The Center For Courageous Living LLC

11/27/2025

🧡 Happy Thanksgiving from The Center for Courageous Living 🧡

Today, we pause with grateful hearts—for the courage of every person who’s chosen to step into healing, for the connections that make life meaningful, and for the grace that holds us through every season.

We’re especially grateful for our community—for trusting us to walk alongside you in your journey toward wholeness. May your day be filled with peace, gratitude, and moments of joy—whether you're surrounded by family, friends, or taking a quiet moment for yourself.

🍂 From all of us at CFCL, we wish you a blessed and restful Thanksgiving.

11/27/2025

From our work family to your family, we wish you a blessed and peace-filled Thanksgiving and Holiday season.

11/26/2025

🌿 Therapist Spotlight: Kaitlin Armon, LPC

Kaitlin helps clients find joy, freedom, and stability in their lives. She brings a compassionate, practical approach, guiding clients through challenges like anxiety, depression, life transitions, relationship issues, and addiction. 🧡

Using CBT and DBT, Kaitlin helps clients develop practical coping strategies to manage difficult emotions, challenge unhelpful thought patterns, and navigate triggering situations. She teaches skills for emotional regulation, resilience, and healthier relationships—helping clients feel more grounded, confident, and empowered. She also offers Christian counseling for those who want to integrate faith into their healing journey. 🙏

Outside of work, Kaitlin enjoys time with her husband and toddler, biking, journaling, and being outdoors. 🌳🚴‍♀️

💛 Take the next step—schedule a session with Kaitlin today and start your journey toward balance and growth!
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/25/2025

💡 Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a practical, skills-based approach that helps people manage emotions, cope with stress, and build healthier relationships. Unlike traditional talk therapy, DBT focuses on actionable strategies you can use every day to navigate life’s challenges.

✨ With DBT, you can learn to:
✅ Regulate intense emotions
✅ Build resilience in difficult situations
✅ Communicate more effectively
✅ Cultivate mindfulness and self-awareness

At The Center for Courageous Living, our therapists integrate DBT with compassion, faith, and connection, helping clients not just understand their emotions—but thrive in their lives with courage and support. 🌿

Invest in yourself and your wellbeing—schedule a session today!
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📞 815-707-4806 | ✉️ gia@centerforcourage.com
🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/21/2025

🌿 Healing from trauma is mindful, courageous work honoring the connection between mind, body, and spirit. Van der Kolk emphasizes in The Body Keeps the Score that trauma is stored in the body, creating tension and protective patterns that often persist even after cognitive healing has begun. Ignoring the body leaves trauma partially unresolved.

At The Center for Courageous Living, we guide clients in integrating body-centered practices with therapy, helping you reclaim safety, regulation, and presence. Techniques like 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, 4-square breathing, yoga, mindful walking, prayer, meditation, and EMDR targeting the body help calm the nervous system, release stored tension, and strengthen awareness that your body is a safe space. Our approach aligns mind and body in partnership, nurturing the mind, body, and spirit and reflecting our core values of faith, connection, and courage. 💛

💭 Reflection: What’s one gentle activity you can do today to reconnect with your body, mind, and spirit?

👉 Take the first step toward reclaiming your life—connect with us today and begin feeling whole again.
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/20/2025

Meet Kristy Searles, LSW — a trauma-informed, play-based therapist dedicated to helping children, teens, and adults heal and grow through care, creativity, and compassion. 💛

Interested in working with Kristy?
📞 815-707-4806 | ✉️ gia@centerforcourage.com
🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/20/2025

Tip-of-the Day: Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today; putting things off leads to over-thinking and anxiety. Take action in fear areas, move forward; if you're in a bad situation, move and take steps. The first step can change your life!

Call or email us to seek help in this process: Gia@centerforcourage.com or call 815-707-4806 to get connected with a great-fit therapist. No one was meant to walk alone.

Call today and change your life!

Call now to connect with business.

11/20/2025

⚡ Trauma affects the mind, body, and spirit, often leaving the nervous system in a state of hyperarousal or shutdown. As noted in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma reorganizes how the brain and body manage stress, making the body’s alarm system overactive while disrupting sleep, focus, and energy. Over time, these patterns influence emotions, memory, energy, and immune function.

At The Center for Courageous Living, we recognize that healing isn’t just cognitive—it’s whole-body work. Pairing mental and emotional therapy with body-centered practices like grounding, mindful breathing, gentle movement, EMDR targeting the body, or 4-square breathing helps restore balance, reduce tension, and reconnect you to life, relationships, and yourself. 🌿

💭 Reflection: What small practice could you try today to calm your body and mind—like grounding, mindful breathing, or gentle movement?

👉 Let us walk with you. Reach out today to explore ways to calm your body, strengthen your mind, and nurture your spirit.
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/18/2025

🧠💛 Trauma isn’t just something that happened in the past—it leaves a lasting imprint on your mind, body, and spirit. As Bessel van der Kolk explains in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma physically rewires the body, creating tension, hypervigilance, and protective patterns. Survivors may carry pain, tightness, or a constant sense of being on edge. The body remembers what the mind may try to forget, holding the memories of fear, isolation, and overwhelm.

Cognitive work—talking through trauma—is essential, but it is not enough on its own. The body needs care and attention to fully release what it holds. Through our approach rooted in faith, connection, and courage, we walk alongside you to listen to your body, honor your experiences, and begin reclaiming a sense of safety and wholeness. 🌿

💭 Reflection: When you notice tension or stress in your body, what’s one small step you could take today to check in with yourself?

👉 Start your healing journey today—connect with us to support your mind, body, and spirit.
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/14/2025

💪 Men are often told to “stay strong” and push through, but the truth is—many silently carry the weight of job loss, financial pressures, divorce, addiction, anger, cultural expectations, family responsibilities, and the expectations that come with living out their faith. Some men of faith may feel pressure to “have it all together” or believe that God is supposed to handle their struggles, making it even harder to ask for support.

At The Center for Courageous Living, we believe no one should face these pressures alone. Our values of faith, courage, and connection guide everything we do, and we want every man to know that vulnerability is not weakness—it’s the first step toward healing.

Whether it’s through honest conversations, therapy sessions, or faith-based support, our therapists create a space where men can be heard, supported, and equipped with tools to move from overwhelm to confidence. 🌟

💭 Reflection: What’s one way you could show up for your mental health this week?

👉 Take that step for yourself—reach out today to schedule your first session.
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com

11/13/2025

Are you weary, warn, losing hope? Do you feel lonely, unimportant, lost in your mistakes? Are you struggling with isolation, addiction, grief and loss? If you are, I want to share with you, you matter and are not alone.

Do not stay in dark places in your mind, body and spirit. In the light there is no darkness at all.

https://youtu.be/rYQ5yXCc_CA?si=UY7wmnY7W3Uj5R0v

There is always hope, don't stay alone in your sorrow if you are lost. Please call us today at 815-707-4806 to see a therapist who can care for you and walk along side you to a better place of healing, to have a community where you're no longer alone. We care and understand your heartache. Don't delay in seeking help. Email Gia@centerforcourage.com today to see about scheduling with one of our compassionate and caring counselors.

God bless you.

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11/13/2025

👥 At The Center for Courageous Living, we’re proud to have therapists Jonathan Barbosa, Caleb Engelhardt, and Sebastian Morales—three men committed to walking alongside other men in their healing journey.

✨ Jonathan is caring, attentive, and passionate about understanding each person’s story. He works with young adults, couples, pastors, and men navigating stress, faith, and life transitions. Jonathan integrates DBT, EFT, and faith-based counseling when requested to foster growth and emotional resilience. https://www.centerforcourage.com/team-1/jonathan-barbosa

✨ Caleb brings compassion, humor, and a focus on connection. He works with adolescents and adults addressing depression, anxiety, ADHD, and anger management. His approach blends CBT, EFT, and solution-focused therapy, with faith incorporated when desired. https://www.centerforcourage.com/team-1/caleb-engelhardt%2C-ma

✨ Sebastian is a bilingual (Spanish-speaking) LCSW with 5+ years of experience supporting individuals, youth, and families. He works with clients navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, domestic violence, and life transitions. Sebastian uses a trauma-informed, person-centered approach and integrates CBT and DBT to build resilience and personal growth. https://www.centerforcourage.com/team-1/sebastian-morales

Jonathan, Caleb, and Sebastian understand the pressures men face and provide a space where vulnerability is met with respect, not judgment.

👉 Connect with Jonathan, Caleb, or Sebastian today and take the first step toward healing.
📍 Crystal Lake, IL | 📧 gia@centerforcourage.com
📞 815-707-4806 | 🌐 centerforcourage.com