Real Connections Counseling

03/17/2026

03/17/2026

Nick at Iowa Wolves helped us at Real Connections get a VIP spot at the wolves game tonight! We had so much fun and t was a good competitive game … perfect for a competitive company Real Connections Counseling

We are most certainly capable of handling whatever you bring us. www.realconnectionscounseling.com

03/16/2026

When the Amazon Delivery Driver Knows More Than Your Spouse 📦😂

That moment when an Amazon delivery photo sparks a full marriage investigation... 🔍

Rick has questions. Monique has no answers. And the delivery driver? He's basically a couples therapist at this point.

Watch what happens when a surprise Yoga Balance Board shows up on the porch, and nobody seems to know what to do.

💰 Surprise spending is one of the top causes of money fights in relationships. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.

🔥 Stay tuned for our FREE 20-minute "For Love and Money Enrichment" (FLAMES) Webinar - because every couple deserves to be on the same page financially.

📩 Like, comment, and subscribe for more real conversations about love, money, and everything in between.


Flames: For Love and Money Enrichment Series Urbandale Chamber of Commerce

03/12/2026

Real Connections has multiple openings for new clients!

Consider working with our well educated INTERN - Matthew Graham! He's looking for individuals that want help finding hope as they work to heal deep wounds and supporting them in becoming the best version of themselves - particularly helping individuals heal from all forms of trauma/PTSD.

We also have openings for individual clients with Alyssa Elgersma, Associate therapist, who specializes in Grief and Loss issues - especially those grieving non-traditional losses.

You can have them reach out to us at 515-635-1805 or have them look online

Our life as counseling partners is also our life’s work. We bring our own unique personalities and approaches to counseling that actually becomes a unique asset to our couples and families.

03/11/2026

Real Connections Counseling is proud to sponsor B.A.S.H provided by the Urbandale Chamber of Commerce! This is such a fun event and it’s all about relationships. It’s all about teaming up together to create something new and special. Research shows that teams promote happiness, contentment, connection far better than any other system possibly could that’s why Real Connections Counseling became a team oriented company. Anyone of you about counseling or coaching Should consider a team oriented company like us with happiness, contentment, connection is your true effort. We can’t wait to be a service. 

03/10/2026

A question kept bothering us.

How long have we been hearing the same statistics about relationships and workplaces? Divorce rates hovering around fifty percent. Organizations describing their cultures as toxic. Leaders frustrated with personalities that cannot seem to figure out how to treat each other with basic humanity.

Years pass. Decades, even. The conversation stays the same. With all the counseling and coaching out there why is that? 

Real Connections Counseling & Coaching took those questions seriously.

Careful review of the counseling landscape revealed something uncomfortable. Incredible clinicians work every day with dedication and skill, yet the structure of the work rarely changes. One therapist. One couple. One room. One perspective guiding the process.

Meanwhile research across multiple disciplines shows something powerful. Teams increase happiness. Teams improve productivity. Teams deepen connection. Teams expand insight and creativity. Human beings function better when wisdom comes from more than one mind working together.

That realization changed everything for us.

Real Connections built a co-therapy and co-coaching model where teams work with couples and leaders together. Multiple perspectives. Multiple strengths. Multiple relational lenses working in real time. A living demonstration of collaboration inside the very space where people are learning how to collaborate.

Very few organizations in the United States operate this way. The counseling field grew comfortable with a familiar structure, and comfort often preserves the status quo even when the results stall.

Real Connections chose another direction.

Growth rarely comes from the easy route. Progress asks for courage. Progress asks for experimentation. Progress asks for the willingness to challenge a system that has stopped moving the needle.

Real Connections Counseling & Coaching exists for that purpose.

Relationships deserve more than repetition.
They deserve innovation.
They deserve teams.

03/01/2026

So I’m lying on the therapy table and the needles in my shoulder start firing.

My shoulder jumps every second. Little pulls I can’t control. It bumps forward, settles, bumps again. That goes on for about five minutes at a time. It’s not unbearable… but it’s definitely uncomfortable.

And I know it’s helping.

Still uncomfortable.

They had already worked my shoulder over pretty good. Deep pressure. Stretching. Digging into knots that feel like they’ve been there since 1987. Now I’m just lying there letting the pulses do their thing.

Around me, the therapists are talking back and forth. Someone’s getting coached through an exercise. Somebody laughs. Shoes move across the floor. It’s normal clinic noise. People getting better. People helping people.

And I’m staring at the ceiling feeling sorry for myself.

Nothing dramatic. Just a moment where the weight of living in this body settles in.

This has been my reality my whole life. Rooms like this. Tables like this. Work like this. Maintenance just to stay functional.

Some days that lands heavier than others.

Then my mind shifts a little.

My family is at home building their day around what my body can and can’t do. They do it with love. They never make me feel like a burden.

Friends are in this clinic. People who’ve watched this road unfold year after year. One of them, Memory, has been part of my world since 2005. Familiar faces change the feel of the room. It stops feeling clinical and starts feeling like community.

Support is everywhere.

The pain isn’t always the hardest part.

Sometimes the battle is in my own head.

Feeling sorry for yourself shows up when you live with chronic pain. That doesn’t make you weak. That makes you human.

You’re allowed to admit something hurts.
You’re allowed to be tired.
You’re allowed to not be okay for a minute.

Just don’t live there.

There’s still a world waiting outside that clinic door.

My shoulder hurts. Life is still calling.
My muscles struggle. Love is still moving.
My body protests. Purpose is still there.

Pain is real.

Possibility is real too.

So the questions become:

What can I reach?
What can I build?
Who and what can I love?
What can I become?

Same world. Same opportunity.

What am I going to do with it?

02/25/2026

Monique, Alyssa and I would like to invite you to the clinicians connection conference in Virginia Beach this coming April! There is room available. This is a place for Therapists to gain creative connection to their careers and ways they haven’t before. Plus, it is a group of people you want to get to know! The three of us are speaking about our personal experience with unconventional grief, but also teaching you how to work with an understand the clients that come your way dealing with unconventional grief in their own lives. 

What if leading well began with knowing yourself well? In this energizing session, Lisa Duez invites you to explore how self-awareness and feedback can transform communication, trust, and team connection. Through the lens of Johari’s Window, trauma-informed care, and systems thinking, you’ll unc...

02/20/2026