Stress is an unavoidable part of life, but it doesn’t have to be a disabling one. The term stress refers to our emotional and physical reaction to events that we find challenging. These events can be negative, such as the loss of a job, or positive, such as buying a home. Stress also can be short-term or chronic; chronic stress can take a serious toll on our well-being, leading to heart disease, depression, and other health concerns. The more knowledgeable we are about how stress affects us and why, the better equipped we are to manage it. Stress management is the practice of learning and [...]

September is Recovery Month, a time to celebrate recovery and raise awareness that addiction is a treatable disease. John's story demonstrates that recovering from addiction is possible! John was struggling mightily. He had started drinking every day. He was at risk of losing his family, his business, his sense of self. His physical and emotional well-being were all going downhill. His wife, Aaste, told him he needed to go to treatment. She gave him a list, and suggested he call First Step Recovery. Walking through the doors of First Step was scary, John says, but not as scary as where his [...]

During Recovery Month, observed nationally every September, we remember the lives lost to the disease of addiction and celebrate with those who found the treatment they needed to get well. Here is one of those stories, as told by an alumnus of First Step Recovery of The Village: It was May 2015, and I was scared. My health was suffering with several short hospital stays for pancreatitis (too much alcohol for too long) and ketoacidosis (high blood sugars for too long). My career was in stress and legal problems had been the reason for several job offers being pulled. In short, I knew I was in [...]

What is the most valuable aspect of your organization? Often people respond with their building, technology, the service they provide, or the proprietary secrets that set them apart. Some may even say the people. All these things are good – and in many respects are keys to success – but they are not the most valuable aspects of the organization. The most valuable aspect of your organization is culture. The culture of an organization is the foundation of how its leadership sees people. It is the basis from which decisions are made, and it is the key component to maintaining a successful [...]

Nikki was a prisoner in her own bedroom. Her entire life she’d been abused. As a girl, she tucked herself into closets to hide from her mother’s cruel words. She couldn’t escape the sexual abuse she later faced by two people she should have been able to trust. Her 30-year marriage was filled with emotional and verbal abuse to the point she wouldn’t leave her room. Her children needed to check on her instead of the other way around. Then she found the help of The Village's IOP. Nikki came to the Intensive Outpatient Program and eventually found hope and healing. It took weeks for her to speak [...]

The world is changing and becoming more virtual every day, and life's stresses are unlike those we've ever known. That means it's more important than ever to stay connected with your therapist. For some people, it may be the first time they've felt the need to access mental health counseling or addiction treatment. For others, they may want to stay in contact with a therapist they've been seeing for a long time, but telehealth might be a better option than in-person counseling. Many Village services are now being provided online as well as in-person. Online appointments, or telehealth, have [...]

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions year after year. Why do we wait for a New Year to make positive changes? And how many of us succeed? A recent poll found 45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, 46% of resolutions are kept for at least six months, and 5% keep their resolution the entire year. You can make today matter by implementing some self-improvement no matter what time of year it is! Procrastination is alive and well each year; it does not wait another year to come creeping back. So where do we start? We start TODAY. Choose one thing today that you want to improve upon. Today [...]

When Molly* first came to The Village’s Moorhead office, she had no idea how much it would come to mean to her. Now she describes it as a “place of miracles,” where she feels safe to share honestly, ask questions, be challenged, break down walls, learn, and grow. Molly wrote a letter thanking her counselor, Joni Medenwald, MSW, LICSW. Here’s Molly's story, in her own words: I first met Joni at the end of 2012. In August of that year, I started a new job. I was very excited about the new position, but I soon came to realize that I was in way over my head. I was getting super stressed and [...]

It’s important to have the right tools for the job. You can build your own kit of mental health tools to help you thrive in difficult times and not-so-difficult times, too. In honor of May being Mental Health Month, Mental Health America is sharing a toolkit to increase resiliency, improve our mental health in times of uncertainty, and support our friends and family who may be struggling. While 1 in 5 people will experience mental illness at some point during their life, everyone faces challenges that can affect their mental wellbeing. “It’s important to recognize your emotions and own your [...]

At some point in our lives we all experience loss. It may be the end of a relationship, being let go from a job, losing a home, or the death of a loved one. You may have experienced a lot of loss in the past few years – upheavals to our routine, cancelled events, milestones we've missed. It's natural to grieve all these things, and it can be hard to feel any positivity after loss. By looking for opportunity in adversity or ­finding ways to remember the good things about who or what we’ve lost, we can help ourselves to recover mentally and emotionally. Mental Health America offers these 7 tips [...]