Jennifer Kooshian, Grapevine Christian Counseling

About Jennifer Kooshian

Jennifer Kooshian lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with her husband of 32 years on a small homestead near Lake Superior. They have five adult children and one grandson. She also has an ever-changing number of chickens, a mellow old cat, and an aspiring farm dog.The passions that God has pressed on her heart are hospitality, giving college students a home away from home, and helping people learn to grow and preserve their own food.Jennifer spends her spring and summer months growing vegetable plants and flowers to sell to her community and for her own gardens. Her fall and winter months are spent having local college students over for dinner and board games, participating in her church’s college ministry, crocheting, and dreaming of her summer gardens. She also loves living where 15 feet of snow is a light winter.She documents her homestead adventures on Instagram and Facebook as Cooper Island Homestead and runs an Etsy shop under the same name.

The Negative Effects of Consumerism on Our Mental Health

The Negative Effects of Consumerism on Our Mental Health

Jennifer KooshianDecember 26th, 2024|Depression, Featured, Personal Development, Relationship Issues|

The story of our lives can be told by the various objects around us that we treasure. This isn’t all there is to us, to be sure, but it can say plenty about us. We have cherished books, furniture inherited from a beloved relative, sneakers or shoes that have their own shelves in a closet, pictures in frames that tell of treasured memories with loved ones, trinkets that are prominently displayed on the mantlepiece, and so much more. The things we own and treasure say a lot about us, but they can never tell the full story. Nor should they. Carl R. Trueman notes that when we become over-attached to our material goods and possessions to the point that our sense of meaning or worth is determined by them, we are caught up in consumerism. Consumerism can affect us in many ways, including our mental and emotional health. Living in a Consumer Society Our society is the most affluent in human history. That affluence may not be evenly distributed, but we’re living in a country where we can acquire goods and services cheaply, and things can be easily discarded, and new things obtained. Each year, there is a new iteration of some gadget or product, and the incessant message is that the new one is better, and you’re missing out if you still have the older version. Upgrade now! It’s made easy to simply “upgrade” to the new thing; incentives are offered, whether it’s trade-ins or some discount offered to draw you in. If it’s not that, with things like fast fashion, you can get items that are cheaply made and don’t cost much to buy. It’s easy to lean into the “buy two and get the third one free”, because why not? And because it’s [...]

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Making Sense of Christian Divorce and Finding Support

Making Sense of Christian Divorce and Finding Support

Jennifer KooshianAugust 14th, 2024|Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Relationships can run the gamut from beautiful and fulfilling to traumatic and life-altering. It’s not always easy to know when to walk away from a relationship; perhaps this is just a bad season and good times are just around the corner. Or, given time and some elbow grease, things could turn around. These and many other thoughts could accompany the conviction to hang in there for another day or another year and put off the contemplation of divorce. The life and the story of any marriage is a unique one, and it can be difficult to walk others through the intricacies of each decision and action that has led you to the point of seeking a divorce. Ending a relationship, much less a marriage, is a step that ought to be undertaken thoughtfully; at least with as much thought as what you applied to enter the relationship to begin with. This article will attempt to highlight some considerations to make before stepping toward divorce. Implications and reasons for divorce There are many reasons why a person could decide to get divorced. Some of the main reasons why people get divorced include issues as diverse as infidelity, conflict over money, a lack of commitment, domestic violence and other forms of abuse, differences over roles and division of labor in the family, incompatible or conflicting parenting styles, lack of family support, emotional neglect, and religious and cultural differences, to name a few. These reasons may just be words on a page for some, but for the person who has lived through those conflicts, the emotional abandonment, or financial strain, they may be reminders of a dark and painful time that’s probably best forgotten. Whatever else it might be, the thought of getting a divorce might feel like getting a reprieve from [...]

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Quick Ways to Ease Moving Stress for Your Family

Quick Ways to Ease Moving Stress for Your Family

Jennifer KooshianMay 22nd, 2024|Coaching, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Setting off on a brand-new adventure can be a whole lot of fun. Of course, going out and starting something new can also be scary in its own way. Moving to a new house can be an adventure for a family, but moving stress is also one of the more intense things a person can experience. If it’s stressful for the adults in the situation, it’s quite likely that the children will also be feeling stressed. There are some quick and easy ways for you to make your move as stress-free as possible for your family. Being prepared and organized can help you face your move with confidence, and you can make it into your new home with your good humor, and your relationships with one another, intact. Why moving is stressful The top five stressors that a person can experience include the death of a loved one, experiencing a long-term illness, divorce or separation from your spouse, moving, and job loss. Moving house can be stressful mostly because change goes against our habituated nature. When you have your established routines, friendship circles, favorite coffee shop, and park, leaving those behind in a move can be difficult. Moving, in some ways, can induce a sense of loss. The thought of moving and being uprooted from everything familiar to you can trigger grief, even if it is anticipatory grief at the thought of what you might be losing with your move away from your current home. In addition to these reasons, moving can also be stressful because of the circumstances under which the move is undertaken. If you move because of financial troubles, or because you and your family experienced a traumatic event such as a fire, that adds to the stress of moving. Unexpected moves due to a family [...]

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8 Tips for Dealing With Rejection Well

8 Tips for Dealing With Rejection Well

Jennifer KooshianApril 15th, 2024|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Relationship Issues|

There are few things as precious as having a deep sense of connection to other people. Feeling like you belong, like you are valuable and wanted, is a deep need that people have, as we are such social creatures. That’s why it hurts so much when disconnection happens – it isolates you from others and it can make you question your self-worth as well as ask questions about why the disconnect occurred. One of the ways the sense of disconnection between people can happen is when rejection occurs. Rejection happens for many different reasons, and there are healthy as well as unhealthy ways of dealing with it. Dealing with rejection well will help you make the most of your life as it is, and it allows you to grow and learn as you move toward your goals. Rejection in all its facets Rejection can occur in a wide variety of situations. You might experience a sense of rejection if you apply for a job and don’t get it. The same can happen if you put in for a promotion at your current workplace and someone else gets it. When you apply to a college for a spot, or you try out for a team, or you ask someone out and they say “no” – these are just some of the ways rejection happens. Rejection also happens when you’re in a committed relationship with someone, and for one reason or another, they decide to end the relationship. That situation can hurt more than the others because of the deep personal connection that gets severed. Neurologically speaking, an MRI indicates that there is very little difference between the emotional pain of rejection and the physical pain experienced through an injury. The agony of being rejected is real. The innate human need [...]

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Signs of Trust Issues in a Relationship

Signs of Trust Issues in a Relationship

Jennifer KooshianDecember 29th, 2023|Couples Counseling, Individual Counseling, Marriage Counseling, Premarital Counseling, Relationship Issues|

One thing that every relationship needs to function is trust. A relationship can’t function if the people in it can’t rely on what they are saying to each other, or if they are constantly second-guessing and are suspicious of each other’s motives. Such a hostile environment makes for an uncomfortable relationship that lacks any mutual dependence, real intimacy, and growth, and is characterized by trust issues. One could say that trust is the soil that a relationship grows in, and if stripped of trust, a relationship will likely wither and perish in the long run. Identifying and addressing trust issues can help a relationship to thrive by creating room in the relationship to be vulnerable, to feel safe and secure enough to be intimate, to drop the walls and be yourself as well as minimize the conflict that so easily springs up due to distrust. What are trust issues? The term “trust issues” gets thrown around quite a bit and is often meant to indicate behaviors of distrust in relationships with others. It is most often used about intimate relationships. The term can be leveraged unfairly and end up masking what may be complex emotional challenges that are rooted in a person’s past experiences and the insecure attachment style that resulted from those experiences. Trusting someone is about being willing to depend on them, taking them at their word, and taking for granted that they are reliable. When a person has trust issues, they struggle to do these things with another person, whether it is a friend, a romantic partner, or a colleague. Why do they develop between people? Trust issues develop in several ways. Some people struggle to trust others because of past experiences in their childhood. For instance, witnessing parental conflict or the betrayal of one parent [...]

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How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect You As An Adult

How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect You As An Adult

Jennifer KooshianNovember 29th, 2023|Featured, Individual Counseling, Trauma|

None of us have any control over the situations we are born in. However, an auspicious beginning doesn’t necessarily mean a successful ending, and having challenges early on doesn’t mean things won’t turn out well. Adverse childhood experiences can have a significant impact on a child and continue to reverberate throughout their life. Healing and hope can be found, and the negative effects of these childhood experiences can be mitigated. What are “Adverse Childhood Experiences”? The term “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACEs) refers to a broad range of negative experiences that a child has or that they are exposed to while they are growing up. These stressful and traumatic experiences happen between the ages of 1 and 17 years, and some of these experiences include: Emotional or physical neglect. Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Witnessing domestic violence. Witnessing violence in one’s community. Having family members with serious mental health disorders. Parental separation or divorce. Having a parent or caregiver with a substance abuse disorder. Living in a household with an incarcerated family member. Having a family member attempt or die by suicide. These experiences affect a child’s sense of safety, and they can significantly disrupt their development. The unfortunate reality is that ACEs are common. Nearly 1 in 6 (17.3%) U.S. adults reported that they had experienced four or more types of ACEs, and around 64% reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE before they turned 18. By strengthening families, providing greater community access to resources such as those addressing homelessness, addiction, or maternity services, and by encouraging wider awareness about ACEs and their impact in childhood and into adulthood, they can be responded to much earlier and hopefully reduced as well. The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in adulthood. When a child experiences trauma or other [...]

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Jennifer Kooshian

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