Jennifer Kooshian

About Jennifer Kooshian

Jennifer Kooshian lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with her husband of 32 years on a small homestead near Lake Superior. They have five adult children and one grandson. She also has an ever-changing number of chickens, a mellow old cat, and an aspiring farm dog. The passions that God has pressed on her heart are hospitality, giving college students a home away from home, and helping people learn to grow and preserve their own food. Jennifer spends her spring and summer months growing vegetable plants and flowers to sell to her community and for her own gardens. Her fall and winter months are spent having local college students over for dinner and board games, participating in her church’s college ministry, crocheting, and dreaming of her summer gardens. She also loves living where 15 feet of snow is a light winter. She documents her homestead adventures on Instagram and Facebook as Cooper Island Homestead and runs an Etsy shop under the same name.

How to Handle Setbacks as You Exercise for Mental Health

2024-09-28T12:05:07+00:00March 15th, 2024|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

When you set off to do something different or out of your usual routine, you can be sure that you’ll encounter challenges along the way. Some of those challenges may be related to learning new habits or exercise. Picking up healthy new habits like exercising for your mental health can help improve your overall sense of well-being. However, that journey won’t be without its fair share of setbacks. What do you do when you find yourself in a tough spot? Kinds of setbacks you can encounter on your exercise journey As you start on your journey toward greater fitness to improve your mental, emotional, and physical health, it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing all the way. To begin with, one of the first challenges you might encounter is deciding what to take up as your form of exercise. Some forms of exercise, such as those that require equipment, may be expensive to get into. In other cases, your health may not allow you to take up certain forms of exercise. Other kinds of obstacles may include getting injured during whatever form of exercise you’ve chosen. That can be a setback because it can take time to heal and become strong enough to pick up where you left off. Sometimes, physical injuries can cause an emotional or mental block, leading to a negative association with that form of exercise or experience that will take time to overcome. Another setback you can experience on your fitness journey is that it can start to feel hard, or even boring. Waking up early, carving out time in your schedule, putting in the effort to do your workout and make sure you’ve planned your meals for balanced nutrition can feel hard or boring. It can lose some of its initial allure as you get [...]

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Common ADHD Symptoms in Teens and How to Help

2024-09-28T12:04:59+00:00December 5th, 2023|ADHD/ADD, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured|

Did you know that almost all children who are found to have ADHD still have the disorder as teens? ADHD symptoms in teens are similar to those that children experience and include having difficulty in retaining their focus on one thing at a time, being organized and maintaining it, having a short attention span, and being hyperactive and impulsive. Experts find that during the teen years when hormonal changes of adolescence are combined with the demands of school and after-school activities and sports, these ADHD symptoms may get worse. ADHD affects a teen’s life in several ways. As anyone who is distracted easily and has poor concentration can attest, securing high marks on tests and listening closely in a classroom environment can be particularly difficult. Because of these ADHD symptoms in teens, many experience problems in school with declining grades. This will be especially prevalent if the teenager is not getting the appropriate treatment for ADHD. Forgotten assignments, lost textbooks, and being bored with classwork can all be grouped under a lack of attention and focus, which is typical when considering ADHD symptoms in teens. This attention deficit can also swing the other way to hyperactivity which may lead teens to rush through assignments or blurt out answers, interrupting lessons through their inability to sit still and continually fidgeting in class. It is also common for ADHD symptoms in teens to manifest through their inability to channel their focus better. So, while they are set on particular things, they forget about other things they were doing. This lack of focused attention can negatively affect the quality of their homework, their ability at sports, or even their relationships with their peers. Bad grades on tests, repeatedly not being chosen for the team, or teasing by their peers negatively impact a [...]

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10 Ways Counseling for Children Helps Kids

2024-09-28T12:04:53+00:00November 8th, 2023|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured|

You may have heard of counseling for kids, but are not sure of how it can help a child. If you picture a person laying on a couch talking about their problems, it may seem like counseling doesn’t make sense for kids. Fortunately, there are many approaches to counseling that differ from the stereotypical idea of counseling presented in movies and on television. Counseling for children can help them develop emotional, social, and coping skills. This will promote their mental health as well as the way they interact with others and understand the world around them. It also supports their overall well-being. 10 Ways Counseling for Children Can Help Your Child Here are ten ways counseling for children can help your child: Emotional regulation and expression. It can be difficult for children to understand and manage their emotions. Counseling can help them learn to identify and express their feelings in healthy ways. This can lead to better emotional regulation and healthy ways of expressing their feelings. This is a life skill with lasting benefits in navigating stress, anxiety, anger, and other intense emotions. Coping skills. When faced with challenges, children learn effective coping strategies to deal with these situations. Sometimes those are healthy things and other times, they are not healthy or beneficial. Counseling teaches children tools like deep breathing, mindfulness, positive self-talk, and problem-solving strategies. These skills are good for managing stressors and building resilience. Communication and social skills. Children interact with people in their family, home, school, and friendships. This requires communication and social skills. Counseling aids in developing healthy communication and social skills. As children learn how to express themselves clearly, actively listen to others, resolve conflicts, and establish positive relationships, they will have better interactions and healthier relationships. Self-esteem and confidence. It can be hard [...]

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