Individual counseling helps people work through their story and wounds in a manner that is private and confidential. This allows many people to reach places in their stories they may not otherwise enter or look at. Over time our clients are encouraged to find a community that is safe where they can begin to share safe parts of their stories so that they can experience love and grace in a wider context.
I believe God uses marriage to give us freedom from wounds in our hearts that we might not be aware of before marriage. Because of this, we do a unique 10 to 16 sessions for premarital sessions. Couples will begin to see the very things that drew them together are often the source of frustration and pain within the context of marriage. Over the 10 or so weeks couples will begin to learn some of their story, some of their wounds, and how these things could affect their marriage in the end. This is not intended to fix issues but to help you know what is likely to be the issue after you marry and how to begin to pursue each other's hearts in a deeper way before you reach the alter.
As stated in the premarital section, God uses Christian marriage to help us find freedom from wounds in our hearts that we did not know were there. For example, an angry man might choose a passive wife and a passive woman will choose a powerful man. Something in the arrangement, before marriage, brings each person's heart to rest. However, it is this very thing that God will use to allow turmoil in the marriage in order to bring to surface long undealt with issues. The angry man will soon be frustrated with his weak wife who never chooses, asks or longs for anything. She will always feel trapped by his anger and power, so she will remain hidden. Neither person will experience the intended messy intimacy that makes His invitation in marriage so amazing.
The intent with every marital session is not to "fix" a partner but to allow each individual in the marriage the ability to personally grow with Him towards a more sacrificial love for each other.
Our main focus is on sharing how others can love in ways that transform lives. We do that with individuals in our offices but we also have a heart for helping organizations love in a similar fashion. Because of this we have training plans that we can help you implement for a variety of corporate or church issues. Whether coming along side your top staff during a difficult time or allowing us to help your organization visualize ways that you can help those under your care find freedom and thirst for the things that transform the most. We offer this through speaking engagements, corporate/church training, program implementation, lay counselor program setup/execution including training materials, divorce care programs, marriage and singles seminars/information, parenting and biblical counseling programs.
We are working on getting great content out here for you to use that speak about the heart, our wounded coping mechanisms, how to move past these mechanisms and walls in order to invite others to be loved in ways that can transform them. We will post for and engage with you here in a way for you to hear our voices in both audible and print as a way to help you be in movement, a way for you to implement some of this into your life and for you to understand who we are, what we are about and how we operate at Gateway.