If you’re in denial or too afraid or weak to fight, then there isn’t anything I can do”
I don’t know much about sports. Never been an athlete. It just wasn’t my thing.
But it didn’t take a sports buff to see how good this kid was.
It was a cold Motzaei Shabbat. I was standing with hundreds of other people, watching as the final teams of the night played for the final spot in the flag football playoffs. For this crowd, it was a very big deal.
I spotted Akiva across the field. He was standing with his players, giving a pep talk.
Beverly K. Koeppel, 66, Independence, died at her home in Independence on Friday December 25, 2020.
Beverly was born on April 1, 1954 in Independence, IA the daughter of Pete and Evelyn L. (Barske) Koeppel. She was a 1972 graduate of Jefferson High School in Independence. She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Northern Iowa in 1976, later that same year she took a position as a Substance Abuse Counselor at the Mental Health Institute in Independence. In 1991 she became a Special Education Teacher at the Cromwell Children’s Unit at MHI. Beverly valued her education and in 1998 received her master’s degree in special education from the University of Dubuque. Beverly worked at MHI for forty years before retiring in 2016. For many years she was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Independence Public Library. She also taught the Adult Religious Education Program (RICA) at St John’s’ Catholic Church.
Tips for getting through the holidays with a healthy perspective
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Sioux City, Iowa (KTIV) It is the holiday season and sometimes, what should be a joyous time is not the case for everyone.
A local mental health professional gives us some positive ways to get through the holidays, often a difficult time for some people, especially those with anxiety or depression.
For some insight, we turned to Jan Pingel, a Mental Health Therapist and Substance Abuse Counselor at the Seasons Center For Behavioral Health.
Question: How can we best support a loved one during the holidays? Well, if we see someone struggling, I think the most important thing is to reach out, she said. Often with depression, people will isolate and will pull away. And so we need to draw them into activities, just into communication, stay connected to them. And I think the most important thing we can do for them is listen and affirm whatever they are feeling and let them know th
his is a very important question and one that deserves discussion.
Let’s start with a fact: People are afraid to accept and love each other. Sometimes this is because we’re afraid that if we display acceptance and unconditional love to someone, that translates as tacit approval of their choices and behavior. This is not a baseless fear.
However, acceptance and unconditional love are necessary before any move can be made to correct or condemn. At the recent Agudah convention, Dr. David Leiberman said, “People do not care what you know until they know that you care.” I’ll add that people cannot know that you care until you prove it through acceptance and love; that’s the prerequisite for an individual to be willing to listen to you. When someone rejects your help or acts out when you are trying to help them, it’s often because this step was skipped.