June 2024
You Can’t “Snap Out of It” and That’s Okay
By: Kayli Beaty, LMFT Associate Supervised by Dr. Mark White “I just need to snap out of it.” “I don’t know why I can’t get over myself.” “Will I ever get out of this funk?” If the human heart were capable of “just snapping out of it,” you would have done it by now. We were not designed to switch our brains on and off, as circumstances and emotions are far more complex than that. Many are familiar with the term “fight or flight,” which describes an emotional state where an individual is often overwhelmed and anxious, blood pressure is
December 2023
You Are Someone You Need To Love, Too.
By: Kayli Beaty, LMFT Associate, Supervised By Dr. Mark White, LMFT-S Has the hand you’ve been dealt in life started to feel heavy? Have you found yourself working to please those around you even if it means constantly keeping your emotions and thoughts harbored? Here is a gentle reminder: You are someone you need to love, too. Deriving from Mark 12:31, people are called to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” What would it look like if you truly loved those around you as you loved yourself? Would they feel safe, connected, and satisfied, or would they feel ridiculed, judged, and
October 2021
The Reality of Chronic Illness: An Invitation to Leave the Mask at Home
By: Kayli Spears, MFT-Intern “You look normal.” “Why don’t you ever want to do anything?” “You are so flakey.” “Why are you always tired?” “Can’t you just take some medicine?” If you are an individual with autoimmune conditions or chronic pain, you will likely find the first few statements all too familiar. God has designed our minds and bodies to have open and intricate lines of communication with one another. When an individual experiences chronic stress, fear, anxiety, or depression, those emotions have the potential to manifest into physical ailments in the body. When autoimmune conditions are present, the mind
September 2021
Caring For the Caretaker: Pouring from an Empty Cup
By: Kayli Spears, LMFT Associate When was the last time you checked in on yourself? Being in the position of taking care of a loved one with an illness, dementia, and other memory-loss diseases, in particular, is a unique space accompanied by responsibility, loss, frustration, setbacks, and victories. The caretaker tends to their loved one hand and foot, but who is there to tend to them? An individual's caretaker position allows them to walk alongside a loved one, receiving the privilege of peering through the darkest corners of their journey along with the cracks of light and progress that make its
March 2020
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 5
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover effective antidotes to prevent empowering the sexual temptation experience. God’s design is to empower a man’s experience of his wife, thereby disempowering the experience of sexual temptation. A husband needs to choose to rejoice in, be satisfied by, and be captivated by his wife, exclusively. Wives are designed to thrive in a context of knowing their husbands are making these choices. A fourth design parameter to consider comes from 1 Peter 3:7 where we find a verse stating
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 4
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. The second design antidote is to choose to experience physical, sensual, and sexual satisfaction exclusively with your her. The third is to choose to be captivated in your wife. The scripture in Proverbs 5:19 states in most versions ‘may you be captivated by her love.’ Notice that the scripture does not include choosing to be captivated by physical characteristics. It
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 3
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. The second design antidote is to choose to experience physical, sensual, and sexual satisfaction exclusively with her. The scripture in Proverbs 5:19 actually states in most versions ‘may her breasts satisfy you always.’ It seems clear that the verse is not about anatomy, but about the satisfying nature of bodily contact with a wife. Notice that the scripture does not
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 2
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. Proverbs 5: states ‘may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.’ Rejoicing is not a common term for most of us in today’s culture. What does this really mean in the Hebrew context in which it was written? We need to know the meaning in order to live out the design. Rejoice means to feel or to show great
