Shannon Mick, NCC, LPC Finish Stronger Counseling

04/30/2026

Body Appreciation Worksheet for When You are Struggling with Body Image

The Uniquely Me, Body Appreciation, and Body Positivity worksheet helps with recognizing what our bodies do for us and what is unique about us.

Think about the abilities and all that our bodies achieve every day, there are several!

Walking, speaking, reading, thinking, feeling, eating, and reproducing, just to mention a few.

Our bodies are elaborate and designed to do absolutely astonishing things!

Watch this 5:00 video from National Geographic: Human Body 101 to remind yourself just how incredible your body is.

This downloadable worksheet is for anybody to complete: children, adolescents and adults; use it in a classroom setting with children; use it in a group setting, so that you can learn from and relate to others.

I have used this as a tool when working with people who struggle with body image, eating disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) in a group therapy setting...

Visit the article for more and to download the free worksheet.

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2020/02/25/uniquely-me-body-image-body-positivity/

The Uniquely Me, Body Appreciation, and Body Positivity worksheet helps with recognizing what our bodies do for us and what is unique about us. Think about...

04/28/2026

The neighbor girls have been helping to keep my office beautiful by picking me flowers.

They are nice to look at throughout the day.

04/22/2026

Journal Prompts: Have a healthier relationship to food (free download)

Having a better relationship to food is about mindset, which takes unraveling the current messages you have been operating under and re-wiring the brain with messages that serve you.

This all starts out with discovering your current messages and limiting beliefs.

After completing these questions, go back through your answers and look for behavioral and emotional patterns.

What do you know now that you didn’t know before?

How can you improve your relationship to food?

How do you take action?

Do you need to speak with a professional for support?

Download these questions below and print them out.

- What does “food” mean to you? What do you associate food and eating with?

- What is your relationship to food like? Describe it like you would a relationship with an actual person.

- How does food make me feel? How do I wish I felt about food?

- Why do I eat?

- What 3 words describe my relationship to food right now? What 3 words do I wish did?

- What do I want food to do for me?

- Do you consider where food comes from or do you think of food as an end product?

- Are you a distracted eater or do you just eat? If you are a distracted eater, what usually distracts you?

- Do you record everything that you eat and drink? If so, what are your intentions behind it? Are your intentions healthy and appropriate?

- What are the negative thought before, during, and after eating? Eating very little? Eating just enough? Overeating? Binging?

- When, Where, and What is happening when you feel intense pulls toward food?...

These aren't even half of the journal prompts in the free download.

Having a better relationship to food is about mindset, which takes unraveling the current messages you have been operating under and re-wiring the brain.

04/16/2026

Three Ways to Improve Emotion Regulation When You are Stressed

In order to regulate emotions, we need to exercise the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) part of the brain.

The ACC is involved in emotion regulation, solving emotional and cognitive conflicts (for example, when you feel torn about what to feel or think), and detects performance errors.

After someone goes through a traumatic event, the ACC becomes less active, which makes it more difficult to regulate strong emotions. It also thinks differently about challenges and making decisions.

Cognitive and behavioral (CBT) exercises that can help rebuild the ACC:

1. Reduce cytokines

2. Practice effortful control

3. Mantra meditation

Learn about these three exercises and strategies in the article.

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2025/12/22/three-ways-to-improve-emotion-regulation-when-you-are-stressed/

04/10/2026

Back of the Pack Ultra Guy Podcast with Christian Barrett. We took a deep dive into ultrarunning and mental wellness, focusing on trauma and resiliency.

https://youtu.be/TeF1AXeT5fA?si=_sOU4EkPBssvDydk

In a few weeks, I will be on The Maximum Mileage Running Podcast. I haven't heard what the main topic will be, yet, but I think I can guess. 😊

Shannon Mick, an ultra runner and mental health professional, discussing her journey into ultra running, the mental health benefits of running, and the impac...

04/08/2026

I have counseling spots available:

- Anxiety
- Trauma
- Eds
- Runners
- Age 22+
- Must be in Pennsylvania

For all of the details, head to my website 😊

Shannon is providing telemental health services to Pennsylvania residents. She specializes in treating anxiety, trauma and eating disorders.

04/05/2026

The neighbor girls have been bringing me Spring flowers for my office 🥰🏵️🪻🌼🌿

03/30/2026

Managing Anxiety and Deciding with Uncertainty

When you’re making a tough decision, all you can do is make the best choice for what you know right then and there.

Our brains like certainty, we are creatures of habit. We rely on pre-existing patterns that are familiar, which is safe and effortless. Many of our behaviors are habits and we do automatically, in a way, our brains are lazy, but they’re wired to survive, and we survive by being able to automatically do things.

Embrace the reality of not having all of the information and details today, not knowing exactly what the outcome will be.

Decision making when there is uncertainty is often made worse than it actually is by our brains. Again, your brain’s default settings are to blame, as it is just trying to look out for you. You may imagine future events, try to figure out any surprise, or situation that may not go according to plan. You may worry this unexpected thing may trigger more intense anxiety...

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2022/05/23/managing-anxiety-and-deciding-with-uncertainty/

When you're making a tough decision, all you can do is make the best choice for what you know right then and there. Our brains like certainty, we are...

03/24/2026

How to follow through when you’re not automatically good at something

I wasn’t always good at weight lifting, I enjoyed it, and knew that it played an important role in my health, but it can be difficult to stick with something until you are good at it.

Over the years, I stuck with it, and then I wouldn’t, and then I’d get back into it… I found ways to stick with it and loved it more and more.

I joined gyms/HIIT/CrossFit, worked out with others, and hired a running coach who prescribes lifting.

Weight lifting is now a part of my almost daily routine and I’m reaping many benefits, including the mental health benefits!

In this article, I’ll discuss a few key points on how to follow through when you’re not automatically good at something.

These points include:

- You are not alone.
- What do professional athletes do?
- The 1% better everyday rule.
- Keep showing up.
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
- Acknowledge your thoughts and emotions.
- Let go of needless worry.
- Practice identifying and reframing distorted thoughts that don’t serve you.
- Society can keep you stuck.
- Mental health stigma...

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2023/06/26/how-to-follow-through-when-youre-not-automatically-good-at-something/

A common issue that people have is if they're not automatically good at something, they never follow through with it. They may really want to try a new sport...

03/23/2026

9 Habits that Boost Your Mood

Have you been feeling depressed or lost? By developing some healthy habits you can alter your mood for the better.

The 9 habits in this video are small steps that you can take, plus little research tidbits.

1. Practice gratitude
2. Give compliments
3. Experience and go with the flow
4. Savor the little moments
5. Exercise
6. Get enough sleep
7. Choose foods that boost your mood
8. Work towards meaningful goals
9. Experience nature...

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2022/09/28/9-habits-that-boost-your-mood/

02/20/2026

Build Better Habits: The difference between people who succeed and who fail

Mediocre to Olympic winning cycling team:

In chapter 1, James Clear starts with a look at how British cycling performance director Dave Brailsford turned the British cycling team from mediocre to an Olympic winning team in the early 2000s.

He did this by employing a strategy he called “the aggregation of marginal gains.”

Marginal gains:

The coaching team decided to make tiny changes (1% improvements) to everything that goes into riding a bike.

For example, they redesigned the bike seats to make them more comfortable.

They improved the bikes’ tire grip and even the fabric of the athletes’ riding suits.

They also hired a surgeon to train the cyclists on the proper methods of hand washing to avoid catching a cold.

These changes, which at first may seem small and inconsequential, added up (aggregation) to make a huge difference (marginal gains)...

https://finishstrongercounseling.com/2024/04/11/build-better-habits-the-difference-between-people-who-succeed-and-who-fail/

Have you read Atomic Habits by James Clear? I recommend this book and workbook to most of my clients. In Atomic Habits, James Clear reveals secrets to results..