Colleen Stegenga
Columnist
I grew up on a South Dakota dairy farm where we did not talk about feelings much. We talked about the weather. We talked about milk prices and feed costs and which neighbors had gotten rain and which ones had not. We scheduled our entire lives around milking time – graduations, weddings, holiday dinners – because the cows did not care what was on the calendar. We worked hard, we stayed quiet about the hard parts, and we figured that was just the way it was.
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Colleen Stegenga, LCSW-PIP, is the founder of Embracing Change Counseling Services in Mitchell, South Dakota, (moving to her farm Aug. 3) specializing in agricultural and rural mental health. In the coming months, Colleen will be offering workshops specifically designed for young farm wives who did not grow up on the farm. Keep your eyes peeled for more information. She can be reached at Colleen@embracingchangecs.com or 605-306-6383.
Colleen Stegenga
Columnist
