Counseling is a collaborative process between an individual and a trained, licensed therapist to address a mental health concern. The step to seek outside help is often the first act of change in a positive direction. Counseling should be seen as an investment.

Successful counseling requires time and resources, honesty and vulnerability. By nature, counseling relies heavily on the interaction between the therapist and the client to address these concerns. One should expect to be treated with compassion, decency, and one’s values should be respected.

Counseling requires coming to session prepared, constantly developing the therapeutic relationship, engaging topics in session, and using skills gained in session in an applied manner outside of the office. Early in counseling it is important to establish a relationship of trust and acceptance, to clarify goals, and to identify existing skills and supports. While there are no guarantees, most who follow these keys report positive results.

Absolutely! While counseling is not to be confused with receiving a sermon or even mentorship, matters of faith and values can be legitimate foci or elements of services. I welcome matters of faith and am willing to address or include faith elements into session.

The sad truth is that many have been hurt by people claiming to be Christian. For those who have been hurt, it can actually be a part of the healing process to have a positive engagement with a supportive, helpful person of faith.

To be clear, my goal is to help whoever walks through my door. I don’t hide the fact that I’m Christian, but counseling isn’t about preaching or proselytizing. Nobody wants to come to counseling feeling that they are about to engage in a debate of values or that they need to put their guard up.

I aspire to be a representative of Christ in my actions, and in the context of counseling that means respecting the clients autonomy in their values, showing care and compassion, and having a positive impact in the therapeutic process.

In my history I’ve had the blessing of working with people from all sorts of perspectives of faith, people in the LBGTQ+ community, people across a number of different denominations, and anything in between. It’s been a joy working with people from all backgrounds, and my goal is that all people feel that my office is a place of healing.

There is no easy answer to this question. Both depend greatly on the intensity of need of the individual and the nature of your counseling goals.

For some, their goal is to address a specific issue and it might take only a couple of meetings. For others, they might have a more ongoing concern and need a therapist for regular consult and support over the course of years.

What should happen over the course of treatment is for services to start at one level of intensity (weekly meetings, for example) and to start spacing out meetings as their need, goals, and overall functioning improve. Counseling should never be seen as a permanent service. A good therapist is trying to work themselves out of a job.

Streams In The Desert currently accepts the following insurances: Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Health Care, UMR, WebTPA, Health Choice and Aetna.