Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk

By Sam Galema Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk is an annual event held on the University of Northern Iowa’s (UNI’s) campus at Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Out of the Darkness is focused on addressing the stigma surrounding mental health care and suicide in our current society and working to improve suicide prevention …

Inner-Critic: The Anecdote

By Hayley Downey Have you ever wondered what it might be like to have freedom from the constant stream of self-criticism? What if instead of an inner-critic you had a compassionate-self?  In order to make that transition, it’s important to understand what might be happening.  Our inner-critic is often trying to help.  It wants to motivate …

From the Mind of a Behavioral Health Intervention Service (BHIS) Provider

By Alexa Jans Mental health plays a role in everyone’s daily lives. Mental health involves our emotional and social well-being, which affects how we all think and act. Our mental health also determines how we handle different stressors in our daily lives and the decisions we all make. Someone with positive mental health may be …

Heart and Solutions, LLC Partners with Foundation 2

By Colleen Grote, PhD, LMHC, RPT Heart and Solutions is excited to announce a new partnership with Foundation 2 and their J-FAST program! Foundation 2 is a nonprofit human service agency that provides crisis prevention and intervention for a variety of individuals. Foundation 2 is committed to promoting positive youth development, suicide prevention, and safe community …

The Importance of Sleep for School Aged Kids

  As adults, we have (and are) experiencing difficulty getting the sleep we need. We have kids to wrangle, homes to clean, jobs to do, and countless other demands on our time. However, we also know how this lack of sleep impacts us: grouchy, difficulty concentrating, ect. We know the negative impacts of sleep and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are used to designate all types of neglect, abuse (emotional, physical, and/or sexual), and other traumatic experiences (such as household challenges including domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness, separation/divorce, and/or the incarceration of a household member) that happen to children under 18 years old. They put children at a higher risk …

The Untold Story of Heart and Solutions, LLC: The Moment I Knew Who We Were as a Company.

By Julie Johnson, MA, NCC, LMHC, Doctoral Candidate in Behavioral Health Leadership (President and Founder of Heart and Solutions, LLC) It was 2014, we had four team members employed and a fifth preparing to come on board.  I was at home working at our first Heart and Solutions Office – our dining room table.  I …

Shh! My Brain Needs Quiet

We tend to live our lives to the beat of background noise: podcasts, music, books on tape, TV, ect. Everything we do from showering to driving is accompanied by some type of self-chosen noise. Silence is hard to come by maybe even an uncomfortable and unwelcome void. Noise pollution, however, has been correlated with heart …