We have now been providing telehealth to our clients for a full year now. I am incredibly proud of the resiliency of our team at Gurnee Counseling Center. Practically overnight we were home trying to navigate how to launch telehealth. There was so much uncertainty of how our clients would respond to telehealth and what headaches to expect from insurance companies. It was no surprise that our clients rose to the occasion and adapted with us. We have received overwhelming positive feedback of using telehealth to safely provide HIPAA compliant care to our clients this past year. We are incredibly grateful to continue seeing and supporting our clients. I commend our therapists for upholding high ethical and clinical standards while supporting our clients through a traumatic event affecting our own lives and families.
I want to extend a profound message of thankfulness to our office staff who have been the backbone of GCC this past year. They have continued to work from our office, answering phones, collecting mail, reassuring clients, spending hours on the phone with insurance companies, navigating new codes, and so much more. When clients call our office, they are often feeling vulnerable and scared at taking the leap for counseling. That bravery is met with a calm, collected, kind voice on the other end. We are proud to have a wonderful support team working in our office.
Our community has been impacted by significant loss – Loved ones lost to COVID-19; financial hardship; unemployment and lost income; moving weddings, baby showers, graduations, funerals to Zoom or missing them all together; cancelling vacations; loved ones suffering long-term side effects from COVID-19; restrictions on hugging and being close to our family and friends; missing school milestones and important sports events. The list of loss and grief from the past year is never ending. Please take some time to appreciate all you have gone through this past year. Extend grace to yourself. Acknowledge and give space to the emotions that come to mind as you reflect on this past year. What about this year do you want to take with you? What do you want to leave behind?
Gurnee Counseling Center honors the over 535,000 lives lost (at time of posting) in America from COVID-19. Over 1,000 of those lives were lake county residents. That’s over 1,000 families and their friends in our community hurting and grieving through this time. We are committed to serving our community as we continue to do our part to end COVID-19. We will be making a donation to the Warren Township Food Pantry this month. Will you consider making a donation as well? Visit their website to view their drop off hours and for the most up to date items in need – https://www.warrentownship.net/services/food-pantry/
Please visit the Lake County AllVax website to register to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. https://allvax.lakecohealth.org/s/?language=en_US
Christine
Therapist/Owner
