How do I help someone who is grieving? Grief comes from the deepest places within us. I heard the author Richard Rohr speaking about this recently, and he said that, “When a person cries, it comes unbidden out of the unconscious. It’s not an object of the will or the intellect.” It’s as if when...
Why are so many people of my generation killing themselves? I began writing this blog in May after hearing about the death of Chris Cornell and did not finish before learning that another high-profile musician from my era, Chester Bennington, tragically took his own life this past weekend. Some have speculated that Generation X, being...
If you find yourself in the terrifying position of being caught (be it after an affair, online chat/hook-up, pornography, etc.), I want to tell you that it is possible to make it through. It won’t be easy. It will require diligence and intentionality, but there is hope - not only for yourself, but for your spouse, family and marriage as well.
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” –Og Mandino I’m a night person because that’s when the stars come out. I sometimes sit on my back porch in a wooden chair and stare out into the blackness, hiding from...
The recent passing of Leonard Nimoy brings a profound sense of loss not only for the man himself, but also for the beloved half-human, half-vulcan he portrayed for so many years in television and film. Mr. Spock is truly an American icon, curiously evoking so much love and emotion for a character who was supposedly the pinnacle of...
It’s 6:45 a.m. and I am sitting in the terminal. Problem is, my flight departed at 5:30. My destination is the snow-capped mountains of Fraser, Colorado where I will be spending the next 4 days at a Ransomed Heart boot camp. My prayer to this point has been that I would be open to what...
I remember hating the movie Groundhog Day when I was younger, mainly because it felt like the movie would never end – which was the point as far as I can tell. It dawned on me recently that this is very much like grief. The process often feels so slow it’s like you’re waking up...
Today is New Year’s Day, and many of us are just waking up after a late night of celebration, counting down in eager anticipation of the new year. This day is lauded as more than just the first day of a new calendar; it is the dawn of a hopeful new era of possibility. Many...
The Shepherd’s Staff is a 501c3 non-profit organization. This sets us apart from many other counseling groups in that we are not sustained by a parent company, state funded organization or grants. All the administrative, marketing and financial responsibilities are met by our group of therapists, with a board of directors who meet quarterly to...
So what exactly is play therapy? How is a child sitting with a trained therapist and engaging in play a helpful resource? Landreth and Bratton summarize it well: “Because children’s language development lags behind their cognitive development, they communicate their awareness of what is happening in their world through their play. In play therapy toys are viewed...
