Are You A Christian Struggling With Emotional Pain?
Have you been feeling anxious, depressed, or dealing with emotional upset? Are you often overwhelmed by the demands of daily life, plagued by painful childhood memories, or struggling to connect in your relationship? As a Christian, are you looking for a therapist who can help you get to the root cause of your pain but also someone who shares your faith and Christian worldview?
It’s no secret that today’s stressful world can be hard to navigate. With everything going on in your life, you might become anxious and feel like you can’t turn off your mind or calm your body down. Or perhaps you suffer from bouts of depression where you lose all motivation to keep moving forward and, instead, feel suffocated by sadness and despair.
Your negative frame of mind may be affecting your relationship, or conflict and disconnection with your partner could be exacerbating these feelings. Your low mood may have become a problem more recently, or perhaps you’ve dealt with these problems throughout your life as the result of unresolved trauma. Either way, you may feel isolated in your pain.
You Might Worry About Your Faith
If you’re Christian, you may feel like you should have it all together and that faith alone should sustain you through challenging times. Perhaps you beat yourself up, concluding that if only your faith were stronger, you wouldn’t be susceptible to emotional health challenges. This belief might fill you with guilt and shame, preventing you from seeking the help you need. Or it’s possible events in your life have shaken your faith, and you’re struggling to find a path back to God.
It’s okay to admit you need help. Fortunately, Christian counseling offers integrative treatment where you will be supported and accepted nonjudgmentally while receiving evidence-based care. Effective therapy based on biblical values is available where you can heal in a safe space filled with grace and truth.
Mental Illness Is Not A Sin
The truth is that even the most faithful of Christians struggle with emotional challenges. We are all broken to some degree because we live in an imperfect, “fallen” world. It’s what makes us human and why we look to our Savior, Jesus Christ, for guidance, support, and healing.
As Christians, we often believe that our faith should be enough to carry us through any adversity we encounter. As a result, when we struggle with how we feel emotionally, we often believe our challenges reflect a lack of faith or spiritual weakness. We may think that if only we were more Christ-like in our practices or our faith was stronger, we wouldn’t be encountering these problems.
Breaking Free Of The Therapy Stigma
Seeking counseling doesn’t make you a “bad” Christian. Everyone needs support and guidance sometimes. Just because you are struggling mentally or emotionally doesn’t mean you are failing or not praying hard enough. Feeling anxious or depressed is not a sin that displeases God and in no way means you are weak. Instead, facing a mental challenge takes strength and courage each day. We can seek God through our struggles and He will be with us.
In his promise to us, God says: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147: 3 NIV). While no one is immune from pain or suffering, the good news is that we have a God who cares for and loves us. He will walk with us through our challenges so we are never alone. God says that we can: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). Fortunately, Christian counseling provides the help you need to address whatever issues you are having informed by Scripture, biblical principles and your relationship to God.
Christian Counseling That Integrates The Word Of God With Evidence-Based Psychotherapy
Facing challenges alone can seem overwhelming and burdensome. This may be even more true for Christians because we are often conditioned to believe we should have life all figured out. As a fellow Christian, my faith informs my understanding of relationships and internal healing that I apply to therapy. My integrative approach provides effective evidence-based modalities and approaches to address the mental health concerns you may be experiencing through the lens of the Christian worldview. The therapy and support I offer are consistent with God’s truth as well as warm, welcoming, and compassionate.
Research indicates that when a counseling treatment plan takes into consideration your worldview, including spiritual beliefs, the relationship or “therapeutic alliance” is strengthened, and other positive outcomes occur. [1] Christian counselors can holistically integrate mind, body, and spirit into their practice. The greatest gift of biblical counseling is found in tapping into the healing power of Jesus Christ.
What To Expect In Sessions
I offer an empathetic and non-condemning approach to counseling, inviting you to share your struggles and burdens with me freely and without shame. No matter the reason you have come to therapy—whether for anxiety, depression, grief, couples counseling, divorce recovery, or coming to terms with the effects of trauma, my Christian counseling services can be modified to address your most pressing concerns. Once we have established a good rapport and identified what challenges you the most, we can target treatment to help you develop tools and strategies to not only manage your symptoms but also get to the root cause of what troubles you so you can be assured of lasting improvement.
The Ways I Will Help You
My training as a therapist includes evidence-based modalities that have been shown effective in the treatment of common emotional health challenges. For example, if you’re suffering from anxiety or depression symptoms, we may draw from elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT challenges irrational, problematic, or negative core beliefs you may hold about yourself and the world around you. CBT skills and strategies can be applied to stressful or new situations to help you transform unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be particularly helpful in mitigating unprocessed trauma that is causing ongoing physical, emotional, and spiritual distress. By utilizing the brain’s natural ability to process traumatic experiences, you can reduce symptoms and find relief from troubling memories. For couples, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) helps identify unhealthy patterns of interaction that have developed in your relationship and forge more meaningful connections and attachments. Throughout therapy, we might also incorporate relaxation methods, like mindfulness, to help calm your mind and ground yourself when feeling overwhelmed or troubled. As a fellow Christian and therapist, I will walk beside you on your path of emotional, relational, and spiritual healing. My integrative approach will ensure you receive counseling that enriches your soul and leads to lasting changes. Getting unstuck and discovering your capacity for transformation and growth will empower you to become the person you and God want you to be.
But Maybe You’re Not Sure If Christian Counseling Is Right For You…
Working Through Christ, All Healing Is Possible
I am eager to help you get unstuck and find peace and fulfillment. To find out more about Christian counseling with me, call 602-399-4699, or visit my contact page to schedule a free 15-minute call.
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