Showing titles in Counseling

When I returned home from my latest deployment in the U.S. Army, my life began to fall apart. One night, after heavy drinking, I placed my 1911 pistol in my mouth and thought a prayer—silence. I deactivated the safety and began to slowly squeeze the trigger. BANG! I dropped the pistol, and I looked around me, but there was no blood. The bang I heard was the Bible on my desk falling and hitting the floor. I fell to my knees and asked God for forgiveness. I surrendered to Jesus Christ and asked him to help me. He answered.

For anyone who has ever been betrayed; for anyone who has ever felt lost, abused, or abandoned; for anyone who has ever suffered a broken heart - there is healing! In this inspiring and life-changing book, Joan Hunter shares her challenging testimony of how she overcame rejection and the worst betrayal imaginable. No matter what your circumstances, God wants to minister to you through Joan’s insights and practical advice.

Everyone experiences emotions―some easy, some difficult. Dealing with them should be common sense, and yet it isn’t. Even though emotions are not uncommon to the human experience, we lack the language to fully understand and express them. This failure to understand can often lead to frustration and broken relationships. In The Path to Wholeness, Dr. Mark Mayfield teaches listeners how to slow down and explore the way our emotions develop.

Ours is an age of anxiety. The solution isn't to rid ourselves of the sources of anxiety but to recognize that anxiety originates from a spiritual influence - and then use the weapons of power, love, and a sound mind to fight back and live in God's peace. Sharing her own story of emerging from the battle with anxiety as well as the stories of others, Dr. Michelle Bengtson reminds you of your identity as a follower of Christ and of the peace he promises you in spite of everything.

We're all infected with a spiritual disease. Its name is shame. Whether we realize it or not, shame affects every aspect of our personal lives and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ, replacing it with a damaged version of ourselves that results in unhealed pain and brokenness. But God is telling a different story for your life. Psychiatrist Curt Thompson unpacks the soul of shame, revealing its ubiquitous nature and neurobiological roots. He also provides the theological and practical tools necessary to dismantle shame.

We come into the world relentlessly narcissistic, resisting the kind of rigorous self-examination that reveals what is ugly in us and what is our impact on others. Too often, we live with our felt well-being as our priority concern, and so we continue, incurably addicted to ourselves and powerless to resist whatever temptations promise the sense of instant happiness we seek.

Married Christians, and those preparing for marriage, know that they're sinners—and that their sin threatens God's great purposes for their union, including mutual support, companionship, and intimacy. But how often do believers recognize that they are also saints, equipped through God's power to create a healthy, loving marriage? In Gospel-Shaped Marriage, Chad and Emily Van Dixhoorn encourage couples with how Christ calls and enables them to love their spouse.

Leslie Vernick, counselor and social worker, has witnessed the devastating effects of emotional abuse. Many, including many in the church, have not addressed this form of destruction in families and relationships because it is difficult to talk about. With godly guidance and practical experience, Vernick offers an empathetic approach to recognizing an emotionally destructive relationship and addresses the symptoms and the damage with biblical tools.

Fight for Us takes couples on an inspiring journey into the challenges of battling for their marriage - through gut-wrenching times of despair, and then finally to the victory of a renewed relationship grounded in Jesus.

In Effective Biblical Counseling, Gold Medallion Award-winning author Dr. Larry Crabb presents a model of counseling that can be gracefully integrated into the functioning of the local church. He asserts that counseling is simply a relationship between people who care and that its goal is to free people to better worship and serve God.

After hearing the words no one wants to hear - "you have cancer" - Jim Burns set out to articulate the most important principles for a life well lived and now shares them with you as a collection of essential truths for a healthy, balanced, and successful life.

Our world constantly tells us to "do what feels good", especially when it comes to issues related to sexuality. Sadly, this mind-set always leads to guilt, pain, and heartache. And yet, in the gospel, there is good news for the sexually broken. Pointing listeners to the grace of Jesus Christ, longtime counselor and teacher David Powlison offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized: all brokenness will one day be transformed.

The heart, a term used all over the Bible, is a complex reality that captures the totality of a person's inner nature. This book explores the three capacities of the heart (knowing, loving, and choosing), explaining how each is redeemed through the threefold office of Christ (prophet, priest, and king). As listeners comprehend the heart as the source of all their thoughts, fears, words, and actions, they will discover principles and practices for orienting their hearts to truly love and obey God with all that they are. 

In this unique look at a one-year journey through counseling told from both sides of the couch, Sandi Brown―the founder of St. Louis’s largest Christian radio ministry, JOY FM―and her counselor, Dr. Michelle Caulk, walk through Sandi’s therapy journey, answering the question, “What do I do when I know God loves me, but I don’t like myself?” Healing Out Loud captures many of the insecurities the modern woman faces in her walk with Christ. Brown and Caulk’s combined voice creates an accessible path for listeners to face their vulnerabilities with biblical insight.

Do you sometimes wonder what happened to the life you dreamed you'd have? Say Yes by storyteller and artist Scott Erickson is a profound, unique meditation on the three arguments of The Voice of Giving Up and the three mental health and spiritual practices that can help you fall in love with your life again.

This groundbreaking book, now updated and expanded, furthers its original, effective, time-saving approach that benefits pastors overtaxed by counseling demands. Dr. Charles Kollar presents a departure in pastoral counseling, showing that counseling need not be long-term or depend on psychological manipulation to produce dramatic results. In most cases, the solution lies with the counselees themselves.

Everyone talks about the personal ministry of the Word, but how do we make one-another ministry truly biblical? Gospel-Centered Counseling equips you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. It does so by examining life’s seven ultimate questions and then guiding you on a journey that explores the biblical, gospel-centered narrative.

The First Will Be Last: A Biblical Perspective on Narcissism is just what the title says - an A-Z look at the Biblical perspective on these toxic people; including who they are, how they got that way, and how to deal with them. From key words to Biblical case studies, it will unlock a new perspective and provide a framework in your search for truth.

If you're longing to become more attentive to God - to listen to him, know his voice and experience his love, spiritual direction can point the way. In Seeking God Together, experienced spiritual director Alice Fryling offers a unique introduction specifically for group spiritual direction: a place where individuals can experience what it means to be listened to and loved by others, so that they can learn to listen more attentively to God in their daily lives and be used by God.

Many of us wake up every day with looming anxieties over our future and a weariness we can’t shake. We have more questions than answers and live with difficult daily realities and secrets we feel we cannot share. The question remains for most believers: How can I fix it, make sense of it, or solve it? Enter God Knows: a guidebook to lead the modern believer to a place of release, relief, and reliance upon the omniscience of God.