About Me

Where it Started

My journey toward clinical counseling began 20 years ago at Dallas Theological Seminary where I was training to become a pastor. My Marriage and Family Counseling professor told the class to bring our spouse to the next class so we could role play marriage counseling situations with other peoples spouses. We had a blast fighting with other people’s wives!

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Over the years my wife and I sought to implement what we learned about communication, expectations, and friendship, not only in our marriage but with our 6 children. And, while we haven't done it perfectly as a couple or family, we have worked hard at it in our own marriage and are certainly proud of who our children are and are becoming. What's more, along the way, we have been able to assist numerous individuals and couples implement some of the same skills and strategies that we learned in that class!

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Having raised a family, adopted 2 children, and fought for our marriage, my experience as a pastor was the ultimate force that ignited a passion for clinical counseling. As a pastor and leader for the past twenty years, I have witnessed countless people come to the church to heal deep seated wounds only to be left frustrated by an inability to experience change. I have felt the same frustration at times in my own life as I have wondered why God would not heal my own internal wounds. In time I also began to recognize that so much pain within the church body was deeply rooted in historic and/or complex trauma that the church does not have training to address or even understand. So, after 20 years of pastoral ministry I changed course mid-stream and enrolled in the Clinical Mental Health program at the University of the Cumberlands. To this day, I am passionate about the interplay between clinical mental health and spirituality as I believe that both play a significant role in shaping shape wholeness. 

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Hurdles for People of Faith

What I have learned is that while religion is great at helping humans develop a relationship with the Other, it can be deficient at helping humans learn how to have a healthy relationship with the Self. For many within the Christian church, the most powerful conceptualization they have of the Self is characterized by "sin". Unfortunately this leaves many running from the Self in an effort to find God. And, while this can be helpful it can also be dangerous as we can use God to bypass the pain and hurts that we have buried deep within.

Another struggle for people of faith is understanding how trauma complicates our lives. While tempted to reduce every maladaptive practice down to choices of faith and/or morality, the church often struggles to understand the neurology behind behaviors. Simply put, trauma, as a result of adverse life experiences, can affect our neurological development in such a way that we become slaves to a runaway nervous system. Because this happens against the will, it can lead to the feeling of being unsafe, which in turn leads to all manner of maladaptive strategies. This is often what facilitates fractured relationships, addictive tendencies, and harmful coping strategies which when met with simplistic explanations of morality and spirituality can leave people feeling unloved and unlovable. While God can bring us new life through the Spirit, the neurological imprints of our past remain. And, trying to transform neurological and biological deficits with only religious observance has proven, in my experience, to be a recipe for disappointment. What would a church look like that was trauma informed and had a vision for discipleship that included a working knowledge of the body and brain? I am holding out hope for the day when Seminaries train pastors to be not only theologically informed, but also trauma informed. 

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Having learned some of these lessons the hard way, I have transitioned out of the pastorate and have begun a journey into the world clinical mental health with a passion to help those who are struggling to bridge the gap between spirituality and mental health. If you are interested in exploring how this may help you, please fill out the form below!

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Clinical Counseling will start the Summer of 2021! If you would like to explore Relationship Coaching for areas that are non-reimbursable by insurance, please see my coaching page.

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Areas of clinical interest include: