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meganbowlinglpc

Updated: Jun 6, 2024

Hi,I’m glad you’re here.

My name is Megan Bowling, and I am currently practicing in my hometown of Ottawa, KS. After many years of volunteering at a local clinic, I decided I needed to learn more about professional counseling. I wanted to be able to jump in and help with the mental health crisis instead of sitting back and wondering when someone else would do it. According to a recent article from UMKC, “While 25% of the US population lives in rural areas, only 10% of physicians work in those areas. There are 40.1 specialists per 100,000 people in rural areas versus 134.1 in urban areas. 20% of rural communities lack mental health services compared to 5% of metropolitan counties.” People shouldn’t have to suffer or settle for lesser care because they live in a rural community, and it is my goal to offer quality mental health services to the rural areas around Ottawa.

 

I am a licensed professional counselor through the state of Kansas. I graduated in 2023 from Liberty University with a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and am currently working in downtown Ottawa, KS, contracted with Prairie Fire Counseling. I am Emdria basic level trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), specializing in trauma. Many clients look at me a little sideways when I start talking about trauma. “I didn’t go to war,” they say, “or survive a car accident or anything.” It’s true. We tend to define trauma in the most extreme ways, and there are many people who have experienced these kinds of life-threatening traumas, but we cannot define trauma so simply.

 

I like to remind my clients that trauma can be any experiences, thoughts, or feelings that disrupts the brain’s ability to cope and store information in a way that feels safe and completed. Our brain is constantly searching our environments looking for ways to keep us safe. It will take in a hundred images around us everyday, connecting them with our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations to see if we need to engage in a trauma response, usually fight, flight, or freeze. Our brain has stored thousands of our experiences and uses our previous reactions to guide our present behaviors to survive. When an experience comes along that our brain does not know how to cope with it sits there, like an unwanted splinter, until the brain either (1) finds a new way to cope or (2) uses an old coping behavior to store it for now. As life goes on, we find that we are getting older and, often, using old coping mechanisms for survival that no longer fit the life we are currently living.

 

In therapy sessions, we begin by understanding that trauma is not usually the thing that happened to us, but how we see ourselves and the world around is because of the thing that happened to us. We unpack those negative beliefs to make room for the thoughts we really want to have about ourselves and the world around us. Clients can begin writing a new story for themselves based on their own wellness goals and it is my privilege to sit and help guide them as a fellow traveler.

 

I work with individuals, families, couples, and teenagers. I enjoy working specifically with first responders/military veterans and their families. I have worked with clients who have experienced high childhood trauma and I also really enjoy working with geriatric clients and their families. I work collaboratively with my clients as they work to reach their goals of holistic wellness. Don’t hesitate to reach out and see if we might be a good fit.


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