1. What does Grace & Truth Counseling and Coaching do?

We provide professional counseling and marriage, leadership and life coaching in person and remotely via phone, Skype (voice-over internet) and written correspondence.

2. Are your services just for Christians?

No. We serve clients from a variety of faith and cultural backgrounds. Our motto is Professionally competent, distinctly Christian.  We disclose to clients that we  view life’s problems and challenges through the lens of a Biblical worldview, and we rely on prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit for discernment and direction to help our clients.

3. What’s the difference between counseling and coaching?

Counseling is helpful to resolve problems and to alleviate pain. It relies on the expert psychological knowledge and training of the counselor to assess and conceptualize a person’s circumstances, then to diagnose and prescribe remedies.

Christian coaching is the discipline of believing in people that engages them where God has initiated growth and change that keeps them responsible for the process and the outcome. Coaching is the method of choice when personal/professional growth and change is the objective, or when a person/couple/family, business or ministry team has a goal(s) they would like to accomplish.

4. We heard that you specialize in marriage. What is unique about how you help couples?

The uniqueness of our approach in both counseling and coaching is skills.  We provide couples with tools that we teach them to use skillfully through  exercises that can be done anytime, anywhere, about anything.  The tools work in all areas of everyday life regardless of the uniqueness of the challenges they are facing.  The majority of couples haven’t had the opportunity to learn skills they need to clearly communicate in ways that prevent misunderstandings and build closeness, and how to manage conflict in ways that build relationships instead of eroding them.  We have a full repertoire of skills and exercises that can help any motivated couple to heal, strengthen, and protect their relationship.  Our statistics are an 89% stay-together rate after three years, and this includes couples that were separated or in the process of divorce when they asked for help.

On average, these couples received 15-20 hours of coaching over a 3-4 month period.

5. What are the key ingredients to healthy, pleasurable and sustainable marriage?

There are many ingredients but we’ll focus on three basics that we have found essential to help couples to heal, strengthen and protect their marriage: Heart, Hope and Skills.  Let us explain:

Heart is also known as good-will. At Grace & Truth we talk about heart as the heart of Jesus, a man who is unselfish, compassionate, patient and so much more. We teach that our hearts are cultivated in relationship with Jesus, and we urge our clients to engage an ongoing relationship and conversation with Him (both speaking and listening) to guide and empower their use of relationship skills and exercises.

Hope springs from faith for that which is not yet apparent. We teach couples to hope in faith for what they and God would like their marriage to be. Whether coaching or counseling, hopelessness is epidemic in marriage. Hurts, betrayals and disappointments erode pleasure, and couples feel hopeless to resolve problems and to restore their relationship. At Grace & Truth, we faith and vision for your marriage until you experience a spark of hope. Then, that spark is fanned into flame through ever-growing hearts of patience, compassion and unselfishness through state of the art skills to open and hold each others’ hearts. Simply getting started in a coaching or counseling process is a necessary step of faith toward restoration of pleasure and unveiling of purpose that God has and wants for your marriage.

Skills are the channel through which your heart flows and vision is accomplished. We teach state-of-the-art skills that anyone can use to improve their ability to communicate, resolve conflict, manage their emotions and set and accomplish goals they are motivated to achieve. The benefit of emphasizing skills is that they are applicable to any content. Thus, our clients are equipped and empowered to succeed in a variety of circumstances, even if they emerge outside of sessions or after services have terminated.

6. I live outside of your area. Can I still get coaching or counseling by phone or voice over internet, etc?

Absolutely! At last count (2009) we’ve coached and trained couples from seven countries and 22 states.  Some have been in-person and others by phone or voice-over internet (Skype). Coaching is regularly done from a distance, and e-counseling is an emerging format that has unique benefits. Consider trying one of the distance methods in a brief complementary consultation to experience how it might work for you!

7. You’re talking a lot about marriage counseling and coaching.  Do you work with other individuals and types of cases?

Our counseling practice is a general practice in which we see individuals dealing with depression, anxiety, work adjustment, addictions, grief, etc. We are also experienced in family therapy. Our staff has deep experience with children and youth, including behavior disorders and academic underachievement. As generalists, we are specialists in a variety of areas. Please feel free to schedule a brief complementary call with one of our counselors to discuss your needs. If we don’t think we can be helpful, we will refer you to colleagues who can.

Our coaching practice includes general life coaching, relationship coaching, and business coaching. Again, coaching works best for persons that are functioning fairly well and have motivation to grow and change personally or professionally in order to experience more pleasure and satisfaction in life and productivity in business. It is not the method of choice for persons who are experiencing significant emotional pain or mental confusion.

8. How do I know if we need coaching or counseling?

The process to decide which discipline is most appropriate and most effective begins with your first call or email. The more you tell us about what you want to accomplish, the more quickly we can determine which approach will be best. Some clients make the decision themselves based on the distinction between counseling and coaching in #3.

Again, counseling is indicated when there is pain and when psychological expertise is helpful to understand and resolve the pain. Coaching is more about growth, change and goals.

Sometimes it is unclear which is more appropriate. That’s okay. It’s possible to begin with one approach and switch to the other. And, dually-trained staff are able to integrate the coaching process into counseling, when appropriate.

Finally, some clients begin with the need for counseling and when their original issues are resolved, they sometimes switch to coaching.

Obviously, all decisions about treatment approach are made in collaboration with our clients on an individualized basis according to their needs and objectives.

9. What do you charge for counseling and coaching?

Counseling fees are billed hourly and according to the credentials/licensure of the counselor.  These fees range from $75 to $100 per hour.  The first appointment is typically two hours.

Coaching fees range from $125 – $150 per hour.

*All clients are encouraged to journal their reflections, questions and progress with target symptoms on a daily basis and to correspond with their counselor or coach between sessions. Clients are also welcome to request brief phone calls with their provider between sessions to clarify questions, to troubleshoot difficulties and to celebrate progress. Time for such therapeutic correspondence and brief calls (10 minutes) are not billed to the client.

10. How do you handle insurance?

Grace & Truth is not contracted with any insurance providers or managed care organizations, although we do cooperate with our client’s efforts to obtain reimbursement of fees paid for services.

Fees are due in advance or at the time of service. Other payment arrangements are possible per full disclosure of financial circumstances.

Clients that are unable to pay full fees are encouraged to reach out to persons that believe in them and who have a vested interest in their welfare to support their time-limited treatment. The analogy we use most often is this, “If you had a life-threatening condition that required emergency medical treatment and you didn’t have the money to pay for it, what would you do?”  The answer is usually, “I’d ask friends and family.”  Exactly.  So, what if you have a marriage or family threatening condition or circumstance and you don’t have money to pay for treatment that could save it?  What could you do?  Right.  Ask friends and family.

The bottom line at Grace & Truth is that we have been prepared by God to be helpful to people. Please call to discuss the possibility of being served by us.