Transformation | Counseling

I looked at the watch. I don’t know what I said exactly. I’m not sure if something in my voice broke, or if it was my facial expression or body language.

Hi, my name is Jared Ingle. I’m a Pastor and a Supervised Therapist. I reside in the beautiful Grand Traverse region of Northwest Michigan. I’m sharing a little bit about my new initiative, online counseling.

I’ll also include my email signup list, so you can receive emails from me, usually about once per quarter.

To receive emails from JC Ingle, Inc. CLICK HERE

Today, I’m going to share something from own experience, how counseling has made a transformation possible.

Transformation | Counseling

There have been many times that I’ve experienced transformation over the course of the years, but I can remember in seminary as a student realizing the importance of transformative counseling.

Of course, we had to go through counseling on our own, but we also provided counseling for each other in certain class settings.

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In one setting, we were doing group counseling. I had been wearing a watch that had been given to me by my grandfather who had recently passed away. It was actually a watch that I had given to him we he needed it. It was among the things that he gave back to me upon his death.

I was sitting there among my peers with that watch on, plugging away during the semester. Somebody made a comment about it, how nice the watch was, and I replied that my grandfather gave it to me.

I looked at the watch. I don’t know what I said exactly. I’m not sure if something in my voice broke, or if it was my facial expression or body language. Whatever it was, somebody in the group picked up on it and made a comment about how much my grandfather must have meant to me, and he certainly did.

I actually took time just to break down, cry, and share what he meant to me . . .

Reinhart Julian | in time | 11.04.18 | unsplash

. . . and it was all over a watch

It was just a trigger for something deeper. There are so many times in life that we push things aside or push them down inside us. There are many defense mechanisms that we have.

As Christians we tend to overspiritualize during times of grief. We think of that mansion just over the hilltop. We think that one day it’s all going to be better. Or we think of all the wonderful things we’re going to have when we cross over. So maybe we fail to appreciate how much people mean to us here on this earth. We fail to appreciate the depth of our relationships with them.

Our grief sometimes shows us the depth of love and care that we had in those relationships.

I was thankful because in that moment I was able to have self-awareness. Now I was able to see something that I would not have seen so quickly because I was overspiritualizing. I needed the help of other graduate seminary students to provide a safe place for me to unpack some of my emotions, and to share in a way that I wasn’t able to, up until that point.

What are you facing?

There are so many different things that you could be facing right now. Maybe you’re facing the loss of a job during this challenging time, or perhaps you’re grieving, or facing a form of depression.

Are you facing issues that you can’t seem to talk about with others on a regular basis? That’s one of the reasons that counselors are here.

Please look into this opportunity if you’d like. I’ll share a couple links:

JC Ingle, Inc. email list CLICK HERE

Read about my background CLICK HERE

4-Part Online Counseling Series

These videos are already available on YouTube. This week, we are rolling them out on Instagram and Facebook. To view the limited time offer, and any of the videos, click the following links:

Pivot | Online Counseling

Transformation | Counseling

The Offer | Online Counseling

Removing Barriers | Online Counseling