Lori Kaniewski, NCC, LCPC, LPC

11/15/2025

11/12/2025

Happy Veterans Day & thank you to all those who have served! ⭐
We are proud to say that we are able to offer services & support to veterans & are happy to do so!

11/11/2025

Coping With Toxic Family During the Holidays By Lori Kaniewski, LCPC (IL), LPC (MO) The holiday season is often portrayed as a time of connection, joy, and togetherness. Yet for many people, it brings more stress than comfort—especially when family relationships are strained or emotionally unsafe....

11/09/2025

It doesn't matter how many years of life I've been working. I still need this reminder every now and then. Maybe you do, too.

Artist credit: Meg Fatharly Printmaking and Collage

11/08/2025

Healing isn’t about perfection — it’s about awareness.
Every time you notice a pattern, pause, and choose differently… that’s growth.

Give yourself grace for the seasons when you didn’t know better, and compassion for the times you did but weren’t ready to act.
You’re evolving — and that’s something worth celebrating. 🤍

.thema

11/06/2025

Now read that Right to Left..

11/06/2025

Many of us believe that being hard on ourselves is what keeps us motivated. But research shows the opposite — self-criticism causes anxiety and undermines our confidence, while self-compassion helps us to stay resilient and keep going after setbacks.

When we replace our inner critic with an encouraging, supportive inner coach, we don’t lose our drive — we strengthen it.

In this month’s blog, I share how self-compassion fuels motivation and guide you through the Motivating Self-Compassion Break — a short practice to help you turn harsh self-talk into supportive energy for growth and action.

Want to try it? Want to try it? Check out the blog and guided Motivating Self-Compassion Break: https://vist.ly/4ckgh

11/05/2025

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQmTshiDH2J/?igsh=YzcyeGkwMmMzbjJm

11/04/2025

DBTSkills. Emotions/Emotion Regulation.
Emotions are crucial in navigating everyday life. Many of life's problems can be solved or eased by better emotional awareness/regulation.

"I need a drink after that"
"The day I've had.."
"She made me so angry"
"He had such road rage .."
"It's like treading on eggshells coming home from
school/college/work''...

Emotional awareness is key to emotion regulation.

Then not needing to change the way we feel with anger outbursts, unhealthy lifestyle choices :drink, drugs, feeding our feelings, overeating, spending, shopping, gambling, other forms of self harm.

Most of us have a more than reasonable grasp on emotional literacy.

We know that we need the so called ' negative emotions' as much as the feel good 'positive emotions'.

If we've never experienced sadness then we wouldn't know joy.
[ ie :the movie Inside Out and its sequel].
Yet still we go about our day, or many of us do - blaming external issues for rising levels of stress, overwhelm, reactivity.

[Image credit : Brene Brown who adapted the seminal work of Wilcox, Plutchik & Zinker]

11/04/2025

DBTSkills.
Befriend the discomfort. Listen to what your emotions are telling you.
Only by understanding can we process and move on.
This may take repeated attempts.
[Image credit : rockinruksi on Instagram]