"I want to create a clear roadmap for you for next steps, and how we can go about creating change in our therapeutic work together." "You don't need a bunch of tools to practice. You just need one or two that you practice over and over and over again." Two Mistakes...
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The Hideaway Experience In October 2010 I was sitting "third chair" at The Hideaway Experience in Amarillo, TX. The Hideaway Experience is a four-day marriage intensive that I had decided to go check out after hearing about it from a colleague of mine. My colleague...
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I have written extensively on various ways to work with people who are struggling with anxiety, but I find that working with people who are struggling with depression, to be quite different, and more difficult. The main factor that I have experienced is in the level...
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Discerning Depression I have written extensively on anxiety, especially on my own anxiety, focusing on the roots of it and how Restoration Therapy has really helped me transform it into a life-giving force. But when it comes to depression I have not written as much on...
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Often, when someone expresses anxiety in the context of the Church or Christian community, more than likely they will hear somebody, at some point, recite the famous words of the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:6. "Do not be anxious...." is the beginning of that verse,...
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The Depression Equation I am a big believer in the equation that insight + practice = transformation. In fact, in an earlier post on anxiety I shared the same equation, highlighting Angela Duckworth's work on the concept of deliberate practice in her work. In her book...
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Reframing Depression "What if this depression you are experiencing is helping inform you about your life? What if we listen to it together, it may give us some clues about what is going on with your life. Maybe it will give us some direction about what kind of changes...
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What Is Underneath Depression Like anxiety, one of the most difficult aspects of depression is trying to figure out what are the underlying roots of it. But without properly identifying its underlying roots it's possible that one may see depression simply as a...
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When serving in ministry there are many opportunities to come in to contact with people who are depressed. I say this, because churches are often what I refer to as the "gatekeepers" in mental health, therefore, those employed or volunteering in ministry are often on...
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"Are you depressed?" I asked him in session. "Depressed? What.....depression? No, I'm not depressed." he said to me as if that was a crazy question to ask. There was some silence between us for what seemed like a few minutes, and then he said. "Well...I mean, I may...
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