Welcome To My Blog!
Hello everyone, and welcome!
I am Leslie Garcia, the Founder of Counseling Space, a life enhancement/enrichment, counseling, and coaching practice, which aims to improve quality of life for individuals, families, and communities through personal advocacy, counseling, life coaching, and education. I am thrilled to finally have opened a space where people can come to learn about their true selves. When founding Counseling Space, my vision was to establish a place where people were encouraged to delve deeper into their core competencies and understand strengths they may not know they had.
As a new business owner, establishing Counseling Space encouraged me to utilize the resources that already surrounded me. I took classes, conducted my own research, and sought help from a business coach. The journey was overwhelming, stimulating, exciting, and scary. But after countless planning sessions and support from a dedicated group of supporters, Counseling Space was born.
Counseling Space combines different strategies to enhance and enrich the lives of clients. We teach you to reflect on experiences in ways that allow you to identify your unique strengths and become aware of your true talents. We then help you discover—and ultimately implement—practical strategies that empower you to reach your greatest potential.
My goal with these blogs is to engage and educate, by providing techniques and tips to help you thrive in your life. Upcoming topics will include mental health, personal development, goal strategies, and information on eliminating feelings like stagnation.
Today’s topic is gratitude. Focusing on gratitude is a wonderful technique for lifting spirits when you are struggling.
How can you use gratitude to get through a difficult time or a tough day? You can think of it as a force that acts in opposition to our (understandable) tendency to focus solely on what is bringing us down in any given moment. When my clients come to me, they are often in distress and have a long list of struggles and difficulties. So, in addition to working on solutions, I also find it effective to ask them to spend a few moments telling me about what they are grateful for. When I ask this, I am often met with a surprised silence at first! But, believe it or not, research shows that focusing on gratitude is directly linked to better social support and to reducing stress and depression.
To get through tough times this week, try writing down three things you feel grateful for. These can be either minor or major things, but it is important to note them. My request to you is to make this a regular practice—by writing down three things every day for a year. You will be amazed at how much you come up with!
By accessing your level of gratitude, you can start to recognize your strengths. This is just one of a few ways I partner with my clients and guide them toward improving their emotional health and their personal and professional lives. I specialize in offering varied techniques that I’m passionate, including counseling, coaching, and education. I realize that not everyone who is in need of guidance necessarily has an active mental health condition, so I welcome the many people who merely seek life development; e.g., those who want to learn goal-oriented behavior in order to accomplish goals in their personal and professional lives.
To wrap up, I’d like to share a powerful feeling of gratitude that I am experiencing now, which is gratitude for my new business and for the best people in my life who helped me create it! Throughout this journey, my family and friends have encouraged me each day to achieve this tremendous milestone. They have provided me with love, support, time, advice, guidance, knowledge, and positive energy. Thank you!