Do you meditate? If I had asked you “Do you read?”, after clarifying that it wasn’t a sarcastic question like “Can’t you read?”, you surely would have answered in the affirmative. Reading is just a part of life, whether that’s reading this email, a text…
In order to heal from trauma, survivors must find ways to safely tell their stories. The “safely” part is of course the most critical, and part of that safety is the survivor seeing and feeling that those listening are supportive, empathic, and without judgment. People…
People are usually surprised to learn that I love training dogs. It happened rather by accident, after adopting a one year old mini labradoodle that was (and unfortunately still is) hopelessly anxious. We worked really hard together for a few months and made a lot…
In a previous post I discussed a simple principle that “naming” our experience helps “tame” our reaction to it. Today I want to explore the deeper meaning behind this. Naming is a powerful act. God demonstrated his sovereign power and wisdom when he named creation…
I don’t recall any of my seminary professors pointing me to Thomas Aquinas as a source for counseling theory or technique. Perhaps they did and I missed it; regardless, I probably would have ignored recommended readings from a 13th century philosopher-monk. But Aquinas comes up…
In my Sunday School class last week someone quipped a humorous question about what Thanksgiving dinner looked like for Jacob’s family after the births of his 12 children. Given the drama narrated in Genesis 29:31-30:24, family meals with one husband, two wives, two concubines, 11…