Counseling Quotes

I'd always follow Nixon's orders, but you can't order somebody to be happy.

~ Charles W. Colson

The word 'survivor' carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women. It also contains a humbling light of recognition that compels many to do whatever they can to help reinforce the efforts of those who might be 'at risk' of not just giving up on their dreams, but of giving up on their continued existence.

~ Aberjhani

When emotions turn and stay sour, when thoughts become cynical and judgmental, good and compassionate treatment is on the line. Helpers who become sour and cynical tend to begrudge their high need clients for their neediness. There is a risk that helpers become too well-practiced at taking a bleak view of those they have avowed to assist. There is a temptation to begin to blame clients for their failure to improve. If treatment ends pre-maturely, with either a client never returning to treatment or a helper 'firing' them out of frustration, there is a tendency for the client to take the fall. Of course what we are talking about here are signs of burnout.

~ Scott E. Spradlin

Sacramental listening reminds us that current suffering isn’t the end of the story. God loves us deeply, and the vision for the future is vaster and more magnificent than we could ever imagine. In these moments of profound human presence, we are awakened to the divine presence and see that the kingdom of God is coming and yet is already here.

~ Richard Rohr

The malpractice for advice-giving is like five times as much as a craniotomy.

~ Nicole Krauss

Abuse? Ah. Such problems, even with time, do not go away on their own. They must be addressed. André Chevalier

~ Nikki Sex

To take such a complex creature, on who was meant for God and is destroyed by sin, and attempt to understand how the development of that creature can be affected by hideous trauma is to attempt the impossible.

~ Diane Mandt Langberg

Being Scared-off by EvilLastly, we deny the presence of evil because we are terrified by the horrendously hurtful, cruel, and bloody kinds of evil people tell us about—if we are willing to listen. This was poignantly brought home during an interdisciplinary case conference involving a resident who was counseling for the first time a woman who had been sexually abused. As we worked with him, it became clear that he was resisting entering what he called the 'psychic cave of her sealed—off experience from which she was shouting for assistance. Because of his resistance, he was not providing her the support and guidance she so desperately needed, and he was not facilitating her working through the abuse and hurt that were continuing to impact her life. As he was confronted about this at one point in the conference, he stated tearfully: I'm afraid if I help her move into her memories. I will have to go with her, and if I go with her, my view of the world as a basically good and safe place will be shattered. I'm not sure I can handle that for myself, or be able to think about the fact that my wife and kids may be more vulnerable living in this world than I can be comfortable believing (Means 1995, 299).

~ J. Jeffrey Means

The biblical counselor must always remember that the ROOT problem is deeper than skin; it is sin. The ultimate cure is not culture, but Christ.

~ James Macdonald

The mouth tastes food, the heart tastes words.

~ Hmong Proverb

soon he’ll reach for her because she’s beautiful, and she’s his wife. If she cringes away from him because you’ve convinced her he isn’t good enough for her, how will that make him feel? If she submits to him out of obligation, how will that make her feel?What if she approaches him and later is ashamed of wanting her own husband because he isn’t good enough for her? It’ll be hard for a marriage to last under those conditions. This isn’t what you want for Susan. Forgive him. Accept him. You’ll be doing your daughter a favor.

~ Elaine Cantrell

Part of the genius of (Nick) Sabin's system was that he understood that no matter the skill set, he was inheriting vulnerable kids from various backgrounds. For those times when they made poor decisions, as they invariably did, the safety net must be strong as far and wide as possible.

~ Jeff Benedict

Author has developed a routine of daily emotional debriefing with his kids as he tucks them in at night. To encourage the habit of keeping uncluttered, open heart, he starts with basic questions asking whether anyone has hurt them or made them angry to help them process at an age-appropriate depth. As they mature, he will add questions.

~ Andy Stanley

When is a train most free? Is it when it goes bouncing across the field off the track? No. It is free only when it is confined (if you will) to the track. Then it runs smoothly and efficiently, because that was the way that its maker intended for it to run. It needs to be on the track, structured by the track, to run properly. You too need to be on the track. God's track is found in God's Word.

~ Jay E. Adams

their anxiety, justified or not, was genuine

~ Robert A. Caro

The actions and emotional responses of others are not your responsibility. You cannot rescue people from themselves. This is for them to do. — André Chevalier

~ Nikki Sex

Someone mentioned therapy to me once. I read a book instead. ~ Drew Stirling

~ Jayden Hunter

If you ask an Irishman for directions, he might be quick to answer, Well if I were going there, I would not start here.

~ Steve Stockman

One must always forgive another's passion.

~ Pat Conroy

Almost everything I've done is technically wrong, but Paul never mentioned the mistakes, only the corrective measures.

~ Stefan Fatsis

In the reflected gaze of his (her husband's) steady admiration, she saw the face of the girl he had fallen in love with.

~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

A mentoring nurse to new doctors: Check your own pulse first.

~ Code Black

You're so haunted by other people's futures that you forget, the only future you cannot see is your own.

~ Minority Report (Tv Show)

failure is costly, both to society and to individuals. Pretending that all people are equal in their abilities will not change the fact that a person with an average IQ is unlikely to become a theoretical physicist, or the fact that a person with a low level of music ability is unlikely to become a concert pianist. It makes more sense to pay attention to people’s abilities and their likelihood of achieving certain goals, so people can make good decisions about the goals they want to spend their time, money, and energy pursuing

~ David Hambrick

Dost thou want another eye beside that of Him who sees every secret thing?

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

This is one of the difficulties and pleasures of studying the Inklings; Christians all, they offer, along with the expected 20th-century psychological explanations for behavior, unexpected spiritual ones.

~ Philip Zaleski

Will therapy make you feel any better? Not if it's working.

~ Code Black

There is an inverse relationship between control and trust. Trust is more of a two-way exchange than most people, especially those in power, realize. Leaders in government, news media, universities, and corporations think they can own trust, when, of course, trust is given to them. Trust is earned with difficulty and lost with ease. When those institutions treat constituents like masses of fools, children, miscreants,or prisoners, when they simply don't listen,it's unlikely they will engender warm feelings of mutual respect. Trust is an act of opening up. It's a mutual relationship of transparency and sharing. The more ways you find to reveal yourself and listen to others, the more you will build trust, which is your brand.

~ Jeff Jarvis

Treat this crisis as practice for the next crisis.

~ John Parenti

You cannot contain evil by shaming it, or making people feel guilty, but only by revealing it toward it is, and then seeing the good as better.

~ Richard Rohr

Facing one’s past can be a perilous activity. For the client, joy must exceed misery. Personal successes must far outweigh losses. Pleasure must exceed pain. Always. Always. To do otherwise is a failure of the counselor.— André Chevalier

~ Nikki Sex

most of us can only deny short-term pleasures because we see a realistic path between self-denial now and something better down the road.

~ David Brooks

When a person in your life continuously displays to you they do not care, there comes a point where you may want to start believing them.

~ Mark W. Boyer

However, if you do not believe your clients, they may sense your doubt and never fully trust you. As Bruce Goderez (1986), director of a PTSD inpatient unit says, It is important for the clinician and counselor to be willing to be made a fool. In other words, it is better that you believe a client who is lying or distorting the truth than to disbelieve a hurting trauma survivor who may never seek help again if your attitude is one of disbelief or disdain. Even if that client were to continue in therapy, they would never fully trust you.

~ Aphrodite Matsakis

Paul didn't just see emotions. He saw the need they represented.

~ Beth Moore

I could help you,” I said. “Counseling, drugs, a religious advisor, a girlfriend.

~ Janet Evanovich

It's not conversion 'therapy,' it's conversion brainwashing.

~ Dashanne Stokes

We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—hourly and daily. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the task which it constantly sets for each individual.

~ Viktor E. Frankl

It turns out that up to 35 percent of people with bipolar disorder also have ADHD.

~ Julie A. Fast

As you may already know, post-traumatic stress disorder is extremely complex. Each client has a unique, perhaps virtually unbelievable, set of experiences, and an almost equally set of reactions to those experiences.

~ Aphrodite Matsakis