Uniquely Christian! God is the ultimate sustaining truth underlying all reality. Faith communities of different “flavors” among the greater Christian community gather to affirm this reality, support their members in their individual faith journies, and to teach propositional truths or doctrines of belief and practice. Unfortunately despite receiving the best teaching or being part of the most loving of spiritual communities there are times when life overwhelms our abilities to make sense of things or cope successfully. Some times this can cripple us, damage our relationships, and make it hard to meet the day to day demands of life successfully.
Moments like this lead to many reactions: attempts to hide the suffering and act as though everything is fine; shame; embarassment; seeking support from fellow church members, seeking prayer, wanting patoral counseling, or seemingly when all else fails professional mental health services. Every faith community has an unspoken set of norms and expectations about how their faith is suppose to sustain them in the middle of life’s messes. Professional help from members of the same faith community who share the same world view and thuroughly understand the Christian approach to life is sometimes necessary. This sort of perspective is Uniquely Christian! The best of both worlds: best of contemporary professional practice & the best of a Christian World View combined.
We provide direct services to not only faith community members but also to clergy, clergy families and even church staffs.We are also available to do in service trainings, consult with you on counseling you are doing, or to help you think over the model of pastoral counseling you will use in your church (e,g, availability, frequency number of sessions and types of problems). We regularly work with individuals, families dealing with parenting issues for children and adolescents, as well as couples whose relationships are in distress. Keep in mind problems are much easier to deal with the sooner help is sought.
Praying for medical problems while still seeking medical treatment is the norm, Yet seeking help for emotional and relationship problems is often a “last resort” after it seems nothing else has helped. If you are in a tough place, give us a call or e-mail. If you would like to talk about your faith journey, family, or faith community’s needs please contact us at your convenience via voice mail (775.771.1010) or e-mail at carterhargroveinc@sbcglobal.net. We look forward to hearing from you!