Category: Emotions

Do You Know How to Change a Life?

I once heard this testimony from a counselee who came to see me because of depression:

“My mother suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness for most of my childhood. She would be in bed for months at a time, and then I would come home from school one day and she would be gone, in the hospital. After a few weeks, she would come back home, usually drugged or just flat. She’d be ok for a while, but then the depression would come back, and it would start all over. Finally, when I was in high school, she got the diagnosis: Major Depressive Disorder.[i][ii] She was put on medications, and pretty much stayed stable until the end of her life, when the drugs finally destroyed her kidneys and she passed away. I am terrified that this is my future. My doctor thinks I have it, too.”

Read More

Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Diagnoses and Medications

If you are a counselor, it is highly likely that you are helping someone who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Mental health professionals use the Diagnostic Statistic Manual, or DSM, to describe, categorize, and diagnose such disorders. Have you ever wondered how to help people who have been diagnosed and what your view should be of the psychoactive medication they are usually prescribed? In Descriptions and Prescriptions, Mike Emlet attempts to provide us with a framework for how to view both the DSM and psychoactive medication.

Read More

Advice for Troubled Marriages Pt. 3

We have come to the final installment of my series on common problems in a marriage. You can read part 1 and part 2. Today, we will tackle the difficult subject of love. Love should not be a complicated issue in marriage, right? Isn’t that why we get married? We “fall in love” and plan to live happily ever after. There is nothing wrong with the desire to be loved. However, when “being loved” turns into the demand to “feel loved”, a very painful and destructive corner is turned in the marriage.

Read More

Disclaimer:

We are not a licensed counseling agency, nor are we psychologically or medically trained therapists. We offer ‘pastoral’ counseling intended to bring life change through heart change.