Friesen Counseling Services

02/13/2026

Black history is a history of resilience, strength, and healing. This month, we honor the past while holding space for rest, care, and mental wellness in the present.

01/19/2026

January asks for a lot of urgency. But winter doesn’t.

I’ve been thinking about the tension between how we’re encouraged to start a new year—and what this season actually feels like in our bodies and lives.

I wrote a short reflection on curiosity, winter, and what might become possible if we didn’t rush this part.

-Ashley Callstrom, LSCSW

January asks for a lot of urgency. But winter doesn’t. I’ve been thinking about the tension between how we’re encouraged to start a new year—and what this season actually feels like in our bodies and lives. I wrote a short reflection on curiosity, winter, and what might become possible if we...

12/14/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📗 Day 12: The Zen Monkey and the Lotus Flower by Daniel Apollo

A gentle, mindfulness-based guide that uses simple parables and reflections to help readers slow down, find balance, and reconnect with inner peace. Perfect for anyone wanting calm and clarity during busy seasons of life.

12/13/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📙 Day 11: The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

An essential parenting resource that breaks down how children’s brains develop—and how adults can respond in ways that support emotional regulation, resilience, and healthy growth. Backed by neuroscience and full of practical tools.

12/12/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📘 Day 10: Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

A clear and accessible guide to understanding how our thoughts create emotional suffering. Nguyen helps readers challenge mental habits, disrupt unhelpful thinking patterns, and experience greater peace from the inside out.

12/11/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📗 Day 9: Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) by Kate Bowler

In this moving memoir, Bowler writes with honesty and humor about facing illness and the myth that suffering must have a neat explanation. A touching reflection on vulnerability, faith, and what it means to be human.

12/10/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📙 Day 8: The Lives We Actually Have by Kate Bowler & Jessica Richie

A heartfelt collection of blessings for all of life’s seasons—not just the shiny ones. Bowler and Richie offer words for moments of joy, exhaustion, grief, and uncertainty, reminding us that every version of our life is worth honoring.

12/09/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📘 Day 7: Raising Good Humans by Hunter Clarke-Fields

A mindful parenting guide that focuses on breaking reactive cycles and nurturing children with intention. Through mindfulness practices and practical strategies, parents learn how to show up with calm, connection, and emotional presence.

12/08/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📗 Day 6: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson

Gibson outlines the traits of emotionally immature parents and the lasting impact on their children. This compassionate guide helps readers understand unhealthy family dynamics and teaches tools for boundaries, healing, and emotional freedom.

12/07/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📙 Day 5: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

A beautiful blend of Indigenous wisdom, ecology, and personal narrative. Kimmerer invites readers to see the natural world as teacher, healer, and kin—offering a restorative perspective on connection, gratitude, and stewardship.

12/06/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📘 Day 4: Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine

A foundational text on trauma and the nervous system, this book introduces Somatic Experiencing. Levine explains how trauma gets “stuck” in the body and offers pathways to restoring the natural healing process.

12/05/2025

🎄📚 Friesen Counseling’s 12 Days of Book Recommendations 📚🎄

📗 Day 3: The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’Connor

Blending science and compassion, this book explains why grief feels the way it does. O’Connor, a neuroscientist, helps readers understand the brain’s role in attachment and loss, bringing validation and insight to anyone navigating grief.