Real Connections Counseling

11/23/2025

Families grow stronger when they face challenges together. I see love, resilience, and teamwork every day as we support each other through chronic illness. We build deeper connections and discover new strengths with every honest conversation and caring gesture.

If you support someone with a chronic illness or live with one yourself, you belong to a community that lifts each other up. Share your story or tag a friend who inspires you. Let’s celebrate the power of connection and hope.

11/17/2025

Having problems communicating with your partner or just want to have better communications?
We have the solution.
Would love to see you there.

11/17/2025

Life will test every couple, not once, but perhaps over and over.
The question isn’t if something hard will happen.
The question is what will the two of you do when it does?

Health scares. Job shifts. Financial surprises. Emotional overload.
Most couples react.
Very few have a plan.

That’s why we created this masterclass.

UP NEXT in the FLAMES Series:

Sh$T Happens, Now What?
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
6:30–8:00 PM
Held at the office of Real Connections in Urbandale, IA

Hosted by Relationship & Financial Experts:
Knapper Financial Coaching + Real Connections Counseling & Coaching

This class helps you and your partner:

✨ Create an emergency relationship plan that strengthens your bond
✨ Stay connected when life gets chaotic
✨ Replace stress-reactions with intention
✨ Decide how you communicate + comfort each other in crisis
✨ Clarify who handles what so neither of you stands alone
✨ Build a financial safety rhythm that protects your future
✨ Keep small flare-ups from becoming big relational fractures
✨ Revisit your vows as a living choice — especially when it’s hard

Your relationship doesn’t have to break when life does.
Face it together. Plan for it. Come out stronger.

👉 $75 per couple
👉 Or register for the full 4-class FLAMES series — $200
🔥 Make your financial situation hot… and your relationship hotter.

SEE YOU THERE! Sign up at: https://realconnectionscounseling.com/for-love-and-money-enrichment-series/

11/17/2025

Life will test every couple, not once, but perhaps over and over.
The question isn’t if something hard will happen.
The question is what will the two of you do when it does?

Health scares. Job shifts. Financial surprises. Emotional overload.
Most couples react.
Very few have a plan.

That’s why we created this masterclass.

UP NEXT in the FLAMES Series:

Sh$T Happens, Now What?
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
6:30–8:00 PM
Held at the office of Real Connections in Urbandale, IA

Hosted by Relationship & Financial Experts:
Knapper Financial Coaching + Real Connections Counseling & Coaching

This class helps you and your partner:

✨ Create an emergency relationship plan that strengthens your bond
✨ Stay connected when life gets chaotic
✨ Replace stress-reactions with intention
✨ Decide how you communicate + comfort each other in crisis
✨ Clarify who handles what so neither of you stands alone
✨ Build a financial safety rhythm that protects your future
✨ Keep small flare-ups from becoming big relational fractures
✨ Revisit your vows as a living choice — especially when it’s hard

Your relationship doesn’t have to break when life does.
Face it together. Plan for it. Come out stronger.

👉 $75 per couple
👉 Or register for the full 4-class FLAMES series — $200
🔥 Make your financial situation hot… and your relationship hotter.

SEE YOU THERE! Sign up at: https://realconnectionscounseling.com/for-love-and-money-enrichment-series/

11/14/2025

Real Connections Counseling is deeply privileged to support the 10-42 Project through mental health and relationship counseling and coaching. The Residual Films team has created a powerful new documentary that will move the first responder community across the United States. We were honored to contribute to this project in a small but meaningful way.

“After The Tones” reveals the real story of life after the radio calls stop. Retirement can feel isolating, and we have witnessed the weight of that experience through our work at Real Connections. Many first responders face a steep climb as they navigate identity, purpose, and the emotional toll of years spent serving others.

This community deserves every resource we can offer. The first responder population carries one of the highest su***de rates in the nation, and together we can create a path of care, support, and renewed hope. Real Connections stands ready to serve, and we know so many of you share that same heartbeat. Your involvement can move the needle in life-changing ways.

We need your support. The 10-42 Project needs your support, through financial partnership and in every way you feel called to step in. Let’s stand together. Visit Residual Films and watch this vital film.

God bless you all, and may God bless every first responder. First Responders First. First Responders Live.

After the Tones is a documentary film now in production with a scheduled release date in late 2025. For more information, please go to https://ResidualFilm.com.

11/12/2025

Urbandale Chamber of Commerce thanks for making events like this available to so many of us. We’ve made really important connections through bash and other pieces of the chamber world! The question is, what’s our identity? For Real Connections Counseling and Coaching our identity is unity. The Urbandale Chamber provides that. 

11/11/2025

11/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DLyQmWCCY/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Real Connections is closed today in honor of our veterans. 🇺🇸

Happy Veterans Day, Thank you for your bravery. 🇺🇸✨

11/10/2025

Love & Relationship Through Chronic Pain and Illness

Chronic pain reaches further than the body. It redefines trust, reshapes communication, and exposes the places where love must deepen to endure.

My body often resists me. I watch Monique carry what once belonged to my strength. I watch my Alyssa step into spaces that I wish I could, and truly want to. This life takes humility and acceptance and yet it so often walks beside and uninvited walk-mate … shame.

A spouse who loves through illness bears a weight of their own. Fear hides behind care. Fatigue drags into days. Yet strength has the greater voice, with practice. Strength settles behind endurance.

Pain demands what vows were for. Choose me. Vows need endurance, and hope, and it is achievable. Love becomes less about what we can do and more about who we choose to be when everything changes.

At Real Connections, we help couples live from that place, where love is not measured by ease, but by courage, grace, and the faith to keep walking the story God began long before you were born.

If this may help someone you know, please share this video! We appreciate your support.

11/06/2025

Living Fully: Our Hawaii Adventure with Chronic Illness & Grace

We recently returned home from glorious Hawaii with my family, and we made so many moments count. We explored vanilla farms, watched spinner dolphins leap, and soaked in the beauty of the ocean. Every decision we made reflected our reality with chronic illness, and we showed up together with love and gratitude.

We choose to share our real story, one where we adapt, find joy, and celebrate each other. I see the effort, the laughter, and the ways we support one another. Our vacation belongs to us, and I feel proud of the story we create together.

If you’re living your own unique journey, I encourage you to embrace it and find the good in every chapter. I’m Rick Elgersma, the hat guy at Real Connections, and I’m grateful for every step of this adventure.

11/06/2025

Create an emergency plan that doesn’t wreck your bond. Establish practices that tame financial flare-ups that can create relational breakups. Prevent the wreckage!

Life will test every couple. The question isn’t if something hard will happen. It’s what will you do when it does?Connection can vanish when health scares, job uncertainties and more pushes you to your limits. Most couples react. Few have a plan.

Our Sh$t Happens, Now What? class in the For Love & Money Enrichment Series (FLAMES) system helps you build one.

STARRING the DYNAMIC DUO of Knapper Financial Coaching & Real Connections Counseling & Coaching, this amazing class IS COMING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2025 from 6:30-8 p.m. at Real Connections Counseling & Coaching!

This is about learning how to:
Create an emergency relationship plan that helps you stay together when everything around you feels unstable.

Recognize your stress patterns and replace reaction with intention.

Decide how you will communicate, comfort, and support one another when crisis hits.

Clarify who handles what so neither of you feels alone in the storm.

Build a financial safety rhythm that keeps both partners informed and prepared.

Identify what expenses, debts, and financial moves are most urgent in a crisis and which can wait.

Revisit your vows as a living choice you make, even when it’s hard.

When life happens, you don’t have to lose each other in the fallout. Face it together. Plan for it. And you can come out stronger.

Register at the website link - $75 per couple. Or commit to all four classes for $200 (pay upfront). Invest in your relationship! www.realconnectionscounseling.com/for-love-and-money-enrichment-series

Flames: For Love and Money Enrichment Series

Knapper Financial Coaching and Real Connections Counseling & Coaching are joining forces in a way few could have imagined. In their own fields, each couple has built a practice that strengthens relationships, one through financial clarity, the other through relational healing. Now, for the first tim...