When individuals come for counseling, the need may be a wide diverse number of issues.  Grief, fears, depression, stress, anxiety, alcohol or drug dependency, marital counseling, and a great number of other issues.   But not many people come with the stated reason that they believe their attitudes are unhealthy or messed up. Yet, with almost every person I see in counseling I will address our attitudes somewhere in our counseling process.  In fact, I find it one of my priorities to assess and counsel for healthy attitudes in the life of my counselee.

I would like you to think through with me what I believe is so important about healthy attitudes.  In addressing our attitudes I believe I am integrating my Christian perspective into my counseling process. Continue Reading…

Webster’s Dictionary defines stress as, “a state of mental, emotional or physical strain.”  Generally, we use the word, “stress” when we are feeling that issues in our life are too intense, too much, too hard to handle.  We seem to be on overload.  Stress is issues, situations and conditions that affect us negatively and cause us to wonder if we can “cope.”

Stress is not always a bad thing.  Stress in small amounts help us feel alert, gives us energy and prepares us for a challenge.  We feel “pumped” and ready to go.  But stress over a long period of time eventually works in an opposite manner.  It wears us down, exhausts us and makes us feel hopeless.

Stress in its physiological form is the body’s way to respond to a temporary emergency.  Also known as the “Flight/Fight Response” it prepares us to protect ourselves and survive.  In our modern society, however, stressors can be long lasting and ongoing.  We have long periods of time in a “readiness mode” with no relief in sight.

What Causes Stress?

Many things in our life can cause us stress and stress is a very individual feeling.  What might be a stressor for one person might not be a stressor for another.  Stressors include: Continue Reading…

Our Good-Byes are not Forever

Someone has said that when we lose a parent, we lose the past.  When we lose a spouse, we lose the present and when we lose a child we lose the future.  That is exactly how I felt as I sat at our kitchen table in the early morning hours of June 22, 1994 and heard the police officer say that our precious daughter, Cheri, our only child, had been involved in a car accident, just six miles from our house, and was killed instantly.

At that moment my dreams and hopes were shattered and in the days and months that followed I experienced the deep pain of living IN THE EYE OF THE STORM. Continue Reading…

Yes, there is hope for those who struggle with depression.  Life’s circumstances can be difficult, as we deal with the ending of a relationship, the loss of health, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one or the failing of projects in life.  It is normal to experience sadness and grief and to have down days or “blue moments” but these are different from depression.

When you hear the word ‘depression,’ what comes to your mind?

• “Just” having a bad day
• Feeling sorry for oneself
• Just need to ‘shape up’ and ‘snap out of it’
• A legitimate problem
• Compassion to help someone who is hurting

What is Depression?

Depression is a psychoneurotic or psychotic (mood) disorder marked by a deep prevailing feeling of sadness, worthlessness, dejection and hopelessness.  It is a condition that affects a person’s behavior, feelings, cognitions and physical condition. Continue Reading…