Phoenix Rising Counseling Services

09/30/2024

Greetings All,

It has been a while. Here is the calendar for October and a day early at that. That makes me Optimistic for the things to come in the rest of the month. It's OPTIMISTIC OCTOBER and we are looking at things from a more positive point of view. It is easy to see the gloom and doom when these are the things affecting us most often in our lives. School shootings, car accidents, loss of employment, evictions, health issues, trauma, all the hard things that life has to offer. But life also has hope, laughter, joy, friends and family, unexpected cards in the mail, the beauty of fall and all the coziness that comes with this month, and many other wonderful things to offer as well. This month is all about how we CHOOSE to view the things that life hands us. Do we place most of the emphasis on the hard things or do we allow the good things to bear more weight and more fruit in our lives. This month's calendar also comes with a daily challenge that you can choose to sign up for that will help you to look for the good in the people, places, and things around you. I have pasted the link below in the event that you are interested in taking the challenge. The calendar is also posted below. I hope this helps to brighten your month and allow you to see the greener grass growing on your side of the fence.

https://actionforhappiness.org/october-challenge

Warmest Regards,

Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP

Owner/Therapist

Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC

Fax: (888) 705-0482

Cell: 912-581-2010

Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

06/06/2024

New Post: Fun and Educational Indoor Activities to Keep Kids Engaged

Activities Children Therapy Parenting June 6, 2024 By Patrick Wood 0 Comments Fun and Educational Indoor Activities to Keep Kids Engaged Image via Pexels   Fun and Educational Indoor Activities to Keep Kids Engaged Keeping children entertained and educated while indoors can be a challenging task, e...

05/31/2024

Greetings All,

June’s calendar is out and ON TIME 😊!!!! The focus for the month is on JOY. So many of us are struggling in our finances, our relationships, our families, our workplaces, or with not having employment. We are all struggling in some way in our lives and may be looking for just a little relief. While our external circumstances may not be the best and we may not feel happy all the time, true JOY should still abide. JOY is that internal knowing and peace that all will be well despite what our external circumstances may be. We may not exude happiness on the outside, but we can carry JOY with us on the inside and can choose to spread it to others. Despite JOY being internal, it may not always be a natural occurrence for many of us. We may have to work at capturing JOY and locking it into our hearts and spirits on a daily basis until this intention becomes a habit. Let this calendar be 30 days of intention where we all work to cultivate JOY for our lives and eventually help spread it to others. Over the next 30 days lets work to choose JOY.

I read these descriptions online and wanted to include them for you to consider:

Joy - A fruit of the Spirit. Comforting, content and full of peace. An enduring attitude of the heart and spirit.
Happiness - An outward expression of emotion connected to a moment. Fleeting in comparison to joy. Carried along like a scent on a breeze.
We pursue happiness but we choose joy.

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

04/20/2024

New Post: Pausing in a Pandemic

Self-improvement Stress mindfulness • relationships June 28, 2020 By Patrick Wood 0 Comments Pausing in a Pandemic 5am wake up and shower, 6am breakfast, 7am carpool line for kid number 1, 7:30am carpool line for kid number 2, 8am work day begins, 5pm workday ends, 5:30pm grab Chick-fil-a on the w...

04/19/2024

New Post: New You In the New Year!

Anxiety Depression Self-improvement Stress Wellness January 1, 2019By Aundretta Wood 0 Comments New You In the New Year! What can you do in the new year to improve your mental well-being?   While we may not all suffer with a clinical mental health disorder, mental health is very much a part of our ...

04/19/2024

New Post: Celebrities Chip Away at the STIGMA of Mental Illness

Confidence Individual Treatment Stigma Therapy November 26, 2018 By Patrick Wood 2,169 Comments Celebrities Chip Away at the STIGMA of Mental Illness If you have reached this blog post, you are either interested in celebrities, mental health/illness, or both. You may be wondering what in the world c...

08/10/2023

https://youtu.be/pyUj5jaYSgA

Please see the video regarding the food giveaway resource. Please note that the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Springfield Baptist Church are working in collaboration for this free food giveaway. Please share this message with anyone you know that may be un need. I t take a village 😊

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

Our next food pantry date is scheduled for Saturday, August 12, 2023. This will be a Back 2 School Food Giveaway in conjunction with the Atlanta Community Fo...

06/06/2023

Please see the resource for Food Boxes this Saturday 6-10-2023. Please share with all that may need this resource.

05/30/2023

Greetings All,

Welcome to June!!! We are just about at the halfway point for year 2023. What a time to be reflective as we look for the joy in all things that have already taken place up to this point as well as all the things we are hopeful for moving forward. Joy and Gratitude are often mentioned as quick fixes to negative minds. When we are feeling down in the dumps or our thoughts and words have been more negative than usual, thinking of things that bring true joy and things that we can be grateful for are sure fire ways to rewire the brain and to get happier thoughts, feelings, and moods circulating. This month I challenge you to make June 1st your mission for the month and highlight things on the Joyful June Calendar that you can commit to. I have chosen day 4 (I would love for you guys to email any pictures you take that bring you joy), Day 5 (I want to try and do daily), Day 20 (I have pulled out the jump rope, Uno cards, sidewalk chalk, boardgames, and our backyard water slide to do with my daughter and hubby this summer…fun), Day 27 (SELF-CARE - I need a pedicure 😊), and Day 30 (going to try to shoot for my age number as the number of joys I try and come up with). I hope that this month you can work to step out of the shadows (if you find yourself there) and search for the sunshine that comes with joy.

SIDE NOTE: The action for May 30 on the Meaningful May 2023 Calendar is to share an inspiring quote so here you go!!!

“In a world where you can be anything, BE KIND” – Unknown (MY ALL TIME FAVORITE QUOTE)
“The fact that someone else loves you doesn’t rescue you from the project of loving yourself.” - Sahaj Kohli
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C. S. Lewis
“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” – Mary Lou Retton
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

01/02/2023

Greetings All and Happier New Year!!!

This month’s calendar is all about having a Happier New Year. A Happier New Year starts with a Happier New YOU. This month the focus is on doing things that has the potential to make you happy and gives you opportunities to help make others happy. We know that making others happy tends to boost our own happiness, so if loving on others is your thing, do more of this to help boost your happiness, but don’t burn yourself out pouring so much into others that you run dry. Keep your cup full; exercise, laugh alone or with a friend, meditate/pray, eat good and healthier foods, find gratitude in all things, rest, listen to your body and honor what it needs, speak life, health, love, and positivity over yourself. If 2022 left you feeling empty and depleted, think about how you spent 2022 and how you can do things differently in 2023. Sometimes the key to our happiness isn’t the huge things like wealth, a new house, that perfect job, etc. but just a tiny shift in our thinking and perspective. Life is meant to be lived on purpose and with intention and our thoughts have to be purposeful and intentional. Take a day to track your thoughts and notice if you hear more positive or negative self-talk. If the answer is negative, over the next month, challenge yourself to changing your self-talk and inner thoughts for a head start to a Happier You. Can’t wait to be Happier and Healthier TOGETHER in this New Year.

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

11/01/2022

Greetings All,

HAPPY NOVEMBER!!! The start of the month is always my favorite time of the month. It is a little bit like a reset. Letting go of all the things that happened in the last month and making a decision to move on and try to make things better in some small Way in the New month. Of course, there are some things that don’t just go away with a New month but there are New Ways that we can deal with them. This month Is New Ways November, and I am excited for many of the ideas that this calendar brings. We get so caught up in routine, and structure, and scheduling that we often times will miss out on things that could ignite joy in our lives if we just simply try something New. Life can be boring, ordinary, and mundane in some ways and there are some things that we just have to do and may not be able to deviate from but working to do those things in a New and different Way is the challenge of this month’s calendar. Have to load the dishwasher? Time yourself and work to beat your best record and treat yourself if you meet your goal. Gotta tackle the laundry? See how many baskets you can make with those socks or t-shirts or load and unload to your favorite music, so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Driving the kids to practice or dance? Pull up some road trip questions that help the family get to know one another better (my family and I do this all the time even if it’s a short 30-minute trip. You don’t have to be going cross country. There are so many New and creative Ways that you can modify your daily activities to make them feel fresh, New, and fun. Check out some of this month’s ideas and see how you can make it a New Way November. Have a great month.

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org

10/03/2022

Greetings, All,

It is the start of a new month and that means a new calendar. This month’s focus is on OPTIMISM!!!!! It is so easy to look at all the mess and yuck and muck that saturates the news each day. Whether its bad weather and devastation, or viruses and diseases, or violence, we can turn to any news station, any newspaper, any social medial platform, any streaming app, and any news app and see all that is bad in and wrong with the world. It could be very easy to fall into a slump and to develop a negative mindset. Despite all that is going on in the world, we can still be OPTIMISTIC and have a positive attitude. There are great things happening in the world and we have to either look for them or create them. Sometimes things won’t change until we change our attitude about things. The more OPTIMISTIC we are, the better we feel. The better we feel, the better we think. The better we think, the better we act. The better we act toward others, the more likely it is that others will pass on that kindness, hope, and OPTIMISIM to those they encounter. Be intentional and purpose to be a living example of OPTIMISIM for those around you at home, work, school, or in your community. I heard a quote on the radio this week that said, “Look for kindness in the world, and if you can’t find it, BE IT.” How can you be kinder and more OPTIMISTIC this month? HAPPY OCTOBER EVERYONE!!!!

Warmest Regards,

**********************************************************
Aundretta Wood, MSW, LCSW, CCATP-CA, CCTHP
Owner/Therapist
Phoenix Rising Counseling Services, LLC
Fax: (888) 705-0482
Cell: 912-581-2010
Email: aundretta.wood@phoenixrcs.org