, struggles, and past is no small feat. Many clients are critical of themselves for not "being ok" or not reaching their goals as quickly as they would like. This fortune addresses the difficulties that many face when engaging in counseling. Reaching your goals and working through personal struggles takes time, there is no fast track, no quick fix; to truly resolve challenging issues you must invest the needed time. Patience and time fall into a similar category in the counseling world. There is a reason patience is rega...

Ever feel like the very thing you are trying not to think about you become or do? Many people are stuck with anxious thoughts and feelings that they just cannot seem to get rid of!  Any time a client or friend brings up being stuck I like to bring up the analogy of riding a bike. You know the feeling ... hands on the bars, two feet firmly planted on the pedals and off you go. Moving swiftly forward we aim stay on the right path, often straight, in order to stay safe and get where we want to go . Now what if when you were on this bike I told you " do not look at the tree to your left!" well often times even being told not to   do something puts your focus on it. You may look at it directly or even just out of the corner of your eye and if your looking at the tree there is a good chance you will drift towards it, even if you did not want to. Anxiety, depression, bad habits and other feelings of being stuck in life can be  very similar to the tree when yo...