5 Reasons to Consider a Counseling Intern

By Jennifer Fifield, Clinical Counseling Intern

Have you been considering therapy for a while? Does your insurance not cover mental health treatment? Have you been struggling to get scheduled for an appointment? Great news - Hope and Healing Therapy and Wellness Center has a graduate student intern available! You might be wondering, what makes a student intern different, and can they really help me? Read on to find the surprising benefits to seeing a student intern:

1. Financial

Student interns can see clients at $45 for an intake 60-minute-session, and $30 for weekly 45-minute sessions. This is nearly a 75% savings for out of pocket services, which means a single session is closer to the cost of a traditional co-pay, instead of the typical self-pay rate.

2. Availability

Hope and Healing recognizes that when you are calling, you are in need of services, and we do our best to meet this need. This is one of the many reasons that we offer the option of seeing a student intern! Intern caseloads are kept smaller, and often have more immediate availability than our other providers.

3. Current

Student interns are in their final year of completing their Master’s program. Their graduate program includes completing a rigorous internship, where they provide clinical counseling to their own caseload. In addition to these internship requirements, student interns are still taking classes to further their knowledge on the most up-to-date research, training and interventions available. Student interns are eager to help and will give your case all the care and attention it deserves.

4. Flexibility/Giving Back

In a multicultural world filled with millions of diverse individuals, student interns are flexible and accept a wide variety of different clients. They are open to trying different approaches that fit the client and their needs. As you learn and grow through the counseling process, so does the student intern. Those who seek treatment with a student intern are invaluable to the progress of the counseling profession.

5. Quality of Care

Although the therapeutic hour will be spent with the student intern only, your case will be under the direct supervision of a clinically licensed therapist. Their supervisor will work alongside the student intern to ensure you are receiving the proper quality of care. Additionally, the student intern receives regular supervision from a faculty member of the university they are attending.

At Hope and Healing Therapy and Wellness Center, we know reaching out and asking for help can be stressful and anxiety provoking. The decision to be placed with a student intern is entirely up to you, and remember that regardless of your decision, you are a valued member of the Hope and Healing community.

7 Tips For A Healthy Holiday Season

By : Jessica Starnes, Coastal Rebel Wellness

The holidays are magical but also come with a lot of stress. Task lists are long but factoring in some healthy habits and self-care can help ease the load and keep you enjoying the holidays vs becoming a frazzled and burned out mess.

1. First things first, don't skip meals. With all the feasts and treats it can seem like you should "save up" calories or macros for the big meals.

Please don't fall into this trap.

Starving yourself in order to gorge later is a recipe for blood sugar dysregulation and digestive distress. Our bodies like routine and we do best (especially women) with regular fuel throughout each day.

Eating a solid breakfast and possibly a snack before a big holiday lunch will keep your mood in check and ward off over-eating because you're so super hungry. Get that breakfast and lunch in before a holiday dinner too!

Realizing this time is about celebrating with food and allowing treats without shame or guilt is going to go a long way in keeping you less stressed and enjoying the season than if you guilted yourself about how much you ate and assigned morality to food as if it could be "good" or "bad". Or worse, if you think YOU are good or bad based on what you ate.

Be intentional, conscious, and mindful of your indulgences and enjoy your food and experiences.

A few days spread throughout the holiday season of eating special treats or indulging a bit more than you normally would is NOT going to cause excessive weight gain nor is it going to undo your progress. Stressing about it is going to do MUCH more harm to your nutrient levels, hormones, and nervous system than mindfully enjoying the holiday foods.

2. If you are eating more sweets and rich foods, support your digestion with bitters either in tincture form or having a side of arugula or other bitter greens before your heavy meal. I'm not normally a fan of digestive enzymes or hydrochloric acid supplements but if your digestion is already compromised, these can be helpful with heavy protein and fat meals.

Remember to eat regularly and not rush or eat on the go. Chewing food and slowing down supports the digestive process from brain to tummy.

3. Go easy on the alcohol. Keep in mind alcohol is depleting so you may want to up your B vitamins, minerals, and liver support. Fruit juice (fructose) helps support the liver with mixed drinks so choose those over beer (very estrogenic) and wine when possible. Digestive bitters support the liver as well.

4. Rest. Schedule downtime in if you don't think you'll get it otherwise and don't cancel! It is important to give your mind + body a break. 15 minutes to yourself to just be, breathe, lay down, nap, pamper yourself, read some fiction, do some art - whatever soothes your soul. It matters during this time too.

Try to keep to your sleep schedule. You're gonna need more sleep when your stressors are increased.

5. Walk. If you want to keep on top of your workout regimen or training, please do. If you want to take a break, do that too, but just remember to move. Walking is a great way to keep moving and reduce stress. It's also great for blood sugar regulation especially after a heavy meal.

If you can get fully immersed in nature for a hike, even better. This can really help you reset from all the activities, travel, and socializing.

6. Hydrate. No, I don't mean loads of plain water. Herbal teas, mineral drops or a pinch of sea salt added to water, fruit juices, milk, coconut water are all very hydrating because of the mineral content (specifically potassium and magnesium). Mineral intake is crucial for hydration and metabolic health. Don't skimp on this! Your mood and energy will thank you.

7. Keep your therapy appointment! Your mental health is just as important during this time as any other time. This can help keep you grounded and able to navigate the season with balance. If you're not in therapy, tap into your mental health toolbox to find ways to calm your thoughts, regulate your nervous system, and soothe your soul.

I hope these healthy foundations will help you enjoy this holiday season to its fullest!

Gratitude and the Gut

By Jessica Starnes, Coastal Rebel Wellness

It's that time of year where thankfulness and gratitude take center stage. If only we could keep that momentum going all year!

Having a daily practice of gratitude can help shift our thoughts, energy, and nervous system to a calmer, less stressed state. This is a state we want to spend most of our time. This is a state where we heal, detoxify, ovulate, digest, and rest. This is the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system - opposite of the fight or flight energy of the sympathetic branch.

Proper digestion only occurs when we are relaxed and calm - a state that can come from practicing gratitude. When we are wound up, on the go, driving, watching TV or on our phone, upset, angry, working etc our nervous system isn't primed for the parasympathetic task of digesting food well. We then tend to get indigestion, bloat, gas, not-so-pleasent bowel movements, and other digestive woes.

If we continuously eat in stressful states like this, we wind up lowering our stomach acid and inhibiting the break down, assimilation, and absorption of nutrients in the food we eat. This can lead to a whole host of health issues attributed to nutrient deficiencies.

Ever heard of the gut-brain axis? While things happening in the gut can affect the brain, the brain also affects the gut. Hello, vagus nerve! This is the main highway of communication between the two. Our thoughts are more powerful that we tend to think they are and strongly impact our physical body. The mind and body are not separate. If you have gut issues, the emotional component is a huge factor to address along with healing the gut lining, supporting the gut microbiota, and lowering endotoxin with nutritional interventions.

While there are a plethora of tips on WHAT to eat for gut health, what's often missing from the conversation is HOW to eat. How do we translate safety to the body so it is primed well to receive and digest the fuel?

Pausing for gratitude before a meal is an old practice that many of us have gotten away from with our modern, fast-paced lives and abundance of food choices and availability. Something as simple as a few slow, deep breaths prior to a meal, sitting down and not standing to eat, eliminating distractions and allowing time to truly focus on the food in front of us, praying or expressing gratitude for our food, not skipping meals and getting too hungry can dramatically shift our state and support the production of stomach acid and digestive enzymes for more efficient digestion of our food.

So, I challenge you to allow a slow down to express gratitude for your meal or anything else you might be grateful for and see what might shift in your digestion, energy, and health. Consistency is always the name of the game so give it a try for a couple weeks for the most benefit and maybe it will become a life-long habit. And best of all, it's free!

Sometimes it's the simplest of habits that make the biggest impact.