Counselor Conundrum

[lotsofgray]

I’m having a hard time deciding how to select a counselor to work with who understands LDS faith challenges to work with. Seems like everyone is either on the “stay” or “leave” side without much in-between or how to “StayLDS” yet live with the dissonance of history, doctrine, policy, and culture that don’t add up well for us as informed and concerned minorities. To date I guess I’ve limited my search to local providers, but I suppose doing phone or internet counseling is a viable option these days. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I am outside of the Utah complex.

[mom3]

Natasha Helfer Parker – she does phone one. Kristy Money also. I don’t know if she does phone ones, but she is balanced.

[LookingHard]

mom3 wrote:

Natasha Helfer Parker – she does phone one. Kristy Money also. I don’t know if she does phone ones, but she is balanced.

I was going to suggest these also. They do seem to respect if someone wants to stay. And Natasha was getting overrun with requests, so she started a group of like-minded therapists (I think they all do skype sessions). https://www.symmetrysols.com/” class=”bbcode_url”>https://www.symmetrysols.com/

Therapists shouldn’t be pushing you to stay or leave the church. They are only supposed to HELP you work through understanding your feelings and help you deal with them. They may make some possible suggestions, but not trying to lay any guilt on you to stay or leave.

[On Own Now]

lotsofgray wrote:

I’m having a hard time deciding how to select a counselor to work with who understands LDS faith challenges to work with.

In my own experience, it was good to have a counselor who was indifferent to LDS faith and LDS faith challenges. You don’t go to a counselor to talk about the Church but about you.

lotsofgray wrote:

Seems like everyone [counselors] is either on the “stay” or “leave” side

If that’s the case, then seek a different counselor. A counselor should not be advocating or even working on whether you should stay or go, but rather should be working with how you live with it, where ever you find yourself.

In general, you need to keep looking until you find one that works for you. They are all unique individuals, and follow different approaches that are both accepted and competing.

[Old-Timer]

Give me a couple of years.

[Author]

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