Counseling

We offer general counseling services that are common to any counseling practice as well as help that would be Christian in nature. We can go light on the Christian side if you do not want that sort of help, come at things from a spiritual but not Christian point of view, or we can provide a fully Biblical service to those who consider themselves committed to God and a Christian lifestyle. You will find there is overlap between coaching and counseling.

We help with the following from any of those perspectives:

  • Relationship struggles
  • Parent questions and struggles
  • Marriage counseling – Before marriage and after
  • Past wounds, offenses, betrayals…
  • Vulnerability and resilience
  • Trauma – PTSD, C-PTSD, most traumatic experiences
  • Addiction – Big or small, from alcohol or drugs to crafting or workaholism
  • Identity (self-image) issues and questions
  • “Cognitive Scripting” – programming and managing the inner voices
  • Worry/anxiety/stress
  • Depression and/or suicide
  • Sleep issues
  • Forgiveness – As well as restitution and reconciliation
  • Decision making – Making a specific decision or general guidance, or not being able to make them
  • Knowing/hearing, and doing God’s will

What Repair Services Do We Provide?

Well, think about your car. Your tire gets a flat or wears bald, your brakes wear down and need to be replaced, your windshield gets a chip or crack, your wipers blades need replacing, your oil needs to be changed… You get the idea. These represent routine repairs.

Unfortunately, sometimes our car requires more substantial attention. Interestingly, many of those more expensive repairs are needed when we ignore the routine ones. Don’t do the standard upkeep and things run down and break down. At The Center, we provide both the routine kind of simpler help and the more in-depth kind that is warranted when routine upkeep has been ignored or forgotten.

What Do We Mean By “Counseling?”

Simply, in a word, counseling is repair, or better, healing. It is something done after things go awry. Healing is needed because of an internal wound. Damaged memories, emotions, feelings, relationships, dreams, potential, and hearts need repairs. Pain needs curing. Emotions need expression. Grieving needs to happen. What was lost—or imprisoned and as good as lost—needs to be redeemed. This is heart work only God is qualified for.

Unexpressed emotions never go away. What was never grieved but only submerged needs to be resurfaced and emotionally worked through. If not, those emotions will keep coming out sideways and degrading all of life and relationships. Healing is necessary before peak personal performance can be expected or realized. Only God can produce the deepest level of healing that redemptively transforms us, turning even evil into something that can expand life and purpose beyond our wildest dreams.

Check out a couple useful metaphors we use to help you think differently about counseling?

Useful Metaphor #1
Cows & Buffalo Face Storms Differently!

Useful Metaphor #2
Idiot Lights on the Dashboard of Life!

Spiritual Counseling
FIX-UP | Reparative
While regular tune-ups (prevention) greatly reduce the chance of breakdowns and costs less in the end, repairs cannot be completely avoided. We all know about surprise auto repairs or doctors’ bills, even though we take good care of our cars and bodies to avoid those unplanned expenses and distracting illnesses. Even a healthy body gets bruised, cut, or broken. Sometimes even the healthy find that surgery or some other invasive or drastic measure is needed to stem the tide of disease. Everyone feels the pain of age as they grow older, and needs a doctor.

So, whether you have shunned the tune-ups, had an accident, or stuff is just getting old, fix-ups are going to be necessary. So too with our invisible self! Even disciplined daily and weekly rhythms—as critical to our God-connection as they are—cannot fully avoid the occasional need for more serious and professional spiritual help to remove a new or as yet unseen hindrance to our relationship with God.

Repair or Healing
We have shied away from the use of the “broken” or “repair” metaphor. Years ago, everything was repaired. Those were the days of repair shops for TVs, electronics, watches, clocks, appliances, shoes… you name it. Consumer goods were made from metal and wood and were assembled with screws, nuts, and bolts! Nothing was thrown away because it was designed to be fixed and provide many years, if not decades, of service to the purchaser.

These days, we fix almost nothing. Most of those repair shops are a thing of the past. Today, we make things to be thrown away and replaced. Household items are made from plastic and tin, held together with glue. When it malfunctions, what was once useful becomes a waste of space, is tossed in the garbage, and replaced.

See the problem?
To many people, especially those who’re younger and don’t recall the “old days,” the word “broken” communicates worthlessness and discard not value and reparability. That is clearly not a message we want to send. I while back I was speaking to a mom about her son and said something about his brokenness, and then felt led to fix my words and clarify that he was not broken but wounded. This mom looked up at me and with a tear in her eye thanked me for the correction. So we talk about healing more and more, but the repair metaphor still works for medical and automotive illustrations so we limit it to them.

Specializations
We specialize in all things Christian. We call it simply and plainly, “Spiritual Counseling.” This is what was once called “pastor counsel” and a little more. Spiritual Counseling is most like traditional therapy. Beyond the fact that our counselors may not be officially licensed, we also take a different approach to reparative work. When we sit down with someone who has an issue in their life, we start from a Christian point of view and let psychology inform us when it is applicable. We give solutions and advice that are first spiritual and second psychological, even if we begin with emotions and thoughts and other issues that are not uniquely or singularly spiritual in nature. Scroll down through the list to see the specifics we address.

Restoring Godliness & Godly Wisdom to Daily Life:

  • Defuse the Past – We help you recognize how wounding and pain from the past is impacting today
  • Create Language – We use simple metaphors to give an expression for what is otherwise very hard to convey so they better understand themselves and can explain what’s going on inside them to others.
  • Relational Depth – We help people grow, protect, and even become the catalyst for safe and satisfying relationships in every area of life.
  • Marriage Issues – We help couples address the many struggles of marriage and work toward a mutually satisfying union that’s better than before and more than they imagined was possible.
  • Parenting Challenges – We help moms and dads with the challenges of raising godly kids (and continuing to help them in adulthood) in a godless age that’s antagonistic to the Christian way.
  • Establishing Your Dashboard – We help people habitually monitor in real-time the state of their emotions and heart by placing “gauges” (identifying symptoms) on the “dashboard” of their life.
  • Uncovering Coping Mechanisms – As we help people work through their issues, we also identify for them their favorite numbing and avoiding habits so they can be awake to them and replace them.
  • Discovering Life-Limiting Lies – We help you identify, combat, and rescript the untruths–that we all pick up in the rough and tumble of growing up–so that the truth is known, embraced, and sets us free.
  • Accepting/Living Your Story – We help you come to terms with your unique story and embrace the empowering freedom of vulnerability that frees us to live out of our past and no longer hide it.
  • Enneagram Typing – We help people discover their personality type, understand it, and know how to make the best out of it by avoiding the dark downside and living into the light side.