Embracing Change Counseling

12/29/2025

Have you had an overwhelming holiday season?

If you’re still feeling the lingering effects of a busy and stressful season, I encourage you to create some columns: things you can control, things you can’t control, and things you can influence. ✍🏼

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

12/26/2025

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12/26/2025

The holidays are here, and so is your grief.

You’re supposed to be joyful, but you’re missing someone. You’re supposed to celebrate, but your heart is heavy.

And that’s okay. Let yourself feel all of your feelings this holiday season. ❄️

12/24/2025

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from Embracing Change Counseling! I hope you have a peaceful week filled with rest and time with those you love. 🎄

12/22/2025

Time for another Monday mental health tip!

What do you do when your mind can’t stop racing with anxious thoughts? Schedule a time for 15 minutes of “worry” time. ⌚️

Let’s focus on containing the worry rather than letting the worry control our day-to-day.

12/22/2025

Here is the menu for Farm Wives Meal Prep. Each recipe serves 4. Thanks! I have 7 spots still open.

12/19/2025

Your mind won't shut off.

You lie awake at 2 AM running through everything that could go wrong. The markets. The weather. The debt. The equipment that might break. The decisions you made that might have been wrong. The future that feels impossible to control.

Your chest is tight. Your heart races. You can't catch your breath. You snap at your family over nothing. You check and recheck things that are already done because you can't trust your own judgment anymore.

This is anxiety. And it's not your fault.

I work with farmers and agricultural families who understand that anxiety in this line of work makes sense - but that doesn't mean you have to live with it forever.

If anxiety is stealing your peace, let's take it back.

12/17/2025

You don't have to carry it forever.

Trauma isn't just combat or catastrophic accidents. For farmers and rural families, trauma looks like:
* Watching a family member die in a farm accident
* Losing the farm to foreclosure
* Surviving a natural disaster that destroyed everything
* Years of accumulated stress and grief that never got processed
* Childhood experiences on struggling farms that still haunt you.

Traditional talk therapy can take months or years to process trauma. But there's another option: Accelerated Resolution Therapy.

If you've been avoiding therapy because you don't want to spend years rehashing the past, ART might be what you need. Fast, effective, and proven to work.

Embracing Change Counseling Services | Accelerated Resolution Therapy available ☎️

12/17/2025

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Davison County Commissioners Tuesday approved a request by Colleen Stegenga to operate a small-scale, home-based professional counseling office on her agricultural property near Mount Vernon. She s…

12/15/2025

Happy Monday! Today I encourage you and your partner to start a weekly meeting of sorts. Once a week, take time to ask each other these questions and see how it impacts your relationship.

Let me know how it goes! 🫶🏻

12/12/2025

What if you prioritized:
⚫️ Having dinner with your family over answering one more email
⚫️ Getting 7 hours of sleep over checking cattle one more time
⚫️ Your mental health appointment over a meeting that could be an email
⚫️ Time with your spouse over one more task on the list

I'm not saying the farm doesn't matter. I'm saying you matter too.

The farm will always need more. The question is: what are you willing to sacrifice to give it?

If you've lost sight of what matters because everything feels equally critical, let's talk. Sometimes you need someone outside the situation to help you see clearly again.

Embracing Change Counseling Services | Helping you realign with what matters most

12/11/2025

New column is out.

We hear a lot today about a mental health crisis among farmers and in rural communities. Is this a new problem, or are we finally talking about something that's been