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Sleepless in Self Quarantine

April 22, 2020

Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC  It’s normal to have difficulty sleeping during this unprecedented time of transition and uncertainty. COVID-19 evokes emotions such as fear and anxiety, which clearly have a drastic affect upon our sleep quality and rapid eye movement (REM) cycle. Lately, I have passed along the following suggestions to my clients about how to take better care of yourself by positively influencing your sleep schedule.  Take Time to Wind Down  I recommend establishing a…

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Semester Interrupted: An Interview with an Epidemiology Student (Part II)

April 22, 2020

Megan Mulroy, LPC  Self-isolation and working from home has given me more time to check in on friends and family, which has been great. I’ve been checking in on my cousin, Maria, because she is currently in her last year of her master’s program at Grand Valley State University. She is getting a degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology. Epidemiology is basically the study and analysis of diseases. Maria has been one of our…

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Semester Interrupted: Finishing Your Academic Year During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Part I)

April 21, 2020

Megan Mulroy, LPC  Within the past month, colleges and universities across America have been forced to move to online learning platforms due to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This brings a number of unparalleled challenges for college students. Graduation ceremonies have already been cancelled, and some are planning on having a virtual ceremony. Student’s licensing exams have been postponed, and students needing internship hours for graduation are left scrambling for ways to get creative to meet their requirements.…

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Quarreling with Quarantine

April 21, 2020

Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC  I know I’m not the only one who is quarreling with quarantine and disappointed and shocked at how 2020 has turned out thus far. Watching people arguing in the grocery store about toilet paper is something I never expected to see. We’ve all been pushed out of our comfort zones –  routines have been interrupted, plans completely destroyed and the whole world feels like it’s turned upside down. We continue to hear…

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Confronting Corona: Mitigating Anxiety

April 21, 2020

Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Feeling anxiety related to coronavirus, also known as COVID-19? Well, it’s safe to say that you’re not alone! There are so many things to be anxious about – catching the virus itself, adjusting to a new routine during quarantine, financial burdens, school closures, cancelled events, and many other things floating around on the media. Anxiety related to this virus has seemingly crossed the line. In order to mitigate your anxiety during this…

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Navigating Stress/Anxiety and COVID-19

April 21, 2020

Uncertainty can be scary and can often increase symptoms of anxiety and stress. The end of this COVID-19 pandemic is not yet in sight, and I have been hearing from a lot of friends, family, and clients that their levels of stress and anxiety have been significantly higher since Chicago went on lockdown. It appears as though people are hoping to find answers to when life will go back to their day to day normal and tend…

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Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

April 12, 2020

Kyle Lawell, LPC There are days where we wake up and know that something is “not right.” From the moment you woke up, there was something holding you back from being your authentic, happy, and caring self. Maybe you had troubling sleeping, maybe it was the shouting from your kids in the back seat of your car as you dropped them off at school, or maybe there is absolutely no identifiable reason for you to feel down,…

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A Mindful Minute

April 8, 2020

Oftentimes our lives can feel incredibly overwhelming with everything we have to accomplish throughout the day. From preparing your kids for school in the morning, going to that yoga class you nervously signed up for last minute, getting the groceries to feed your family, and remembering to turn in the report your supervisor asked for yesterday, we can become terribly distracted and lose focus on what matters most in our lives. Regardless of whether our lives are…

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Why Should I Spend Time Alone? Part Two

April 2, 2020

If you read my last blog post referencing the article from The New York Times, “Why you should find time to be alone with yourself” by author Micaela Marini Higgs, you may be curious about not only the benefits of spending alone time, but also how to implement alone time in your life.   Below answers those two items from the remaining part of Higgs’s article.    What are the benefits of spending time alone? There was a…

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Coping With Coronavirus

April 1, 2020

Hannah Hopper, LPC It’s in the news, it’s on social media, it’s all the people in our lives have been talking about lately – Coronavirus seems to have taken over our world and our mental space too. And with so much news bombarding us on a minute-by-minute basis, it’s easy to neglect our mental health. Anxiety can overwhelm before we even realize we’re starting to feel anxious. 1. Stick to Your Routine In times of stress and…

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