There has been no shortage of reasons that someone may need to take counselling services this year, but Envision Counselling has been up to the task. They had to adapt to fit the situation such as adding call-in services in place of walk-ins, and are still looking to adapt a few things moving forward.

Julie Dzuba is the Community Outreach Coordinator with Envision, and said that the initial spike didn't come until a little while in.

"At the beginning when everything kind of started and people were going into quarantine, we saw that our numbers actually went down at the beginning just because there was a lot of unsureness going around, people weren't able to see each other, but as we got our most recent st back we saw that there was actually a significant increase across our entire agency."

The area that saw the biggest increase would be their family support programs which have been seeing over double the amount of clients that they normally would, and their walk-in counselling has been seeing it's highest numbers ever since July.

In the last month, walk-in counselling has returned to normal with the option of doing things over the phone if that's how people prefer. Dzuba says that ease of access may be a contributor to the higher numbers, but not the only reason.

"I think that definitely call-in counselling was convenient, people didn't have to leave their home and still talk to somebody and get that support."

When it comes to the pandemic and how it has been affecting people mentally, everyone has felt some kind of exhaustion with things over the last few months at some point. Dzuba urges that this is normal, and if it's getting to be too much, call them.

"It's obviously a very anxious or anxiety-inducing time just because there is a lot of things that are unsure out there and maybe you don't really know what the next step is looking like and things a change so often and so frequently it can be hard to plan ahead or even know what your job looks like or your family dynamics are going to look like, especially now that students are going back to school, it can be tricky. It's definitely some anxious times for people."

One thing that might be adding extra weight to people's minds is social media. With the news cycle constantly feeding updates, different political affiliations making their stances on issues in the pandemic, trying to figure out who is write and wrong, and the general anger that is being displayed, a small break from social media may be the reset you need.

"It's important to know what's going on in your community and what the guidelines and health restrictions are, but it's also important to check in with yourself and ask 'is what I'm doing helping the way that I'm feeling?'. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and you're getting a lot or even too much information, maybe it's time to take a break from social media or even media in general for a little bit. Get your basic facts out leave it alone for a little bit."

A big part of Dzuba's job herself is going to schools throughout the southeast and raising awareness as to what sexual assault is and how to recognize and prevent it before it can even begin. That's something that is far too valuable to just let go this year, and figuring out how that may look this year is a challenge that is still underway.

"Our outreach prevention efforts have changed significantly since the pandemic has started. We are trying to go with the flow and update and coordinate the best we can to fit the new mold. As far as our school prevention programming, we're waiting to figure out what the new school year looks like and how that will look with classroom presentations and things like that. We don't know whether it's going to be in person or if we're continuing the digital version."

They are looking at putting together video presentations this year to continue their education in schools, but there are still some things to figure out there.

If you are feeling like counselling services are something you need to try, click the link here to find the nearest Envison Counselling office to you.