Reducing Stress Around the Holidays
People are sometimes confused by the term pastoral counseling. They aren’t clear if it is religious counseling or if it is real therapy. Fortunately, today’s segment provides a perfect example of professional pastoral counseling perspective. In addition to addressing...Reducing Stress for Seniors : Tips for Dealing with Everyday Worries and Finding More Joy in LIfe
Reducing Stress for Seniors Tips for dealing with everyday stressors and finding more joy in life By Rev. Michael Heath, LMHC What Stresses you out? Here is a list of common senior worries : Money, Boredom, Pain and Health Issues, Loss of Physical or Mental Capacity,...Reducing Stress Around the Holidays – A Pastoral Counseling Approach
People are sometimes confused by the term pastoral counseling. They aren’t clear if it is religious counseling or if it is real therapy. Fortunately today’s segment provides perfect example of professional pastoral counseling perspective. In addition to addressing the...Emotional First Aid: Tips for Responding to Everyday Psychological Distress
Have you ever been in a situation with a friend, family member or co-worker when s/he becomes upset and you don’t know what to do? You want to help but aren’t sure what is the right thing to say. While most of us know something about medical first aid,...Take Control of your Holiday Stress
(This segment was planned before the tragic Newtown shootings occurred but upon reflection we decided to do it because, in spite of this dark moment, the spirit and essence of the holiday season is a fundamental affirmation that goodness and light is greater than the...Reducing Stress When You Travel
Reducing Stress When You Travel With Summer’s arrival, thoughts turn to vacations and travel. While trips can be fun, they also can be quite stressful for folks and hard on relationships. When unexpected problems occur, tempers can flare. Today we’re...The Good News About Stress
The Good News About Stress :Stress Studies Link Mental Health and Faith Newsweek’s recent cover story on stress deserves a second look. After all the bad news we’ve had about the effects of stress on our health, this report offered some good news. It also has some...
Exposing Toxic Religion
The recent merger of right-wing politics with Evangelical Christianity confuses clients who seek counseling from a pastoral counselor. So, I want to share some thoughts about what pastoral counseling means for me.
Pastoral Counseling in Perspective
Looking back over the years since Pine Ridge began, I realize how dynamic Pastoral Counseling (PC) is. Pastoral Counseling recognizes that not all emotional problems are pathological. Life transitions,loss and death raise profound spiritual questions that benefit from counseling. Also, PC demonstrates how faith and psychology can work together to improve mental health.
For example, PC familiar Bible stories, such as the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), dramatize important psychological concepts. In Luke’s story, for example, folks can see how anxiety and feeling overwhelmed masquerade as irritability and anger.
Over the years, however, things changed. Unfortunately, many of my clients reported emotional trauma connected to their experience with religion. Instead of increasing a sense of love and gratitude, religion deepened their sense of sinfulness and unworthiness.
Rather than translating psychological concepts into more familiar biblical or theological ones, my role evolved to addressing abuses of religious teaching. Toxic religion can seriously damage self-esteem and create false and debilitating feelings of guilt and shame. Examples of Toxic Theology and Religious Trauma – Death, Grief, and Belief
Sadly, the media gives attention to sexual abuse by clergy but often overlooks the more subtle damage of harmful religious doctrines. Indeed, not enough light shines on the psychological harm created by corrosive religious teaching.
With this in mind, here are some telltale signs of harmful religion to watch out for. toxic religion | Pastoral Counseling Syracuse NY
Marriage Tune-Up
DOES YOUR MARRIAGE NEED A TUNE-UP ?
How are things going in your marriage? Are you having more arguments and less sex ? Do you feel distant from one another ? Are you laughing less and shouting more ?
The fact is, even the best marriages go through dry patches and rough times. That’s because intimate relationships are complicated and don’t run all by themselves. They require ongoing care and effort. That’s why it’s important to have a marital tune-up from time to time, when a couple reflects on what areas may need improvement. Marriage Tune-up | The Center for Integrative Counseling and Psychology
With that in mind, when’s the last time you thought about how well your marriage was running? If you’re like many folks, it’s been a while. Rather than thinking of marriage as something that takes care of itself, it’s more helpful to think of a relationship like an automobile that requires regular maintenance to run smoothly.
If talking about a tune-up sounds too mechanical, giving your marriage a spring cleaning is another way to think about marital relationship maintenance. Spring Cleaning Your Marriage: Tips for Rejuvenating Romance | Pastoral Counseling Syracuse NY However you refer to it, it’s important to take time to assess and address what isn’t working before it becomes a serious problem.
With that in mind, here are some tips for dealing with the most common problems in marriage. While a tune-up takes some effort, you’ll be amazed by what a difference it makes.
