I have been a counselor for over 25 years and have seen many sorts of difficult problems resolve with counseling interventions. As a woman with three grown daughters and a husband who is also a marriage and family counselor, I have much practical experience with family dynamics. I enjoy working with couples, individuals and families. Some of my areas of focus and my thoughts on each are listed below.
1. INDIVIDUAL, COUPLES, AND FAMILY COUNSELING:
One of the joys I experience in counseling, is helping couples begin to heal in their relationship to each other. When a couple comes for marriage counseling I have both complete a Q-Pass in my office along with the regular paper work. A Q-Pass takes about 15 minutes and gives me immediate helpful information about the emotional distress each partner is experiencing. In the first session I see the couple briefly together, then each individual separately.
When only one partner is willing or able to come in, we work on the marital issues the one partner brings, but it is usually more beneficial for both partners to share their perspectives. Often times I find the more reluctant spouse is willing to come in when they begin to see positive changes taking place in their partner.
In my twenty five plus years of marital counseling work, I have found that almost everyone has a good heart. Sometimes it is difficult for couples to reach underneath the defenses they bring to their relationships to remove blocks that prevent them from experiencing mutual growth in safety and happiness. The commitment to marital counseling offers couples an opportunity to move beyond these blind spots because of the expertise of an experienced therapist and the couples willingness to commit to a new way of relating and respect.
2. DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND POST TRAUMATIC STRESS:
I offer a variety of methods to help individuals through mood disorders. I look at depression and anxiety from a holistic perspective. Together, we can look at early family life as well as stressors throughout the adult years that have created disappointment and painful experiences. Unresolved traumas often interfere with current functioning. For example the depression that one is experiencing may actually be anger that has never been expressed, understood or resolved. Anxious feelings may simply be a trigger that will lead us into an earlier unpleasant experience that was never adequately settled.
I help clients find tools to change negative programming, practice assertiveness skills, find healthy boundaries and gain more control in their lives. Good nutrition, exercise, social networks and knowing how to tap into community resources are often important in recovery. I offer BrainTime, a program anyone can tap into on this web site that helps people deal with stress, focus, and sleep. Another available tool for my clients is my connection with the Kelsey Chiropractic and Neurofeedback clinic in Ft. Wayne.
I love utilizing a very effective method called ” Immanuel” in helping clients resolve difficult life occurrences. When we begin trauma recovery from a place of confidence and peace as we do in the Immanuel approach, recovery happens more quickly with less pain.
3. FAITH BASED COUNSELING:
Every person, couple, or family who choose to begin counseling at Fairview Counseling have the opportunity to sign a written consent for faith based therapy. It is a privilege for us to enter into the Presence of the Creator of this vast universe and invite His Presence into the counseling sessions. I often begin a session with a time of silence or a powerful scripture passage that invites God to do more than we can begin to do by ourselves in the counseling hour.
I believe in God the Father, the Son Jesus who perpetually lives as the Lamb of God making sacrifice for our failures to love, and the Holy Spirit. I believe we are more privileged than we can begin to grasp to be alive and having the opportunity of inviting Him to help us and heal us.
My counseling practice is centered in core Biblical values. I believe these values protect us and are an evidence of God’s protective care of us. I am saddened and troubled by the way our nation is falling away from many of these protections. At the same time, I believe God is merciful and is continuing to call us into becoming more and more of the amazing individual He created us to be.