This month we celebrate the counseling professionals across our family of ministries in recognition of Counseling Awareness Month. Our counseling team serves children and adult clients with empathy, insight and faith. We appreciate their relentless commitment in their service to others.
Our licensed, professional counselors create safe spaces for trust and vulnerability. In a previous blog post, Encompass Regional Director Rebecca Ryder, MA, NCC, LPCC-S, described the connection and capacity of the client-counselor relationship.
“Therapists are meant to meet you where you are, come alongside, and provide positive regard for you and your journey. They provide an objective “container” for your story and empathize with the impact it has on your life and functioning. They advocate, encourage, connect you to appropriate resources and supports, and explore barriers to your progress on goals and desires. A therapist’s job is not to do the work for you but to help you find and increase motivation to do the work that will free you from internal and external blocks to better functioning and relationships. Together, they can help you identify and replace unhealthy coping skills with healthy ones so that you can reach your full potential.”
Being a mental health counselor is a ministry in identifying strengths and offering hope. It’s a career in working together as a team with other resource providers. It’s an opportunity to help more people experience their worth in Christ each day through their profession.
This past year, our clinical team provided counseling to more than 2,000 individuals through a variety of therapeutic approaches in a variety of settings—homes, schools, offices, churches, and a big red barn.
Our hope is for our youth and families to know they are not alone. Our heart is for our staff to continue to burn bright so that others may see their light and do the same.
