Kelly Maney . Life

Connection through Counseling. Within you is a community of connections. Your nerves connect with your muscles and your organs. However within your spirit is a community too. Your heart as part of your mind connects with your spirit.

Not only that but you as an individual is part of a larger community. It is healthy to give and receive in your community. Counseling plays this role of giving to you in your time of struggle.

More than traditional CBT

CBT is known as talk therapy is popular because it works. Talking to trusted family and friends is a tool used for generations to work through problems. Included in CBT is the psychological education to help the client understand the “why” and “how” of their issue.

But knowing the truth with your mind only will not give you freedom. Gnostic belief is the idea if you “think right, you will live right”. That may work for some who have little problems or are able to suppress their emotions with self-control. But for the rest of us, it’s impossible.

Pelagius, a theologian in the 4th century believed that salvation and following a life of morality is a choice of the will.

The only problem these theories have is it leaves out the role of emotion and the result on trauma in our life. Way back then, I’m pretty sure they had those things in their life. It’s time to swing the pendulum the other direction and balance. Mind over matter thinking is powerful if you are wholly focused. But if only part of you is focused and part of you is holding the pain, it also leads to suppression and dissociation as a way to gain “sanity”.

Connection through Counseling

The human body and brain are wired for connection. Also a healthy connection creates a healthy mind and neuropathways. A counselor is like a midwife or a doula, used to help a woman through childbirth. Needed for a a season, the counselor assists you in moving through and getting to the other side of an issue.

Counselors can relate to you in the way that you need:

• They can be like a mother seeing you with love as the beautiful creation that you were made to be;
• Listen to your present circumstances like a friend who has your back;
• Build you up like a father, by walking with you through the pain but not taking it away;
• Ministering like a priest, seeing the junk but knowing the High Priest has the ability to wash you clean and redeeming your circumstances.

Just as a healthy brain and mind are able to connect to create healthy relationships and overcome the challenges of life, so a community can create a safe space to help you through the trials of life.

I am here to connect with you and be the person you need to manage the pain, process the emotions, find answers, and move into a new season!