Is It My Fault? is a message of hope and healing to victims who know too well the depths of destruction and the overwhelming reality of domestic violence.
At least one in every three women have been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in their lifetime. The effects of domestic violence are physical, social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual, and can have long-lasting distressing consequences. Continue reading
For a long time now counseling has had a negative stigma attached that has kept people from seeking help. Often people have wrongly viewed those who reach out for help as weak or incapable of handling their own problems. However, it is quite the opposite, only those who are strong enough to admit their struggle and are ready to deal with it reach out for the help of a counselor. Coming to a counselor is admitting that life is difficult and that some problems are too large to tackle without the help and encouragement of another.
Counseling provides an artificial pairing of two people that allows an individual to talk openly with someone who is an unbiased third party. Often when talking with family or friends no matter how much one tries to be unbiased they will inevitably bring the emotions of the relationship in the conversation.
Anyone living a full, rich life experiences ups and downs, stresses, disappointments, sorrows, and setbacks. Today, however, millions of people who are really no more than “worried well” are being diagnosed as having a mental disorder and receiving unnecessary treatment. In Saving Normal, Allen Frances, one of the world’s most influential psychiatrists, explains why stigmatizing a healthy person as mentally ill leads to unnecessary, harmful medications, the narrowing of horizons, the misallocation of medical resources, and the draining of the budgets of families and the nation. We also shift responsibility for our mental well-being away from our own naturally resilient brains and into the hands of “Big Pharma,” who are reaping multi-billion-dollar profits. Continue reading
Introductions. The few seconds where we decide how to tell new people who we are as a person. Every time we meet someone new, we almost instantaneously begin to formulate how we will put our best foot forward. We want to explain who we are as quickly as possible, so the other person will like us almost immediately. Our desire is to make a good impression that others will remember.
A sample introduction might look something like this:
“Hi, I’m John.”
“It’s nice to meet you Jim. I just graduated with my Masters in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern and right now I’m working as a landscaper. What do you do?”
You might start with something more general, like the reason you’re in the same place at the same time, but we quickly find ourselves asking and answering the question, “What do you do?” Continue reading
For the last three and a half years I have been pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree in Counseling. Tomorrow I walk across a stage and receive my degree. The path to my degree has at times seemed long and difficult. However, I have been supported by amazing family, friends, and mentors far beyond what I could have ever imagined. This one is for you.
As I have written and rewritten this post, there are no words that adequately express my appreciation for you and all the ways that you have helped me. I cannot list off the names of those that have helped me to reach this point in my academic journey because I am fearful that I would leave someone off and perhaps it is even because I do not know all of the ways that I have been helped. Continue reading
John H. Chapman 