The ReStory Blog
Understanding the Symptoms of Depression
Shana lost her son, Owen, to suicide two weeks after his fifteenth birthday. According to his friends, Owen was extremely kind, social, funny, and well-liked. So when he started manifesting changes in his behavior, Shana simply attributed it to a rebellious teenage phase. But before Shana could ask her son herself, young Owen had already taken his life. This is Shana's story, and it isn't a pleasant one. Unfortunately, many others are going through what Owen went through, which is why it's essential that we educate ourselves about mental health conditions, such as depression.
Therapy vs. Spiritual Direction: Which is best for me?
“Should I look into therapy or spiritual direction?” As a trained spiritual director and therapist, I hear this question frequently. While therapy and spiritual direction are both safe spaces to talk and receive care, they are quite different. Let’s take a closer look at each of them so you can have a better understanding of which one might be most beneficial for you.
5 Reasons to do a Christian Counseling Intensive in Colorado
Counseling intensives with Restoration Counseling are all about you. Our ReStory Counseling Intensive Specialists set aside 15 hours over 3 days for individual or marriage intensives focused on the stories that have shaped your present reality.
When you remove yourself from your daily surroundings to intentionally pursue healing, a depth is reached in a short time that often takes months and months of weekly counseling appointments.
With individually-crafted pre-work and post-session follow-up, a ReStory Counseling Intensive is highly individualized and delivers extreme personal care.
New Year, New Focus: Setting Goals for 2021 and Why a Life Coach Can Help
As I sit here in this moment writing this, it’s 2 weeks from New Years Eve; I know I’m not alone in saying that I am ready for 2020 to be over and am trying to be hopeful about circumstances being different in 2021. I need to believe that things are going to improve and that we all are capable of the change and growth that makes our lives and our world better.
I think so many of us are craving something new after the mundane and the chaos have both dominated this year. Maybe this time last year, we thought that our goals for 2020 were finally going to help us make that change we’ve always wanted. And then… things happened, and most of us cannot say that this was our most productive year ever. And that’s okay. We had to adapt as we never have before, deal with loss and grief, etc. If all we did was survive the year, that’s okay and it’s more than good enough.
10 Creative COVID Christmas Ideas
Wondering how to make this Christmas special? Your family has already been home, together, for 9 months. You’ve done all the puzzles, baked all the things, made cards for the elderly, and watched all of Netflix. You are out of fun, new, socially distanced ideas. And, besides, money is tight. This is our 2020 reality, no?
Hang tight. For all you bored but hopeful, weary yet still playful, Christmas-lovers out there, we’ve curated a list of 10 unique, different, creative, mostly free ideas for you to do with your loved ones this year.
Could it be that 2020 is the year you create traditions and memories that were birthed out of Plan B?
Permission to Feel Conflicted: 4 Ways to Honor the Need to Connect Part 3
Rather than telling you to FaceTime your friends and family or to spend yet another hour on Zoom, I want to share with you other ways to access connection that are accessible wherever you are. Additionally, your need for connection doesn’t solely have to be met through interacting with others (see the previous article about the need to protect). While human connection is deeply meaningful and necessary, you can also access connection through God, Creation, and strangely enough, with yourself. Check out these ideas
Permission to Feel Conflicted Part 2: Honoring the Need to Protect
Last week, we named the neediness of the human condition, the collective prolonged state of distress we are in, and some of the ways you might find yourself responding as a result of the chronic stress. Today, I’d like to explore further one of the responses you might be experiencing: the need to protect.
Permission to Feel Conflicted: The Need to Connect vs Protect and How to Still Stay Present Part 1
Today, I’d like to invite you to receive permission for any and all responses you’ve noticed in yourself- particularly as 2020 continues on. Maybe you’re desperate for human connection, but fearful of reaching out and feeling burdensome. Maybe you’re longing for meaningful time with others, but are so burnt out that you’ve shut yourself off from others in honor of self-preservation and protection. Physiologically, the body can only handle so much prolonged stress, anxiety, and fear before it literally shuts down, taking the form of numbness, feeling detached from your body, emotions, and others, and/or feeling disconnected from your life.
The Campaign for Being Needy: 4 Ways to Find True Relationship
All nine months of 2020 thus far have put our sanity and hearts to the test in untenable and unprecedented ways. Isolation, loneliness, depression, loss and crisis are woven into the fabric of our days with a bigger presence than we know how to wrap our minds around. If there has ever been a time where we have needed each other more, we don’t know of it.
Grievously, finding comfort, connection, and the kind of intimacy that heals doesn’t always feel easy on a good day, never mind during global upheaval.
We live in an individualistic American culture that has weaponized and vilified the state of being in great need, the idea of being needy. Certainly, against own ourselves and also at times judgmentally towards each other.
Growing Older with Wisdom and Awareness: 4 Questions Women Can Ask Themselves
It is not a myth, but my personal perspective that as we age the days, months, years, and season do increasein speed. The number of years of my life have never distressed me but in my yesteryears there were disruptions that left scars on my identity and seasons where few were the choices I was given. The journey of reflecting on yesterday and how it continues to cast a shadow into the present is a path worth surveying. I’ve moved into the golden years, and as I consider the chapters of my life, I’m left contemplating what has been uncovered in my heart, mind, and soul.
How Mental Illness Affects Family Members: A Personal Journey
His body was braced for attack and perched in a squatting position, it’s weight supported from behind by a closet door. His green eyes were wild and searching for invisible attackers until they finally focused on me. I knew he had access to a gun, just inside the closet door he was guarding.
An Invitation to Bless The Little Girl Sheltering In Darkness: 3 Practical Steps to Take for Abused Children During COVID
Over the last couple of days my heart has been welling up for the little girl who is sheltering in place with her abusive and neglectful family. I am believing for her to find strength and be brave as she feels weary of being in a home where there is so much abuse and fear. If she is like me, she is wondering when I will get out of this place, when will I get to see my friends again and what can I look forward to that will bring me some excitement and joy? She spends the days in her room to avoid negative encounters with her family.
Domestic Violence: The Silent Epidemic in the Midst of the Pandemic
You are bombarded with messages like ‘Stay safe, Stay home’ but your home is not a safe place, and because of COVID-19, being outside of your home also isn’t safe. Your home feels like a jail, and you feel like a prisoner. You used to find pockets of rest and safety at work or school, but now you are confined to being home, with your abusive partner. Your life before COVID-19 was already stressful, but now everything is exacerbated and you feel like you are in a pressure cooker.
Tired of Grieving, Ready to Hope Again?
What about hope? Have you wearied of hearing about suffering, and grief and taking time to “sit with them”? Are you ready to hear about hope and what it looks like right now?
Many of us are clamoring for hope, we are hungry for it, we need it, we want it.
Hope for a the bell curve to flatten. Hope for the quarantine to lift. Hope for the market to rebound. Hope for jobs to be restored. Hope for a cure. Hope for an end to the madness of our world in the midst of Covid19.
WHAT DOES HOPE LOOK LIKE NOW?
Christians, You Don’t Need To Stay Happy During A Global Pandemic
Dear ones, we are in unprecedented times, in the midst of a global pandemic. Without comparing loss, we are all dealing with a lot right now. Anxiety is heavy in the air. Do I think we can come back to a place of gratitude? For sure. Do I think we still need joy, play, and laughter during this season? Absolutely. And, we are still allowed to be sad. Unfortunately, I see a lot of responses to sadness, anger, or anxiety that tries to minimize, deflect, or shut down those feelings.
When Your Kid Isn’t A Kid Anymore: How To Launch Your Adult Child
It’s time. You’ve waited (approximately) 18 years to get them to this point, and now your child is officially a grown-up. Whether they’re heading off to college or whatever is next for them, this is a huge change for both of you. Sometimes, we don’t anticipate the challenge that comes with the change in the parent-child dynamic when the child is technically an adult. There can be conflict, frustration, miscommunication, and distance. Part of that comes from them establishing their autonomy, which is natural.
3 Ways to Communicate with Your Parents Adult to Adult
FINALLY. You are an adult! You made it. You’re 18 and you’re headed off to college or whatever the next chapter of your life is looking like. However, maybe you feel like your parent hasn’t gotten the memo on this monumental shift in your life; that they still see you like the high school kid you were. You need them to realize that things are different now, but aren’t quite sure how to tell them (nicely). Here are some things to keep in mind as your parent-child relationship becomes your parent-adult child relationship:
You Deserve Better Than Frenemies: 4 Ways to Pick Healthy Relationships That Are Actually Worth Your Time
We all long for connection, for friendship, to be seen and understood. We all want to be accepted for who we are, right now, without any accolades or accomplishments. To be loved entirely, with all of our strengths and weaknesses, without judgment.
How do I know if THIS group is right for me?
If you are wondering whether the Circle of Women Support Group is the right one for you, consider your reaction to the following:
I am doubting my value or worth in relationships
I don’t feel connected to my own wisdom, beauty, power, creativity or joy
When people ask me how I am, I feel uncertain or too tired to respond
I distrust that my voice is valuable
THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT UNDERSTANDING STORY
I was a basketball addict when I was younger. I spent my free time in our driveway dribbling, shooting, and imagining all sorts of last second scenarios that resulted in me making some improbable game winning shot. Each summer I counted down the days to the Shooter’s Touch Basketball Camp where we’d receive instruction from awesome coaches and spend five days doing drills and competitions.