Licensed Therapist & Certified Life Coach
I have personally experienced and worked through significant personal trauma in my life. As a therapist who has overcome major life challenges, I have also experienced the fear, insecurity, and doubt that trauma inevitably brings. There is a path back! While I understand everyone has their unique experience, there are some simple highly effective ways that I want to share with you and will coach you as you begin practicing them into your daily life. The information here will give you a picture of my coaching/therapeutic style and approach. You can scroll do the bottom to schedule a session.
Clarification On How to Heal
There is a lot of skepticism around the value of Christian Counseling. Some Christians believe that psychology pulls people away from God and makes them dependent on self to relieve suffering. Some psychologists and mental health practitioners believe that Christian counseling is too narrow minded to really be effective. While both can be true, it comes down to the freedom of choice. You can take the field of psychology and find its principles all throughout the Bible! Psychology wants you to believe that you have the power to relieve your own suffering. I want you to believe that you have the power to choose how operate the machinery of your mind in harmony with the way you were created to live life and have it more abundantly. Jesus is still reaching out His hand and asking, “Do you want to be made well?”
What to Expect from Your Mental Health Session
In these sessions, I will listen to you and give you feedback that is more than motivational pep talk. I will help you to accomplish your customized goals and work with you to design a desirable mind set. I have years of clinical experience working with clients just like yourself who might be struggling in their mental health journey as well as their relationship with God. You will be given with mental health tools from my proven therapeutic techniques. I have developed a unique but highly effective therapeutic style. I will help to identify themes in your life that are holding you back from the person you desire to become. In our sessions, you will receive nurturing support and honest interactive feedback as I listens to your words and speak into your concerns. Some topics you can expect to discuss include:
Defining Your Authentic Self
Over the years of working with people in the psychiatric hospital setting, I have seen many people who have lost touch with their true self. Self-perception can be hard to accurately identify when you struggle with issues like depression and anxiety. I will mentor you as you begin using your life experiences to mature you and help you to display self-discipline in your own personal development. Mental health struggles can often cloud your perception of God and inhibit your self-growth. In your sessions, you will discover how to develop your authentic identity in the way God created you. I will help you to recognize your true self and nurture yourself with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Discovering Your Past to Find Deeper Insight
Yes, this is the kind of therapy session where we dig deep into your past. Doing this can help uncover why you are who you are. This may include previous relationships, childhood, or the thought processes that you have developed through life. This will provide me with information I need to uncover the reasons why you are so reactive or find yourself in similar toxic relationships. I will share my observations with you, so that you can begin intentionally making choices to adjust some of the ineffective patterns in your life. You will feel more empowered and will gain confidence in your decision making. In our session, feel free to bring up any topic that is most concerning to you. The most vulnerable areas of your life are safe here. You can be assured that I will be sensitive to your painful emotions and provide you with empathy and understanding when processing becomes too much.
Managing Mental Health Symptoms
Learn to manage your depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, paranoia, ADHD, OCD, loneliness, or any other mental health issues you may be dealing with in these sessions. I will listen to you and share perspective during your therapy sessions that will help you to improve your mental health. While I will be sure you are as comfortable as possible during your session, I will also challenge you in a way that allow for desirable outcomes to begin showing up in your life.
Growing to Competently Engage Your Emotions
The first step of emotionally engaging your emotions is understanding how they are designed to work best for you. It’s necessary to know how they function in meeting your needs to understand how to identify any barriers that may inhibit the relieving of emotional pain. You will overcome the emotions that overwhelm you. In our sessions, you’ll discover effective emotional resilience techniques that truly work. I will coach you in your thought process as you develop new thinking patterns and brainstorm ways to create a fresh perspective. You’ll begin to challenge emotional expectations in your life and learn to process them with a healthy, realistic mindset.
Reducing Emotional Vulnerability
The goal is to empower you in our sessions to learn to reduce emotional vulnerability. It is powerful to engage others with vulnerability in order to connect with people around you. You will be able to explore your hesitance to use vulnerability to connect with others. To skill build in this area is very important. I will coach you in how to be open and invite connection, but I will also coach you in how to be assertive to being resilient to how others might take advantage of your emotional vulnerability. The goal is vulnerable resilience and I will show you how to do that.
Reducing Emotional Suffering
Invite healing by simply acknowledging your painful emotions, rather than struggling against or resisting them. Paradoxically, you can transform negative, hurtful emotions by doing the opposite of what they are wanting you to do. Pain is a normal part of life. Pain is a signal that things need to change in your life to transform your experience. You can begin using the feedback that emotional pain is giving you to design solutions with intention. You’ll learn how to begin challenging emotions that often go with distressing situations in your life. In our sessions, you’ll learn how to mindfully engage your emotions, reduce negativity, and move forward with a sense of contentment rather than the need to chase happiness.
Becoming an Engaged Listener
In our communication with others, it’s important to remember that communication is not just about what we say. It’s also important to listen, and to actively listen. Communication is a skill that involves intention and purpose in our listening as well as our words. Tuning into emotions behind what is being said is a critical part of connecting with others. In our conversations, we’ll discuss the benefits of truly listening to others and how you are able to develop your own competency in conversation.
Developing Assertiveness Without Aggression
Using a straightforward, assertive manner of communicating leads to clear communication. You will be more confident and feel more inclined to engage in conversation after you listen to yourself be direct and clear. You’ll increase your confidence in what you have to say as you practice saying it with clarity and composure. When you are assertive, you can be open and honest with your thoughts, ideas, needs, and desires. There is a misconception that assertiveness means being aggressive or hostile, but that’s not true. Assertiveness means being aware of the needs of others while also clearly expressing your own needs. In our sessions, we’ll talk about how to understand other people’s points of view, how to share your point of view without pushing it.
Reducing Stress and Social Anxiety
You’re just hanging out when out of the blue a conversation goes from chill to a high-stakes, stress inducing situations. Learning how to navigate these conversations important to engaging with poise and composure. If you are passive at these points in a conversation, you risk losing trust, respect, and not having your needs met. You might be passive in these conversations because when stress comes, communication gets difficult. You can learn stress reduction techniques and language techniques that will allow you to remain present while being kind yet intentional during the conversations that matter to you most. Stress turns on your fight, flight, or freeze response; it impairs your ability to think clearly and rationally. In these sessions, you will discover ways to confidently step into these meaningful conversations, expecting the best outcome and adjusting as you make your way toward that desirable outcome.
“How can Christian counseling help resolve my mental health issues? “
Christian counseling is an effective approach to resolving mental health issues while also holding true to your Christian values. Christian counseling can provide assistance with a variety of problems, including depression, anxiety, trauma recovery, and relationship concerns. If you are wondering how Christian counseling may help you, here is an overview of what you can expect.
Who Can Benefit from Christian Counseling?
Christian counseling is a valuable option for addressing mental health and behavioral concerns of all kinds. Christian counseling may be used to treat:
Depression
Anxiety
Substance use disorders
Eating disorders
Trauma recovery, including PTSD
Grief or loss
Relationship problems
Stress
Major life transitions
Mental health disorders
Faith dissonance
The process of counseling is most effective when you are willing to open up and share your thoughts and feelings in a safe environment, and when faith in the Holy Spirit is invited into the process. It is important for me to develop a therapeutic relationship with my clients. This takes time, but without a trusting relationship, it is difficult for healing to occur. It is possible to the change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors you are experiencing right now.
What to Expect in Christian Counseling
First Visit: During the first online session, your Christian counselor will discuss your background and talk with you about what brought you to counseling and how your faith is playing a part in your healing journey. This initial conversation will help the two of you to begin to develop trust in each other. You may want to bring up some topics that you feel may be taboo in a counseling setting, but this is a safe and confidential space with no judgment. It’s important to know that this process will take time, but with patience and prayer, trust will develop.
Later Visits: As the counseling sessions progress and you develop trust, you and your Christian counselor will begin to look deeper into issues that are causing you pain or holding you back. Together, you will seek God’s direction in developing strategies and techniques that may be used to help you change your mood, communication skills, thought processes, and behaviors in a way that is consistent with your faith.
How Long Will Christian Counseling Last?
The length of counseling will depend on your individual needs and the specific strategies used in the counseling process. Some Christian counseling may be short-term while other counseling may be more intensive and last for a longer period of time. The decision about how long you want to continue counseling is up to you and should be based on what you feel you need for your emotional and spiritual development.
What Are the Benefits of Christian Counseling?
Christian counseling can be an effective way to address many different concerns, including depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, and trauma recovery. It can also help you to change unhealthy thought and behavior patterns. By developing an awareness of these patterns and learning how to see God at work in your life, you can develop a healthier lifestyle, better mental health, and an improved spiritual life.
When you engage in Christian counseling, you will begin to see how it can help you to resolve the issues you are dealing with and create positive change in your life. The goal is to help you develop a healthier and more fulfilling life as you deepen your relationship with God. If this seems like something that will be helpful to you, schedule a session on the calendar below. If you have any questions, please reach out and I will help you decide if this would be a good fit for you.
