• : Author

    Psalms 107:29 tells us, “He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed.” If the waves of your life are crashing down around you, come seek shelter in Christian counseling. It saved me when I found myself caught in the storms and it can save you, too. I will work with you to first get your head above water and eventually teach you how to swim with confidence. With Jesus’ help, you can overcome your fears, let go of losses, and grow in God to walk on the water of your faith.

  • : Curator

    Kate Motaung is the Senior Writer, Editor, and Content Manager for a multi-state company. She is the author of several books including Letters to Grief, 101 Prayers for Comfort in Difficult Times, and A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging. Kate is also the host of Five Minute Friday, an online writing community that equips and encourages Christian writers, and the owner of Refine Services, a company that offers editing services. She and her South African husband have three young adult children and currently live in West Michigan. Find Kate’s books at katemotaung.com/books.

  • Christian Counseling Exposes the Scene Set-Up of Pornography's Pseudo-Story

    Porn and Power: A Christian Counselor Explains Part 2 of a 4-Part Series  The late psychoanalyst and author Erwin Singer observed how “active striving” or searching in life is essential for psychological survival – but the only action that carries with it the risk of significant loss and failure. Man’s undoing is not failure itself, Singer argued. Failure is inevitable and vital to the creative process. Failure spurs growth and discovery. The tragedy, Singer said, is when the threat of

  • Porn and Power: How Pornography Isn't Simply About Sex

    Part 1 of a 4-Part Series Men struggling with pornography often arrive for counseling with two basic fears: First, that pornography is threatening to take over their lives, if it hasn’t already. Second, that they are going to be shamed for their character, then instructed simply to read their Bible and pray more. Another simplistic but common treatment approach is to focus on the act itself and corresponding behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Steps are formulated to identify cognitive-behavioral triggers

  • Embracing Uncertainty: Entering the ‘Waiting Room’ of Christian Counseling, Part 3

    Rabbi Irwin Kula, in his book Yearnings (2006), uses the image of “dancing with uncertainty.” Kula resists being seduced by the illusion of 100 percent certainty and says he has come to accept assuredness as the “51 percent.” This allows the other 49 percent to remain very much alive and valued in a person, thereby maintaining a sense of wholeness. Kula believes that every decision is a partial and ever-evolving truth that embodies halacha, the Jewish idea of “pathing” a way forward

  • Embracing Uncertainty: The ‘Waiting Room’ of Christian Counseling, Part 2

    It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Proverbs 25:2 ESV) Proverbs has a way of getting right to the heart, and the mind, of a matter. This is not to suggest that Proverbs is an easy tip-sheet for life. It is more like the tip of an iceberg, in that the answers it provides can point us to underlying mysteries. As I suggested in my previous article, an experience of

  • In my own life, and in my experience as a Christian counselor, waiting is the soul-mate of uncertainty. They go hand-in-hand. Often, clients enter counseling feeling as though they are stuck in the ‘waiting room’ of life: mired in the painful conflict, chaos, and questions of a current situation or a memory—or both. They want answers, and they want them quickly. They want to feel better. The equation has already been assumed: answers = relief. There is a ‘certain’