RECENT ARTICLES
NEWS
Each week, we post the latest articles and new blog content across a variety of categories. Browse our latest.
Identifying the Three Fundamental Fears: Death, Abandonment and Failure.
by Jen DuBos, MA LPC People can be afraid of literally anything: Snakes. Sleep. Germs. Airplanes. Malls. Relationships. Pogo sticks. Even a toothbrush going through the back of your head. But as varied as one’s external, concrete fear may be, they can all be melted down to one primal fear: Xenophobia – Fear of the unknown. We don’t know if the snake will bite or we’ll have bad dreams. [...]
How Does Guilt and Shame Impact Relapse?
by Steve Wright, LPC As a substance abuse counselor and now a supervisor of counselors treating both substance abuse and mental illness, I hear about many different reasons clients relapse back into drinking and using drugs. Triggers that pull someone back into the life of abuse and addiction are as varied and numerous as there are people. However, the most common reason I see is an inability to cope with [...]
A Stereotype Smashed: Women Struggle With Sex Addiction Too.
by Priscilla Dean, LPC When someone says the words, “sexual addiction,” most people automatically think of men who seek out prostitutes or men who have continuous affairs—certainly not women and particularly not Christian women. However, this stereotypical assumption is completely false. According to Crystal Renaud, author of the book "Dirty Girls Come Clean," more than 30% of pornography site visitors are Christian women. If a Pastor or Christian ministry leader [...]
Defining Dissociation and Reconnecting With Reality
What is Dissociation? When people hear me say the word “dissociation”, they look at me like they should respond with “gesundheit!” When I go on to explain what it means, they often look steadily more disturbed until I get to the end. Dissociation is a phenomenon that all people use to varying degrees at one time or another to cope with stress. The clinical definition of psychological dissociation is: a [...]
Curse of the “Control Battle”: Defining Victory and Repurposing Defeat (pt. 2)
by Jen DuBos MA LPC As discussed in part 1, control is actually an illusion- but one we are willing to preserve at great cost if we engage in conflict without clearly identified motives. People seek control to feel secure because, like so many destructive relational and cultural patterns, the pursuit of control is fueled by a fear of the unknown. Further still, control-seeking can be both an offensive [...]
Curse of the “Control Battle”: Using Power for the Right Reasons (pt. 1)
by Jen DuBos MA LPC Control is an illusion. Some people discover this reality when a tragedy strikes and they realize that no matter how well prepared, no matter what prior knowledge they may have had, they could not affect the end result. The battle for control is an age-old struggle that has led to more suffering, death, war, and vain pursuit than any other philosophical concept in existence. [...]