April is Counseling Awareness Month and Western Wisconsin Health is raising awareness about the important role behavioral health services play in improving your mental health and wellness. This year’s theme is “Train Your Brain with Counseling.”

Physically, we use resistance to build strong, healthy muscles. We can take similar steps to improve our mental health. With the help of counseling, you can learn to counteract unhealthy thoughts, patterns, emotions, and behaviors that may be hindering your personal growth. Counseling is a beneficial relationship that is vital to helping you maintain or improve your health and well-being, just as important as exercising and eating right.

In life, we face new or unexpected obstacles on a daily basis. The methods we develop to handle these difficulties along the way can sometimes end up creating new challenges for us. Counseling can help identify and correct these behaviors that can create unrealistic expectations, fragile bonds to loved ones, depression, anxiety, and so much more. We have experts available to help you every step of the way on your journey.

“The majority of people we see as counselors are not what I would call ‘mentally ill’.  They just have life challenges they can’t seem to find a way around,” said Dr. Christopher Babbitt, Director of Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychologist at Western Wisconsin Health.  “Counseling can be a great tool for finding new ways to meet those challenges.” It’s never too late or too early to get help.

The Behavioral Health team at Western Wisconsin Health consists of experienced counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists that provide child, adolescent, individual, family, couples, and marital therapy services. They will collaborate with you to help you set and achieve attainable objectives, and build or rebuild relationships with your support network. Learn more at wwhealth.org or call our 24-hour appointment line at 715-684-1111 to schedule an appointment.