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How Do I Create Better Boundaries? Part 1

April 11, 2021

Hannah Hopper, LPC, NCC  I work with many clients who have been talking about having better boundaries in their life. For some, they have started noticing the need for better boundaries in relationships since having more time at home for reflection; others are noticing the need for better boundaries now that the holiday season is here and more family relationships have come to mind. And some people are noticing a need for different boundaries with their partner…

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How Can We Spread Joy… For Free?

April 10, 2021

As the joy filled time of year around the holidays pass, many individuals struggle going into the months of January and February. It’s cold, gets dark earlier, and it feels like there are less things for us to look forward to on the day-to-day. Coming from a time period filled with holiday cheer, we find ourselves with the question of how we can continue to feel and spread joy to those around us. This may feel like…

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How Can I Cultivate a Happy Life?

April 8, 2021

It’s not uncommon to move through life thinking, “I’ll be happy when…”. We think of happiness as a destination, a place we’ll arrive to when other areas of our lives fall into place. Fortunately and unfortunately, this is not the case. Whenever we hit whatever we initially think will make us happy, there’s another milestone we need to reach making happiness feel further and further away. There is no universal definition of happiness and there is no…

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How Can I Thrive? Part II

April 7, 2021

Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC   If you read my last blog post, How Can I Thrive? Part I, you learned about a recent interview I did for the Kellogg School of Management. I left off discussing tips on avoiding burnout. Below you will find the rest of the list!   How Can I Thrive? Part II: Incorporating Mental Health and Therapy into Your Life  Business school is an unusually stressful time for students. Any tips on how…

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How Can I Thrive? Part I

April 6, 2021

Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC  People typically don’t join the helping profession for recognition or appreciation, but every now and then it comes along when it’s most needed! This two-part blog series will share a recent interview I did for the Kellogg School of Management and help you learn how you can thrive by incorporating both mental health and therapy into your own life. Symmetry Counseling has many talented clinicians that you can get matched with today…

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How Can I Practice Gratitude?

April 6, 2021

Hannah Hopper, LPC, NCC  2020 has been a tough year (that might even be an understatement). We’ve all experienced new and unexpected challenges in different areas of our life, and it can be really easy to focus on all that has gone wrong. In the past several months, I’ve been trying to practice more gratitude in my life, and encouraging my clients to practice this too. Why practice gratitude when life is so hard? I had the…

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How Can Boredom Be Beneficial?

April 3, 2021

By: Danielle Bertini, LPC I think we can all say a collective experience the world has shared this year (among other things) is that we are BORED. With the pandemic still around and most activities continuing to be shut down, there truly is not much to do to occupy our time. And here’s the thing—boredom is generally viewed as an unpleasant emotional state. When you feel bored and fatigued, 10 minutes can feel like an eternity. Because…

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Do I Have a Gambling Problem?

March 28, 2021

By Andrew McNaughton, LCSW, CADC Gambling has pretty much always been popular since money has existed. Today, it is as immediately accessible as it ever has been through online lottery purchases and mobile apps for casinos and sportsbooks, where players can win and lose real money really fast. In Illinois, online sports betting became legal in 2020, just in time for the professional football season to start. Advertisements for titillating promotions make the lure of trying sports…

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Are You Celebrating Small Victories?

March 18, 2021

Matthew Cuddeback LCSW            Something that I have been hearing more and more recently is a reluctance from people to admit that they feel good about something small. We all do this at times, we feel awkward admitting that something felt good, or we are proud of a certain achievement but feel we cannot indulge this feeling. We should always allow ourselves to feel good about the things that actually feel good instead of pretending we don’t,…

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What is SMART Recovery? Part 2

March 7, 2021

By Andrew McNaughton, LCSW, CADC In the first part of this blog, we explored Point 1 and Point 2 of SMART Recovery’s 4-Point Program for behavior change. Next, let’s look at:  Point 3 – Managing Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors This dives deeper into Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy tools and concepts. The key tool here is the ABC’s. I have written about the ABC’s of REBT previously, but in short, the theory of REBT says that we create…

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