May 2020
Stacey Brown & Associates, Counseling and Wellness
 It's May! Did it seem like April was the longest month of the year? My goodness! 

How are you doing? The immediate future is uncertain because of the pandemic, so all we can do is float in good faith. I hope you are able to take good care of yourselves with frequent naps and great reading while you are at home working and taking care of your family and getting to know yourselves better despite the obvious concerns with the coronavirus. Drop us an email. We'd love to hear from you.  

Even though many Florida businesses reopened on May 4th, our counseling office will remain closed for everyone's safety. With tele-counseling services available, we can all be safe and still be available for meetings. Valarie Olsen, Heidi Swanson and I are busy every day offering tele-counseling services for our clients from our homes. So, stay still and we'll talk to you from the comfort of your own home. Appointments are held with your preference of telephone meetings or video meetings. If you, your family or friends need assistance, appointments may be made HERE .

Dealing with an unexpected pandemic is not easy, folks. We are all anxious and worried and restless and tired of being at home. But, it's not quite time for us to be out and about too much. If you do need to go outside of your home, be sure to wear a face mask and keep the hand sanitizer nearby for your safety. The Centers for Disease Contro l urge us to wear a face mask to protect yourself and others. The world needs your light and you need to be healthy!   Valarie Hei d i ,   Christar and I are all trying to do this in style! 

I was in the office recently to do some administrative work and was struck by how very quiet it was there. YOU really do bring your good energy and life to our counseling space! I am speaking the truth when I say that we miss you! I made an impromptu video   while I was there. We are wanting to hear from you about how we can offer more support for you during the pandemic. We are getting creative with some ideas to offer chats on Facebook Live and some online group support with teaching, meditations, artwork and general venting. 

We would love to hear your ideas. Please send me a note with your thoughts.

With all of our love and hopes for wellness and patience,
Stacey
Happy Mother's Day
Mother's Day can be tricky if you have a difficult relationship with your children or with your own mother. While you are honoring the day as an energy offering to motherhood in general, perhaps you can offer some love and compassion to yourself, your journey and the many lessons you have learned along the way. Also, you might offer some love to Mother Earth in a special ceremony of gratitude. Consider the day to be a wonderful opportunity to let go of anger and resentment, allow for grief and celebrate all that there is to celebrate about the gift of birth and nurturing in any form that feels right to you.
Supportive Services
What better time to learn the five qualities of the breath, how to use one focused attention and how to meditate? For additional support, Valarie, Heidi and Stacey are offering private meditation sessions

 Meditation can help reduce the symptoms of anxiety, trauma and grief. Generally speaking, you can be meditating all on your own after three or four meetings with practice. Let us help you get there with easy, step by step instructions.  Schedule your appointment HERE .

Christar is offering Distance Reiki Sessions. Yes, energy healing can be completed from a distance. Special techniques used in Reiki enables the healing to transcend distance to help you calm anxiety, heal and relax. You may learn more about Reiki HERE .  To book an appointment for yourself, click HERE

 Christar has been busy offering virtual, free crystal bowl concerts on Facebook. In this session, she explains each chakra and how the colors and sounds of the crystal bowls align to each chakra. She will be offering these concerts often, so follow us on Facebook to get the invitations.  To listen to this beautiful, healing sound bath, click HERE.
In the News
Stacey and Valarie spoke with Mike Kiniry on WGCU's Gulf Coast Life in April about the new surge in telecounseling.   You may listen to the twenty minute interview HERE .

Southwest Florida Parent and Child Magazine interviewed Stacey on the topic of honoring and helping our high school Seniors during the Covid Crisis.  

S tacey was interviewed for the Fort Myers News-Press for an article  investigating  a range of emotions emerging during the beginning phases of the Covid crisis.

Stacey was quoted in this article from Smart Social about the impact of social media on the mental health of teens.
Art Heals
While you are staying at home, try sketching, drawing, painting, sewing, crafting or doing some other creative work. Not only will artwork help you to be fully present, but it will also help take you out of your thinking mind.  Creating artwork helps you to tap into your intuition and your creative flow. This kind of activity... getting into flow... helps to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and grief. Concentrating on an art project becomes a meditative, healing experience.

We are all doing our own " shadow work " . Being in isolation with restricted movement and contact with the outside world results in us getting to know ourselves better. Sometimes, getting to know ourselves ends up resulting in realizing that we have some dark corners of our minds. Worry, fear, obsessive thinking, grief and other issues linger in the "shadows" of our mind. These "shadows" are the result of experiences we've had in our lives that were frightening or upsetting, our childhood wounds and relationships with our families or elements of our personality.

Experiencing this herself, Stacey used artwork to help address these things for herself. If you'd like to use artwork to help yourself, you might like to experiment with drawing and painting real shadows. Here's a video  of the moment Stacey recognized this connection. You might like this video  or 
t his one   or this on e   as well. Follow Stacey on Instagram  @staceybrownart  for more creative inspiration.
Gift Certificate
Looking for the perfect gift? Consider a gift certificate    for Meditation Training , a Massage , an Ayurvedic Consultation  or a Reiki Treatment
 Give the gift of self care. It's always a favorite.   
Helpful Links
Social Media
Follow us on our new LinkedIn page at Stacey Brown & Associates, Counseling and Wellness .

For updates on changes at the office, events, inspiration and tutorials, follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at staceybrowncounseling by clicking on the
icons below.                                                         
You are receiving this email because you are connected with our office in some way. If you would like to unsubscribe, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.