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Each week, we post the latest articles and new blog content across a variety of categories. Browse our latest.
The Most Wonderful Counselor
The best counselors I know are ones that have been through difficulties of their own and can empathize with their clients. In fact, one of the key characteristics I look for in therapists as I am interviewing is brokenness. I ask each candidate, “tell me a time in your life you were broken and what did you learn from it?” No one wants to see a counselor that has [...]
Dethroning the Voice of Shame – Part II
Please read Part I here. No longer neglected as part of the human condition and family of experiences, shame is now being termed as the Master Emotion. Truly a juggernaut of personal and interpersonal affects within culture, shame carries within itself a powerful internal phenomenon of humiliation, anger, abandonment, remorse, and rejection. Shame is now transitioning from being formerly ignored, repressed, and overlooked to having a global platform of prominence [...]
It’s Better to Give Than to Receive
Christmas time is fast approaching. The lights are up, the stockings are hung and the tree is decorated. The Christmas season is one of giving and receiving gifts with family and friends. However, I believe that the best gift that you can get is one that does not directly benefit you. Years ago, my mother came up with a new tradition for our family. For Christmas, everyone was asked [...]
Understanding Emotional Privilege
What comes to mind when you hear the word privilege? When most people think of the word, they might think of socioeconomic status or race, but what about emotional privilege, family privilege, or neurological privilege? The Invisible Handicap Mental health is often an invisible handicap. It can be easy to see people who struggle with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and other disorders and not immediately think there is anything [...]
Healing Trauma Memories – The Effects of Trauma (Part II)
Please read Part 1 here. Overcoming negative thoughts and emotions of a trauma narrative are linked to deliberately, repeatedly, and gradually revisiting the painful, upsetting, and oftentimes distressing memories associated with the trauma. A new conceptual framework for the study of stress and its related effects upon the human body emerged in the last three decades called allostasis. This stress-response process is when the brain exerts control over the [...]
Have You Tried the James 1:19 Challenge?
James 1:19 says “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” As a counselor and former pastor, I speak to a lot of churches and groups and I come back to this verse often. I use it in everything from marriage to parenting talks. It’s a practical verse that can apply to almost any topic I speak on. I am putting forth what I call [...]