Kindled Strength Counseling

06/13/2026

Looking for something to do today? Come out to South St Paul's Pride and say HI! Here until 5pm.

01/18/2026

You’re not alone. If you’ve heard about people being taken away by ICE and it made you feel scared, worried, or confused, this guide is for you. It’s made just for kids to help you understand your rights, feel stronger, and make a plan together with your family.

You can access the full guide to see tips for specific ages, download a family safety plan, and view this information in Spanish here:
www.childnet.org/immigration-resources

06/07/2025

Come visit all the vendors and entertainment at the 2nd annual South St Paul 4 All Pride festival! Located around central square community center 11am-5pm today!
Stop by and say hi! I’m proud to support my community and this event for the 2nd year in a row! SSP4ALL - Community Group

08/19/2024

Depression is tough, do what you have to do

RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.

When I was at one of the lowest points in my life, even getting out of bed felt impossible. I had no energy, no motivation, and was barely surviving.

Once a week, I’d drag myself to therapy. But during one session, I had nothing to say. My therapist asked how my week had been, and all I could muster was, “I dunno, man. Life.”

He wasn’t satisfied. “No, what exactly are you struggling with right now? When you go home after this session, what will be staring you in the face?”

I hesitated, embarrassed by the answer. I wanted something more meaningful to say, something bigger. But the truth was so small. Finally, I admitted, “Honestly? The dishes. It’s stupid, I know. The more I look at them, the more I can’t do them. I’ll have to scrub them first because the dishwasher sucks, and I just can’t stand there and scrub.”

I felt ridiculous. How could a grown woman be undone by dishes? But my therapist didn’t judge. He just nodded and said, *“Run the dishwasher twice.”*

I started to argue that you’re not supposed to, but he cut me off. *“Why not? If your dishwasher sucks and you don’t want to scrub, run it twice. Run it three times. Who cares? There are no rules.”*

His words blew my mind in a way I can’t fully explain.

That day, I went home, threw the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and ran it three times. It felt like slaying a dragon. The next day, I took a shower lying down. A few days later, I folded my laundry and put it wherever it fit. Suddenly, there were no arbitrary rules holding me back, and I could start accomplishing things again.

Now that I’m in a healthier place, I rinse my dishes, I shower standing up, and I sort my laundry. But back when living felt like a struggle instead of a blessing, I learned one of the most important lessons of my life:

THERE ARE NO RULES. RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.

✍️🏻 Author | Kate Scott
🎨Pinterest | Ctto
By: A Friend

06/08/2024

Come explore South St Paul’s inaugural Pride celebration and say hi!

04/09/2024

I listened to this show yesterday while doing some stuff around the house… my favorite podcast time tbh

If you have never really understood the public response to mental health, or in general have no clue why so many unhoused people on the streets are using a lot of drugs or obviously in a psychotic or possibly ‘manic’ state, this is a great show to listen to. It will help understand what has happened in the past 60 years in this country to contribute to the current crisis of mental health treatment. Also some insight into how we used to ‘treat’ severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) and why there are so many layers and hoops that people have to go through to access treatment now.

If like me, you work in mental health, especially in crisis mental health, this will probably give you a little more insight into why we see this ‘churn’ of patients going from service to service, provider to provider, getting ‘let go’ from hospitals or ERs with minimal or poor follow up plans.

I had to sit with my feelings that came up listening to this. Defensiveness, mostly, some guilt and shame in my contribution to this. Some of it I had to remind myself truly is systemic, these arbitrary decisions made about funding and resources are way above me but significantly impact my job.

Some of the guilt comes from the direct conversations I have with families about why we can’t/ won’t be keeping their loved one in the hospital, why the ER is not the best place for them, reminding them that even very ill and severely addicted people have rights to make their own decisions, and knowing that sending them back out into the world continues this tornado cycle people are in.

Notably in this show there was no mention of racial differences, which feels like a huge oversight to me, because there are significant differences in how people are treated based on the color of their skin, the language they speak, and socioeconomic status and class. I can understand why this show didn’t really get deep into that, it could be an entire show itself just on this narrow topic of the ‘transition from institutionalization to community mental health’ but especially in former and current treatment (medications, experiments, torture, etc) modalities or lack of access to treatment that is absolutely different when it’s historically oppressed groups interacting with the systems.

Overall I recommend it, some of the details of state hospitals are hard to listen to. However, I’m one of those people that believes we do need to face and lean about even the most horrible details of our past or we will never learn to be better

‎Society & Culture · 2024

03/02/2024

Happy Social Work Month!