Mindful Living

After a lot of work, Kettle Moraine Counseling Services shall officially be open for business as of March 1st. We are a certified mental health clinic serving individuals, couples and families. Treating people with respect, dignity and choice is one of our mottos. Check out our website for more information. We look forward to serving the community. www.kettlemorainecounseling.com

Our dog Lucky is coming up on 13 years old this summer. He has been with us since he was 10 weeks old. The past few weeks he has not been doing so well- he shakes all the time and his back left leg isn't really working. He falls down and falls into things and then has a difficult time getting up. It's very sad to see, and also frustrating bacause he will not just lay there, but wants to be active. He has been my companion for all of these years, particularly in the last 4 when we have been going to the cabin and he always took long walks with me. His hearing is just about gone now too. We see the vet next week to see why he has been deteriorating so fast. Our family is very sad to see him suffer and not be himself. Lucky came to us when we were a young family, and now our "baby" is in high school, and she doesn't really remember a time without him. Hopefully the vet will be able to do something for him and he will have some quality months/year ahead of him...

So many of us are not comfortable with expressing our anger or sharing what our needs are so we resort to passive aggressive behavior in an attempt to communicate what we are feeling or what we want. Problem is, this behavior does not get our needs met and it usually brings distance to a relationship rather than closeness. What is passive aggressive behavior? A definition is a pattern of behavior where you where one reflects hostility or resentment through indirec t means. The bottom line is that we do not feel that we can express ourselves directly or we don't know how too, but our feelings come out in other ways: procrastination, "forgetting", sarcasm, not doing things well, talking behind people's backs, etc. Some examples from my personal life is my mother, who always had a difficult time saying how she felt, would get sick or have a headache (like clockwork) when an event approached that she did not want to go to, but felt like she couldn't say no. Passive ag...

I have had to say goodbye to some great people this past week, and it has not been easy. For the past 4 years I have been the clinical supervisor for a mental health crisis program and have loved that job all the years I was there. Watching the staff grow personally and professionally, and growing alongside with them has been an amazing experience. This job was fun and I think I have laughed everyday I was there- the jokes/teasing kept things light hearted when it got too serious. And suicide intervention is a very serious topic. Working with this group of people has been the most cohesive, strongest team I have ever been part of. I loved the differing personalities- from anxious (many if not most), analytical/logical, compassionate/empathetic (all), funny, and messy (you know who you are!). Besides being a fun environment, I have learned and grown so much by working with this team. I learned that when people feel valued they do good work, there's always another way to look at some...