Honestly, it never crossed my mind as something I would want to do as a career. God, however, had other plans.  I received my MS in community and corporate wellness management from John Brown University, in Siloam Springs, AR. I loved sports and so my own will screamed for anything athletic. It wasn’t until my son was born and I began to read books geared toward psychology that the idea crossed my mind. Everything I read spurred my desire to know more.  I couldn’t get enough. Long story short, over a couple of months, the Lord really began to move my will toward his.  My son was 4 months old when I started my MA in marriage and family therapy from Liberty University.

“What do I not enjoy?” would have been an easier question to answer. Counseling and teaching counseling feel like an air that I was made to breathe. It feels natural. Basically, what I love most comes down to being with people – I love people, witnessing God’s transformation in their lives, and learning from my counselees.

 My favorite part of the day is early in the morning and has been for over 20 years. I love waking up, grabbing my cup(s) of coffee, and spending time with the Lord while the rest of the house is quiet. I’ve had multiple sports injuries so working out strenuously is out of the picture, but I listen to counseling and theology books while I walk my dogs each day. I’m active in my church and I have my own counselor.

Yes. I absolutely love working with teenagers and their families.  I mostly work with the areas of trauma recovery (physical, emotional, spiritual, and sexual abuse), gender struggles, and the parent-child relationship. I really enjoy working with couples as well.

Goodness, that is a hard question. Let me give you authors instead.  Anything by Ed Welch, Mike Emlet, David Powlison, Darby Strickland, Julie Lowe, Jeremy Pierre, Robert Kellemen, Robert Jones, Eric Johnson, Timothy Keller, Jonathon Holmes…the list could seriously go on and on.

I think the question should really be worded, “how do you line up your personal life with your faith?” I say that because my faith is in Christ and his Word. His word is never failing, never-ending, and never wrong. I fail often, am finite, and am often wrong.  My way fights often against his way. My goal is that my life is in line with my faith. I want what I say and do to match what I believe to be true. I want to honor Him in everything.

I love painting, pickleball, hiking, and hanging out with my kids.

I think it was more of a person than an experience—my dad. My dad’s love for the Lord, his Word, his people, and his undeniable belief in how God’s Word transforms the lives of people when they hear it, believe it, and live it had such an incredible, lifelong impact on, not only my personal walk with God but in my desire to bring the Word to people in a very practical way. I originally did licensed counseling, however, through something David Powlison said, God wrestled with me to move my will even closer to his. Powlison said in one of his articles that the goal of counseling ought to be to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable into the likeness of Christ.” I remember thinking, “That is not what I was taught in my master’s program.  That purpose was never even on my radar. That statement ate at me for months. But in the end, I decided to pursue my Ph.D. in biblical counseling.  I put up my clinical counseling hat and I have never turned back.

Not always great. I can often add too much to my plate and then the stress builds and it can take a toll on my body. However, over the years, I have learned to first take it to the Lord. Whereas I used to try and fix it myself or just “push through,” I have found that is rarely the best move. My mom once said, when she had faced a trying circumstance, “What can man do to fix it that God can’t?” That has stuck with me for a long time. While our natural sinful inclination is to fix things on our own, we weren’t created to. We were designed to depend on him in EVERYTHING.