Courage Speaks Counseling

Courage Speaks Counseling .

If someone walked up to me and told me my hair was blonde, I probably wouldn’t feel much of anything.Because…it’s not.My...
08/31/2026

If someone walked up to me and told me my hair was blonde, I probably wouldn’t feel much of anything.

Because…it’s not.

My hair is brown.

I know my hair is brown.

I’m not going to go home and think:

F**k.

What if she’s right?

What if my hair has been blonde this whole time?

Do other people think it’s blonde?

Have they always thought this?

Should I ask someone?

No.

I’d probably just think that person was a little strange and go on with my day.

But if someone says something about me that I’m not so sure about…

that can get in.

Not necessarily because they’re right.

But because some part of me is wondering if they might be.

I think knowing yourself changes that.

Eventually, some things people say about you just start sounding like…

“Your hair is blonde.”

Okay. 🤣

I think a lot of the moments we’re pretty sure we messed up our kids are completely different from the moments they’ll a...
08/31/2026

I think a lot of the moments we’re pretty sure we messed up our kids are completely different from the moments they’ll actually remember.

Because we remember our “worst” parenting moments.

We replay them.

We know exactly what we should have done differently.

One day I was feeling particularly awful about how I’d spoken to my daughter the day before.

So I apologized…again. Even though I had already apologized when it happened.

Her response was basically:

Mom. That was yesterday. Get over it. I’m good.

Next time eat food.

You were just hangry.

🤣

Cool.

I wonder how many moments we will hold onto for years just to find out we’ve been feeling guilty about all the wrong s**t. 🤣

“Chelsey, just tell me what to do.”Okay…Let’s say I do.I tell you to stay.Or leave.Take the job.Quit the job.Say yes.Say...
08/28/2026

“Chelsey, just tell me what to do.”

Okay…

Let’s say I do.

I tell you to stay.

Or leave.

Take the job.

Quit the job.

Say yes.

Say no.

Whatever it is.

Then I go home to my own life, while you make a life-altering decision about yours.

That’s a problem. 😳

Because you’re the one who has to lay your head down on your pillow that night.

And the next night.

And five years from now.

You’re the one who has to wake up and live in whatever came after that decision.

I don’t.

I can ask questions.

I can help you figure out what you actually want and what’s making it so fu***ng hard to know.

I can sit with you while you figure out what choice you feel good about making.

Because whatever you choose, you’re the one who actually has to live it.

I just get to hear about it next week.

We talk a lot about the s**t our families passed down to us.Anxiety.Silence.Shame.Ways of coping that probably made sens...
08/27/2026

We talk a lot about the s**t our families passed down to us.

Anxiety.

Silence.

Shame.

Ways of coping that probably made sense at some point and now make our lives significantly more complicated.

And that’s real.

But it’s also only half the story.

Because resilience gets passed down too.

So does instinct.

Creativity.

Endurance.

No family line survives without strength.

Somebody figured out how to navigate something difficult.

Somebody adapted.

Somebody endured long enough for the next generation to exist.

I’m not saying we need to romanticize the past.

There’s plenty of f**ked-up s**t back there too.

But maybe inheritance isn’t one-dimensional.

You aren’t only carrying what hurt.

You’re also carrying what endured.

“I don’t really have anything to talk about today.”Clients say this to me all the time.That’s okay.I do. 😁When you first...
08/26/2026

“I don’t really have anything to talk about today.”

Clients say this to me all the time.

That’s okay.

I do. 😁

When you first come to therapy, you usually have some idea of why you’re there.

Or we figure it out together.

After that, you don’t have to keep track of it.

I do.

Some days we go straight toward it.

Some days I pull on that thread pretty fu***ng hard.

Other days, it’s barely a tug.

And some days we spend the whole session talking about something that seems to have absolutely nothing to do with why you came in.

I know.

I didn’t forget.

I’m still holding the thread.

There’s a reason I’m asking what I’m asking.

There’s a reason I’m following where you went.

And there’s a reason I’m not pulling you somewhere else yet.

You don’t have to leave every session feeling like we worked on your goal for me to know where we are.

You can lose the thread.

I’ll keep holding it.

We got a new bunny yesterday. She’s the cutest fu***ng thing.Cuddly. Soft. Adorable.She’ll probably be dead by Thursday...
08/25/2026

We got a new bunny yesterday.

She’s the cutest fu***ng thing.

Cuddly. Soft. Adorable.

She’ll probably be dead by Thursday…

Not really…

I just have this weird thing with our animals where if they’re laying a little too still I’m immediately like, well f**k. It’s dead.

Our frog died A LOT.

Except he wasn’t dead.

Until one day he actually was dead and no one believed me.

That was not my best mom moment…

Then we got a leopard gecko.

He’s died at least six times.

Still alive…yep.

We recently got a rosy boa, a snake my daughter has wanted for several years now…

So far he’s died once.

Maybe twice.

Also alive.

Once I decide they’re dead…I can’t touch them to find out.

Someone else has to do it.

The last time the snake “died,”I asked my husband to check him.

“Are you doing the dead animal thing again?” he says.

Yep.

Yes.

Yes I am. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Just so you know, the snake is fine.

Someday my kids are going to be standing around at my funeral saying,

“Remember how Mom always said the animals were dead and they never were?”

The question is, will they actually need therapy over this?

Sometimes therapy isn’t working.There. I said it.You’re showing up…You’re talking…You’re doing the work…You’re trying re...
08/24/2026

Sometimes therapy isn’t working.

There. I said it.

You’re showing up…

You’re talking…

You’re doing the work…

You’re trying really fu***ng hard to get better.

And… nothing.

Or not nothing.

But definitely not the thing you came here hoping would change.

And somehow we can turn that into another problem about you.

Maybe you’re resistant…

Maybe you’re avoiding…

Maybe you’re not ready…

Maybe you just need more coping skills…🙄

Maybe you just need to try harder.

Or…maybe…

What WE are doing isn’t working.

That seems like something we should at least consider.

Not every kind of stuck needs the same kind of help.

Sometimes the work we’re doing simply doesn’t match the place you’re stuck.

And I think you should be able to say that in therapy.

“This isn’t helping.”

“I understand what you’re saying. It’s not changing anything.”

“I don’t think this is what I need.”

That’s not failing therapy.

That’s information.

And honestly, I’d much rather you tell me my s**t isn’t working than spend six more months politely doing therapy that isn’t actually helping you.

I’m a therapist, so this may be terrible for business, but I don’t actually think everyone needs to be in therapy all th...
08/23/2026

I’m a therapist, so this may be terrible for business, but I don’t actually think everyone needs to be in therapy all the time.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re digging for s**t because we’ve been told there has to be s**t to find.

That we’re all f**ked up…

That our childhoods have royally screwed us over…

And if we just dig deep enough, we’ll eventually find the reason we are the way we are.

And sometimes… yeah.

There’s something there.

And maybe sometimes you freaked out on your partner yesterday because they were being an as***le.

No deep root.

Maybe you cried because what happened today was sad and it hurt.

The end.

Not every feeling we have today is secretly about something that happened when we were seven.

Sometimes therapy is exactly where we need to be.

Sometimes 2026 is waking up something from 1994.

And sometimes 2026 just fu***ng hurt.

You can read every book.Know the ins and outs of psychology.Honestly, some of my clients use bigger therapy words than I...
08/22/2026

You can read every book.

Know the ins and outs of psychology.

Honestly, some of my clients use bigger therapy words than I ever would.

They can explain exactly what their triggers are.

Why they behave the way they do.

Where it came from.

Why they do it.

They know.

And they haven’t actually changed.

Education is powerful. Yes.

But sometimes all that knowing can get in the way.

It can become another way to understand ourselves without ever actually getting to the place where change occurs.

You can know the s**t out of why you do the things…and still do the fu***ng things.

And hey! No judgment.

We all want to feel better.

Sometimes self-help helps.

And sometimes maybe we need a little self-unimprovement.

Sometimes you change.You grow.You start doing things differently.And then you go back into your family, friendships, rel...
08/21/2026

Sometimes you change.

You grow.

You start doing things differently.

And then you go back into your family, friendships, relationships…

and suddenly you feel like the sober person at a drunk party.

Everyone else is still connecting the way they always have.

And you’re standing there thinking…

Are we seriously still doing this s**t?

But here’s the thing.

They are.

And it might actually be working just fine for them.

You’re the one who stopped connecting in the way everyone has always connected.

You’re the one who doesn’t get the party anymore.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have changed.

Grow.

Change.

Do whatever the f**k you need to do.

But your growth doesn’t automatically make everyone who didn’t change dysfunctional.

Sometimes we change and then look back at the people still living in a world that used to work for us and decide we can suddenly see everything that’s wrong with it.

Maybe there are things wrong with it.

And maybe they’re still okay there.

That’s really not ours to decide.

Maybe part of growing is being able to be who you are now and still meet people where they are without needing them to be different.

Your growth is yours.

Their life is theirs.

They don’t need to change just because you did.

Address

723 5th Avenue E
Kalispell, MT
59901

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14063502725

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Courage Speaks Counseling posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Courage Speaks Counseling:

Shortcuts

Share

Category