Professional Development Archives | Richardson Christian Counseling

Tips for Being a Step Parent at Christmas

Tips for Being a Step Parent at Christmas

Stephanie Kramer2025-11-12T08:23:05+00:00November 12th, 2025|Family Counseling, Featured, Professional Development|

Being a parent at Christmas can be stressful. Being a stepparent at Christmas can be even more of a challenge. While navigating holiday traditions in a stepfamily has obstacles, creating meaningful memories can bring your new family together and help you focus on unity rather than division. Here are some ideas to help you develop a sense of unity and joy during the holiday season: Personalized Ornaments One way to create lasting memories is to make or buy personalized ornaments representing each family member. Every year, add a new ornament for each person to symbolize the growth and changes in your blended family and their individual lives. This tradition can help all members feel included and appreciated. Family Portrait Make a new tradition of having a family photo or formal portrait taken each holiday season. These new images will be more than a precious keepsake; they represent a deliberate symbol of a unified family. Use the photos to decorate your home or send them out as Christmas cards to loved ones. However, you decide to use them, making the effort to take these special photos will be unifying for all members of the family. Volunteer Together Engage in a volunteer activity together as a family, such as serving at church or a local shelter, participating in a toy drive, or baking treats for the less fortunate. Acts of service create powerful bonds, reinforce Christian values of generosity and gratitude, and help blended families work together for a common purpose. Photo Albums or Scrapbooks Make a holiday photo album or scrapbook documenting your blended family's celebrations each year. Encourage each family member to contribute photos, drawings, a written reflection, or a small memento. Over time, this book will become a cherished keepsake. Advent Calendars Create custom advent calendars with activities or [...]

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Take This Job! Dealing with Job Burnout

Take This Job! Dealing with Job Burnout

Sarah Gibson, Kate Motaung2025-04-25T06:44:19+00:00February 28th, 2025|Featured, Individual Counseling, Professional Development|

Although job burnout is not an official disorder recognized by the medical community, it is a condition that causes exhaustion and mood changes. According to a survey from Indeed, more than half of the participants (52%) experienced job burnout in 2021. How do you deal with job burnout without shutting down physically and emotionally? Why You Might Have Job Burnout If you work in a demanding career, you may be exhausted in every way possible: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Demand and supply can create job burnout as excellent workers try to manage a shortage of employees and meet a higher demand for their services. Even if you love your job and have always considered it a dream job, you may still reach serious job burnout. There are other causes of job burnout: Working long hours or overtime. Feeling unappreciated, unacknowledged, or used. Working a demanding job with no evident reward. Not achieving family and work balance. Stress from other areas of your life. Symptoms from a mental health condition. Feeling as if your life is out of your control. Do any of these sound familiar? You might be dealing with job burnout. How Job Burnout Affects Mental Health Job burnout takes a toll on your mental health. You can feel emotionally exhausted, depressed, angry, and irritable. You might struggle with insomnia and fatigue. Some people choose damaging coping mechanisms, like alcohol and substance use. Others turn to food for comfort and binge eat. as they spend every evening escaping into the television. Richardson Christian Counseling provides a safe space to process burnout and develop healthier coping strategies rooted in faith, balance, and emotional well-being. You may not realize what is behind your recent mood swings or negative behaviors. Could it be that your job is causing more stress than [...]

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Setting Professional Boundaries at Work

Setting Professional Boundaries at Work

Cyndi Kay Green2025-01-17T09:09:08+00:00January 17th, 2025|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Professional Development|

Setting healthy boundaries at work can be challenging due to technology and ever-changing workplaces. Setting a limit that defines a work relationship is more complex than doing the same thing in personal relationships. People are quick to take offense when they feel as though they are being disrespected. Professional boundaries are important in creating a healthy and balanced work setting. …and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, NIV Professional boundaries can be for physical as well as emotional reasons. People do not want to be asked to do more than they feel capable of, nor do they want to be left out of office decisions. Mental boundaries can protect values and ethics. They protect us in our responsibilities as well as protecting our values. Identifying and setting boundaries empowers us to share our abilities to do a good job with the assigned tasks. This will also help us learn to manage our time and complete projects on time. When professional boundaries are clear the chance of them being overstepped is reduced. Expecting the workplace to be void of engagement can lead to work burnout. Proper boundaries can encourage minimal engagement while expecting productivity. How to Set Professional Boundaries at Work Many strategies can help set professional boundaries at work. The main goal of boundaries is to keep the work relationships healthy and productive. Chose information wisely Knowing your coworkers can be beneficial. However, there is a limit on how much personal information needs to be shared outside of the home. Some things like hobbies and [...]

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Stress Management Tips to Help You Stay Healthy and Productive

Stress Management Tips to Help You Stay Healthy and Productive

Jennifer Kooshian2025-10-11T07:22:09+00:00January 9th, 2024|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Professional Development|

Life doesn’t always come neatly packaged and easy to handle. We often encounter situations we never planned for, and even the things we anticipated can sometimes overwhelm us. When we are in a situation that we don’t feel we can manage or control, that produces the stress response, requiring stress management. Stress is how we react when we feel under pressure or threatened, and that differs from individual to individual. Some people relish a tight deadline, while others break out in hives if they start to feel like they’re falling behind schedule. Stress is an everyday part of life, and when you encounter it, you must have strategies in place to handle stress in a healthy way that doesn’t diminish your productivity or health. Some common sources of stress. People are wired differently, so what stresses one person out, or an area of life that causes stress for one person doesn’t register for another person. Some of the more common sources of stress include: Work. This includes the nature of the work itself. For instance, some jobs like law enforcement or in the medical field have a high intensity. Additionally, if you have too much work to do, and not enough institutional support, or you’re on a tight deadline, that too is a significant source of stress. Being underemployed or unemployed can also cause stress, as can the threat of losing your job. Relationship strain. If your relationships are strained or mired in conflict, this too can cause a lot of stress. Healthy relationships are a key predictor of one’s sense of fulfillment, and strain in relationships often results in a diminished sense of flourishing Finances. Not having the resources you need to meet your obligations can be a huge mental burden and a source of pressure. Illness. Whether [...]

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