Tag: therapy

Counselor as a Helper for You

Every now and then, life can get stressful, and when you’re feeling the pressure of life smothering you, thankfully, there are many places you can turn for a helping hand. Seeking out a coach, consultant, or counselor who may possess insight from the spectrum of life, from being a member of the clergy to a strictly-schooled psychotherapist and anywhere in between, you can find some relief in seeking a counselor as a helper for you.

You don’t have to go it alone.

As you seek out someone to help you get a grip on life, be aware that all therapists are not created equal. Just as in any other profession or ministry, there are good ones and some that are not so good. As you work with someone in a therapeutic relationship, periodically pause and evaluate your progress for yourself.

Your work with anyone in a therapeutic relationship should yield measurable positive results and changes in your life.

You must see demonstrable results and growth, such as better health and an increased sense of self-confidence, a growing awareness about where you are in your life journey, and finding the right fit for you with all your strengths and weaknesses to fit better into life relationships amidst your family, among your friends, your social circles in the community, and beyond.

It would help if you were more confident, stepped into your power, made better decisions, and took positive steps toward improving your life. Things are starting to come together.

You feel less stress, and your burdens decrease as you are empowered to take a more active role in your life. You are beginning to move into the driver’s seat, no longer just a passenger being victimized by this life.

Your finances are improving, as is your general outlook on life. You are feeling better, having a more positive outlook on life, and feeling the power of love energetically expanding all around you, even if you are unaware that the source of all love and life is within you and always has been.

Your journey to wellness, personal growth, and empowerment can be born from your therapeutic relationship, but be aware that many options are available to you. One therapist who might have gotten you through one crisis or phase of personal growth may be unable to take you to the next.

Check and ask yourself if your life is positively changing, if you are energetically expanding, and if your personal awareness is expanding between visits.

If your life is stagnant and there is little or no positive change during your work with a coach, consultant, counselor, or member of the clergy, then you need to find a better fit at this stage in your life.

I work with many people in the field; no one takes it personally when a client moves to another coach. Your therapist, counselor, or accountability partner should also track your progress. If he or she notices you are not achieving positive results from his or her work with you, you should be referred to someone who might be a better fit for you.

Counselors specialize in different areas and have different therapeutic perspectives, personal styles, and delivery methods. For now, find the one who resonates with you.

Once you have progressed beyond this phase of your life, it may be time to find someone better suited for your next phase.

If the person you are working with is providing you with the positive results you desire, if your life has leveled off and there are no signs of your making it better, if you feel afraid, intimidated, or bullied, seek out someone else to work with.

If you are feeling a romantic inclination toward your therapist or counselor (actually, this is quite normal) talk to him or her about it. Do not hide it; allow it to grow into a fantasy or full-blown obsession, or act on it in any way. Talk your way through it.

And if your therapist or counselor expresses any romantic interest in you, run the other way. This is a clear violation of the therapeutic relationship.

A clear separation must be maintained to prevent the therapeutic relationship from becoming toxic with tragic results. This would not be the standard expectation if, historically, the statistics didn’t prevail, overwhelmingly disclosing how devastating crossing this boundary can be.

A practical, ethical counselor may be friendly but not your friend. You don’t hang out, are not on the same volleyball team, and do not exchange gifts. Respect this relationship and keep it pure for your highest and best results.

You are the master of your fate, and the right accountability partner can help you expeditiously move from where you are to where you want to be.

Are you ready to change your life?
Are you ready to take action?
Are you ready to do the work?

Then, your life is already starting to change.

You are beginning a sacred metamorphosis.

God bless you on your journey to a new life.

Alternative Medicine and Natural Remedies

I know this is a tender subject. When you talk about alternative medicine and natural remedies, people start to roll their eyes and imagine you dancing with a rattle in a grass skirt, like some kind of cartoon witch doctor. A toast to the powers that be responsible for brainwashing the general population, hat’s off to a job well done. We’ve all been duped and we don’t even know. That is unless you do know…

If you do know, maybe you’re like me and you’ve seen in impact or natural holistic health modalities which embrace the idea of natural medicine as an alternative to patented designer prescription medications.

As a matter of fact, I’ve witnessed natural cures (I realize I’m not qualified to use the word, “cure,”) using simple techniques and herbal medicine that have far-surpassed whatever promises the medical community might make.

I’ve known many people who were given six months to live. For those who simply accepted their dire diagnosis, they passed away within a year.

For the others who sought to fight the doctor’s death sentence, with alternative medicine and natural remedies, guess what? You guessed it, and something deep inside you knows it’s true. They are all living their lives fully and joyously.

What do the doctors have to say about this when they are confronted by their self-healing now healthy beyond belief patients? They all have this response down pat, “It’s either a misdiagnosis or a miracle.”

There is nothing miraculous about the healing of themselves, except for this:

The miracle of the human body to heal itself while accelerating natural healing with what mother nature has provided for us. Our planet and its inhabitants are perfectly matched and attuned to work in concert for our highest and best outcome.

Everything you could possibly need was placed here on earth before we were put here. We experience life in the most comprehensive closed system, which is in itself is one of the most amazing miracles, confounding the highest thinkers of time since our introduction to this planet.

Nothing is more natural than having the ability to heal yourself; this is what your body was designed for.

If this is true (and you know it is), then why is it illegal to honestly tell your story? There are people who have boldly proclaimed the power of natural healing and natural cures. Where are they now?

The answer is so impossible to imagine that I won’t even attempt to offer any suggestions. Suffice it to say, in general, they do not continue their professing natural cures for very long until their voice slowly fades into the confusion of obscurity.

I have long been a supporter of natural healing, studied and practiced in various areas of alternative health care, though this is not the main focus of my personal calling. I was first so impressed early in my ministerial career, at how effective prayer was in initiating spontaneous healing, this sparked my interest in natural healing.

And believe me, if you’re seeking out natural remedies or an active participation in holistic health, consider spirituality as part of the comprehensive therapeutic approach. A little belief goes a long way. The integration and calling upon a higher power can make all the difference.

If we can agree that all disease affects three separate but unified parts of us, our body, our mind and our soul, then neglecting the soul can hinder your healing and wellness significantly.

Can natural healing be accomplished without spiritual integration? Absolutely, but the results are far greater and more rapid with your heart connected to the source of all life.

If you think you’re ready to take responsibility for your own health, the good news is, Google is a good repository for the otherwise hidden jewels for natural remedies. You can pretty much find anything you could possibly think of, though much of the information is anecdotal, and you will find a lot of people swearing that considering any of these natural cures is dangerous, if not lethal.

Be smart about it. Exercise your due diligence and see what dies. If you’ve been given six months to live, it may not be you, it might be your belief in what you’ve been trained to believe about health and medicine.

All and Nothing Therapy

Having studied and taught a variety of therapeutic modalities and working in the field of therapeutic science for years it is not uncommon for counselors, coaches and consultants to maintain a tool box full of these methodologies. While we may have been trained in a particular method, you might find the resulting techniques practiced by each individual varies in their method of delivering the specific techniques, as each practitioner develops their own unique style, based on their own prowess of all the therapeutic tools.

Lately, in a round table session with many therapists, I was able to query over a dozen practitioners who all admitted they had created their own version of strict methods they studied. Only two of them insisted they felt compelled to follow the exact modality as trained, in order to be authorized to add them by name to their menu of services offered.

In this group setting, I referred to this idea as, “All and Nothing Therapy,” as a contrast to the phrase commonly used as, “All or nothing.” It seemed to be an adequate title, at least for the conversation at hand, to describe the idea that most of us had created our own methods based on our specific training which honored the specific therapeutic model but had evolved in individual practice to only be closely related to the original version. And in most cases, the consensus seemed to be, that the evolved version was a combination of other previously learned therapeutic modalities.

So, if you’re going to see me, or any of my contemporaries, be forewarned, you’re going to have a life-changing experience unlike you will get anywhere else. That said, what are some of the things that we deal with on a regular basis? Well, we all agree that we’re in the paradigm shifting business, which is the broad stroke definition of what we do, while we all specialize. My specialty has evolved through many different focus groups from love, marriage, relationships and spiritual growth to business, with my current client list looking mostly like enlightened businesspeople at the moment.

It’s not that they are enlightened about their businesses so much, as they are entrepreneurs on a spiritual journey of enlightenment, while they are pursuing their businesses as an outlet of their spiritual growth, and supporting their (metaphoric) travel expenses along their journey. And there is a growing trend as I am seeing more and more spiritually inclined entrepreneurs expressing their message, skills and gifts, as an outpouring through their businesses or ministries.

One of the common issues they need to overcome include eliminating empowering others to slow their roll, or to get them worked up and over-reactive to series of words spoken by people who appear to be determined to pull them to lower energetic vibrations.

Think about it, if someone can say words to you that cause you to be offended, hurt your feelings or make you want to either fight or flee, this is not a reflection of the state of the person speaking the words. This is a clear indication that you have been predictably programmed by society to respond to those words in a specific manner and you fall for it every time. The mere fact that you respond to those words negatively, qualifies you to be a predictably manageable member of our society.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

With a little help of my friends, you can listen to someone’s litany of disrespecting or vile words and not be affected negatively. While we all may approach this challenge differently, with a little intervention, and a bit of skill, you can be emotionally bullet proof.

So, if you’re finding yourself being sensitive to what other people think or say about you, get some help. Seek out a counselor, coach or consultant who can take you through a metamorphic process that will have you thinking differently about the things that other people say, because the truth is,

People who judge others, are only expressing their own inner struggle and pain

There is no reason to take it personally, when someone is acting out because they are amidst so much inner turmoil or pain. This might be the only way they know how to relieve some of the pressure of their life. You might even think about how you are blessed to be the method for them to relieve some of this pent up frustration of pressure. Someone else may have really been deeply hurt by this person’s outburst.

You can take charge of this area of your life and/or any other part(s) of your life by embarking on your journey of empowering self improvement by learning how to be successful with personal development, if you’re so inclined.

Seek out a counselor, coach or consultant to be your accountability partner you resonate with and start kicking ass and taking names. Get in touch with who you really are, in tune with your life’s purpose and sharing your unique message, skills and gifts, because a better life is waiting for you.

If your life has been going on… and it seems pretty much the same ol’ same ol’, maybe it’s time to embrace your uniqueness and live a better life, your best life, and make the world a better place.