Restoration Counseling LLC

01/09/2026

Closeness doesn’t mean perfection.
It means curiosity instead of shame. Compassion instead of criticism.
Growth—spiritual or emotional—is rarely linear, but it is always meaningful. 🌱

01/08/2026

Prayer isn’t about having the “right words.”
It’s about regulation, surrender, and letting your nervous system rest in something bigger than you.
Sometimes prayer is quiet. Sometimes it’s messy. Both count. 💗

01/05/2026

Mental health isn’t just what happens in your head—it’s also what happens in community.
Church can offer rhythm, grounding, belonging, and a reminder that you don’t have to carry life alone.
In 2026, maybe healing looks like showing up, even when it’s hard. 💚
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01/04/2026

January doesn’t have to be about fixing yourself. ❄️
It can be about clearing space.
At Restoration Counseling, I think of January as a gentle mental reset. Not a detox in the punishing sense, but a mindful release of what’s weighing you down and a recommitment to what steadies you.
✨ More compassion.
✨ More rest.
✨ More honest reflection.
✨ Less noise.
✨ Less self-criticism.
You don’t need to become a new version of yourself this month.
You’re allowed to simply return to yourself.
If your mind feels cluttered, heavy, or stuck in old patterns, therapy can help you sort through what’s worth keeping and what’s ready to be released. 🕊️

01/03/2026

🧠🌸🥞🛏📚
It’s Saturday.
Not a productivity contest.
Not a day to “catch up” on everything you didn’t do this week.
It’s a day for gentle care.
Pancakes can be nourishment.
Clean sheets can be grounding.
Fresh flowers can be regulation.
Reading can be rest.
Naps can be healing.
Mental health isn’t always deep work or hard conversations.
Sometimes it’s letting your nervous system exhale and reminding yourself that rest is not a reward. It’s a need.
If today feels slow, soft, or delightfully unproductive… you’re doing it right. 💗
— Restoration Counseling

01/01/2026

✨ Hello, 2026. ✨
Not with a resolution list.
Not with hustle promises.
Not with a demand to become someone “better.”
But with awareness.
With honesty.
With permission to be human.
Mental health doesn’t reset when the calendar flips. Trauma doesn’t expire at midnight. Grief doesn’t care what year it is. Healing is not impressed by sparkly numbers or motivational slogans. It moves slowly, intentionally, and often quietly.
As we step into 2026, maybe the goal isn’t to fix yourself.
Maybe it’s to understand yourself.
To notice the patterns you keep repeating.
To name the boundaries you’ve avoided setting.
To recognize the nervous system responses you’ve been calling “personality flaws.”
To stop shaming yourself for survival strategies that once kept you safe.
Growth isn’t always loud.
Sometimes it looks like resting without guilt.
Leaving relationships that require self-betrayal.
Saying “no” without over-explaining.
Feeling an emotion without immediately trying to numb it, reframe it, or spiritualize it away.
If 2025 taught you anything, let it be this:
You don’t heal by pretending things didn’t hurt.
You heal by allowing them to matter.
At Restoration Counseling, I believe mental health is not about becoming unbreakable. It’s about becoming more integrated. More connected to yourself. More honest about what you need. More compassionate toward the parts of you that are tired, guarded, anxious, or grieving.
So as the glitter settles and the noise fades, ask yourself gentler questions this year: • What am I carrying that I no longer need to carry alone?
• Where am I operating from fear instead of values?
• What would it look like to respond instead of react?
• Who am I when I stop performing and start listening?
2026 doesn’t need a new version of you.
It needs the real one.
The regulated one.
The healing one.
The one allowed to take up space.
Here’s to a year of clarity over chaos.
Presence over pressure.
Healing over pretending.
✨ You’re allowed to begin again, without erasing what came before. ✨
— Restoration Counseling 💗

12/31/2025

🎉 New Year. Same Truth. 🎉
Drinking and driving isn’t edgy.
It isn’t brave.
It isn’t a “calculated risk.”
It’s impulsive, dangerous, and avoidable.
If you’re going to celebrate the new year, celebrate making it into the next one.
Call a ride. Hand over the keys. Make the smart choice.
✨ Protect your life. Protect others. ✨
Don’t add to the number. Don’t drink and drive.

12/29/2025

https://www.restorationcounselingdsm.com/blog-2-1/reflecting-on-2025-what-did-god-teach-you-this-year

As 2025 fades, pause: What did God whisper (or shout) through your highs, lows, and everything in between? My guided journaling prompts will help you uncover His faithfulness—grab your pen and reflect!

Read now.

Jessica@RestorationCounselingDSM.com – Text me at (515) 518-0681 to dive deeper. 📝✨

As 2025 fades, pause: What did God whisper (or shout) through your highs, lows, and everything in between? My guided journaling prompts will help you uncover His faithfulness—grab your pen and reflect! Read now. ...

12/23/2025

There’s a difference between avoiding and choosing.

This season, you’re allowed to step away from stories, roles, or rhythms that feel misaligned...not out of rebellion or retreat, but because you’re making room for something that matters more.

You don’t have to argue or get hooked by every thought that tugs at you. You don’t have to meet every expectation placed on you. You’re allowed to pause, pivot, and protect your peace.

This list isn’t about giving up.
It’s about tuning in.

💬 What are you creating space from this season?

12/22/2025

https://www.restorationcounselingdsm.com/blog-2-1/emmanuel-remembering-god-with-us-in-every-season

Amid the Christmas chaos, remember: Emmanuel—God with you, not just for you. In every storm or sparkle, His presence whispers peace. A quick devotional to anchor your heart this week.

Read now.

Jessica@RestorationCounselingDSM.com – Text me at (515) 518-0681 when you're ready. ✨

Amid the Christmas chaos, remember: Emmanuel—God with you, not just for you. In every storm or sparkle, His presence whispers peace. A quick devotional to anchor your heart this week. Read now. Jessica@Restor

12/20/2025

Unpopular opinion incoming 👀🌈
Guys… not everything is trauma.
Trauma is real, serious, and life-altering. It’s the kind of experience that overwhelms the nervous system and fundamentally disrupts a person’s sense of safety and meaning. Think war, domestic violence, r**e, abortion, s*x trafficking, or the death of a loved one. These are experiences that can fracture someone’s internal world and leave lasting psychological and physiological imprints.
What I’m noticing more and more, though, is that many experiences being labeled as “trauma” are actually something else.
Often, what I’m hearing sounds a lot like unmet expectations and loss. Loss of a relationship. Loss of what you thought your life would look like. Loss of safety, identity, dreams, certainty, or control.
That’s grief.
Grief isn’t just about death. Grief is the emotional response to loss, and it can show up with anxiety, irritability, numbness, hypervigilance, sadness, anger, or withdrawal. Sound familiar? Those reactions can look like trauma, feel intense, and absolutely deserve care and compassion… but they come from a different place.
When we call everything trauma, we flatten important distinctions. We risk minimizing true trauma while also missing the chance to name and work through grief properly.
Grief needs space, meaning-making, and time. Trauma often needs stabilization, safety, and nervous-system repair.
Different wounds. Different treatment. Same humanity.
Words matter. 🧠✨

12/19/2025

“The things we do, do things to us.”

We were not created to only consume—scroll, absorb, produce, repeat. When our lives are spent only taking in content, stress, news, and expectations, our nervous systems feel it. Our joy feels it. Our creativity goes quiet.

Creation is regulating. Play is healing. Making art, writing, building, dancing, cooking, dreaming—these are not indulgences. They are how we process, integrate, and return to ourselves.

You don’t have to be “good” at it. You don’t have to monetize it. You don’t have to share it with anyone. Creativity isn’t about output—it’s about expression.

So today, ask yourself: What would it look like to create something instead of consume something? Your mind, body, and spirit will thank you.