The Benefits of Individual Counseling

We’ve heard life coaches repeat the mantra, “if your sick, see a counselor, if your well, see a coach.” Aside from the obvious self-serving motives behind that statement, it is also egregiously incorrect.

There is an unfortunate misconception about counseling that many hold to—that it is for people with a mental illness. This is where the stigma comes from. And, while it is true that counseling can help those with mental illness, that is not the reason behind most counseling sessions. Counseling is primarily for the well, not to ill. Counseling has been around a lot longer than mental health treatment has existed. Perhaps we should recall that Jesus himself called the Holy Spirit the Counselor. Counseling is for the well so that they can continue to develop and succeed in all walks and challenges that life has to offer. Coping with relationship challenges, dealing with stress, understanding and embracing emotions, striving towards success, self-actualizing, and just plain happiness are the primary focuses of counseling. Mental illness and psychotherapy are just a minor part of the work of a good counselor.

Connect Christian Family Counseling is founded on the one immutable truth that we all know innately; people were created to be connected, to be in relationships. We are social creatures, and family oriented. Our counselors know that working one on one with individuals is a mission and ministry of connection; Connection to self, to God, to family, spouse, friends, and the world. Our counseling efforts honor your need and desire to make those connections work, and to count. By choosing to work with a counselor, you can learn to enhance any of the following:

Personal Responsibility

Confronting your behavioral issues that block or detract from your life is not always at the top of people’s lists. But if you are struggling with life and need to break free or break out of behavioral traps, personal counseling is the best way to take control over your own life choices. If you struggle with porn, gambling, or gaming addiction, self-destructive relationships, narcissistic acting out, or faulty parenting strategies, Dr Chuck can help you uncover the origins of your bad choices, unlock the coping strategies that reinforce them, and help you to establish new successful behaviors.

Social Responsibility

Like it or not, everyone is locked in a world of interaction with others. Sometimes those interactions are great, healthy, and productive. Other times they are toxic, destructive, and counterproductive. For most relationships, there is some of both at times. How you interact with the world comes from how you experienced the world in childhood and young adulthood. What you learned about the world guides your decisions every day. Some days, it’s the inner child that takes charge, other times, the inner parent. Mostly, it is all on autopilot. Knowing who is in control of your choices can empower you to have the best relationships possible, even with difficult people and circumstances. No one lives in a bubble free of others. And hurting people tend to hurt others. Become one of the health people and you will heal others. Let’s talk about your goals and how to get there.

Healthy New Perspectives

Goal-driven counseling helps you explore your beliefs and thoughts that drive your emotions and behavioral choices. Much of what we do in reaction to stimuli is pre-programmed by past exposures and experiences. We call these reactions habits. Habits are mostly automatic and display to the outside world what is going on inside you. That display is what the world views as your character. When the outcomes in your life are not what you would like them to be, look to your character and habits to see where you must change. Counseling can help you quickly expose and alter the beliefs and thoughts that drive your life’s outcomes. Taking a closer look at what’s under the hood can help you create healthy new perspectives on life, on people, and on yourself.

Improve Coping Strategies

Coping strategies are habits and reactions that are developed over time to deal with issues of stress in life. For most, what worked as a child no longer work as an adult. And, what worked in bad situations and traumatic events will not work in more ordinary life settings. Nevertheless, well established coping strategies often persist beyond their original purpose. These maladaptive coping strategies that were once protective for you are now damaging to you. Working with a counselor you can challenge the need for many faulty strategies, and by doing so improve your self-concepts, your relationships, and reduce unnecessary life stress.

Long Term Life Goals and Mission

Have you ever thought about your endgame for life? What is it that you really want to accomplish? Who do you really want to be? Who do you really want people to see you as? To answer those questions takes a bit of self-exploration. The best path to follow is one guided by someone who knows how to lead you to your goals. Counselors are trained to help you discover what and who you really are, and where you have left the path. Achieving a life’s goal means first having a mission to pursue. Connect counselors have an expertise in this area. If you feel lost or rudderless in life, connect with us and let us help you find the path of your life’s choosing.  

Healthy Marriage Strategies

Marriage can be the greatest blessing one can experience. Through marriage individuals find a helpmate in life, a partner in the future, a teammate for parenting, and a confidant for safety. When marriages go well, all things are possible. But, in contemporary culture marriages tend to not go well. The divorce rate is high, the conflicts are ugly, and the toxicity of many marriages hurts and traumatizes many couples. This does not have to happen. The answer to preventing or curing these negative outcomes is found in reframing what a marriage is, and your part in it. Marriage is work, but that work comes from the individual first, not the partner or the couple.  

Connect counselors are specialists in relationship. Our approach is biblically sound and informed, experientially tested and refined, and effective for couples who want to have  marriage that lasts. Through individual, couples, conjoint, or webinar formats, Connect can offer you a variety of choices to get to that marriage you imagined could be there for you.