It is my pleasure to be able to introduce the new title of my company - Cervelle Consulting Services. I can honestly say that the past few months have been a genuine season of change for me. I knew in early April that I was going to begin to expand the services my company offered to encompass more mental health services with a primary focus on helping all our clients to strive towards wellness. I have always been a person who needs the background of a story to fully comprehend it, and so I am going to provide that information to my readers.
 
This company began 6 years ago, as a way for me to occupy my time while I continued to educate my youngest child. The company began with a total of 5 tutoring and independent education clients, and was a wonderful way for me to continue to feel as though I was helping our community while remaining focused on my own child's education. The company began to quickly pick up momentum, and by its second year of operation there were 17 clients being assisted. I began to realize that there was a need for college prep training for standardized tests like the ACT as well as a tremendous need for college application and essay writing, and so in year 3 those services were added to the already popular tutoring sessions and my clients increased in numbers as well. It was during this year that I was contracted as a tutor by the Region 2 Behavioral Health Services, and began seeing multiple clients as part of their approved plan of treatment.
 
It was this last contract, that opened a door that I am so grateful to have opened for me. I was asked to attend multiple national training to become an instructor in Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Health First Aid, QPR Suicide Prevention and Awareness Training, and eventually Psychological First Aid for disaster planning. The people at Region 2 Behavioral Services seemed to recognize my passion for teaching and for promoting awareness and the potential for helping others achieve complete wellness. This opened another route of education, that I felt passionately about, and wanted to share with every person I possibly could.  This led me to become the primary instructor for mental health and suicide awareness for law enforcement and other public service officials in this area.
 
By last year, I was seeing 80 students each week, and those students ranged from Pre-K through all levels of schooling to a PhD candidate. I was seeing students in 4 different states via the internet, and was appreciating the various levels of need that each of my students individually displayed. I was also able to continue to teach classes in Mental Health First Aid to the general public, higher education communities, veterans and their families, and public servants, as well as being able to promote Youth Mental Health First Aid to those who are working with our younger generation and help them learn to spot the potential for a crisis at an early onset in an effort to prepare them to help those in need. I continued working with the community to promote suicide awareness and prevention and was privileged to speak to many of our local student bodies as well as to the administration and staff of local high schools and colleges about how to ask a question and save a life in suicide prevention and awareness.
 
It was during this past year that I was awarded one of 10 commendations and scholarships from the National Council for Behavioral Health to attend the 2017 National Behavioral Health Conference. During that conference and through the many contacts I made at that time, it became clear to me that my company was operating in a lot of truly groundbreaking areas, and needed to consider growing to serve others who lived outside the south-central Nebraska area. That is when it became clear that my company needed to grow and expand to the national level, and it was obvious that though I had called myself a tutor, that my true occupation over the past 5 years had been that of a counselor and confidant to help my clients strive to build a plan to become their most capable selves in all areas of their lives.
 
I knew I was going to expand the company, and I knew I was going to have to formulate a team to do it. That process was started in early May, and I was building a great plan for the summer of 2017, and beyond. Then, tragedy struck, my husband and I traveled with friends to Colorado over Memorial Day weekend to attend the largest motorcycle poker run for charity in the world. We had a wonderful time, and were on our way home Memorial Day afternoon, when, less than 20 miles from home, we were in a horrific accident. A deer ran onto the interstate and caused a full force collision with the couple traveling with us. To avoid the wreckage we tried to steer around them, and just as our bike began to go down as well, our tire caught the rumble bars on the side of the road and we were ejected and thrown from the bike. I was taken by life flight to the nearby trauma unit due to a head injury, and extensive broken bones, so my plans for the Summer of 2017 were placed on a substantial hold.
 
Plans may have had to wait, but there was a lot of time to evaluate the many changes occurring in our lives. It became extraordinarily clear that the focus of this company should be on the overall empowerment of our clients to become their most dynamic selves. That meant a new focus on mental health and wellness, as well as a continued focus on academic success and the removal of academic anxiety. It was through this life-threatening event, that I was able to glean a genuine perspective of what this company's primary focus needed to be. I realized that my attitude was the one thing that would make the difference between an ordeal and a brand-new adventure.
 
Deep down I had been applying the primary focus individually to my students all along, empowering them, helping them see their strengths, and challenging them to find a unique way to overcome their struggles, but after the accident it became clear that this concept needed to be made available to others as well. So, it is from that realization that the company has grown and developed into Cervelle Consulting.
 
I chose the word cervelle, because it means "brain" in Cajun french, and so, in a beautiful term, this company has gleaned a name that truly encompasses all I hope to achieve. I hope that you will join us on this new enhanced journey, and I hope you will be able to suggest our services to others along the way. I want this company to be known for authenticity. I want people to associate us with the ideas and daily practice of letting go of what we all are told we need to be now or strive to become later, and instead be a group of people helping our clients embrace the totality of who they really are.
 
Welcome to Cervelle Consulting Services......it's going to be a wonderful adventure, with an exciting and challenging future in front of us all.