Christian Counselling Calgary

Are you seeking Christian counselling or spiritual direction services in the Calgary area?

Are you seeking a healthier spirituality: one that does not leave you emotionally and mentally ill?

Are you feeling burned out on religion and disillusioned with your faith?

Have you been hurt by the church, or are you questioning the principles and worldview you grew up with?

Christian Counselling Calgary

Feeling torn apart?

Done with feeling like a ‘bad person'? If you are tired of equating faith with guilt and shame; if you are done with feeling like a ‘bad person’; if you are fed up with systems of control masquerading as religion, Christian Counselling Calgary would love to support you on your healing journey. There is a beautiful world of freedom, grace, healing, and radical self-acceptance waiting for you. Call today to explore the many ways in which our compassionate team of registered faith-based therapists are available to support you.

Why Christian Counselling?

So many of us have a deep longing for a healthy relationship with God, others, and our own selves, and yet our experience with church and religion leaves us feeling increasingly shameful, broken and unworthy. We try again and again to be ‘good’, to deny the parts of ourselves that are drawn towards the ‘bad’, and to push down our doubts, questions and frustrations. And, because we have created a dialectic that places goodness and God outside of us, we fail. Over time, this pattern of striving and falling short can leave us deeply disillusioned with our faith, relationships and even - especially - our own selves. 

Ready to heal the root of the problem?

Christian counselling seeks to heal these wounds from their roots. Being counseled from a faith perspective recognizes that behind the ‘symptoms’ of troubles in our relationship to ourselves and to others often lie two common issues: unhealthy core spiritual beliefs and unaddressed spiritual needs. This is true regardless of which faith background - if any - we identify with. These unhealthy beliefs touch on key factors pertaining to our identity and worthiness and, if left unaddressed, can cause deep pain that will eventually manifest in our relationship to ourselves and to others. There is a life of radical self-acceptance, grace and wholeness that is waiting for you on the other side of this pain. Seeking therapy from a Christian counsellor is a brave step towards validating your pain and the role that unhealthy spirituality has played in this pain. It is a step towards self-acceptance and grace that will fundamentally change your relationship towards yourself, God and others.  

Faith-based therapy is not another doorway into guilt, shame, or rejection.
It is an invitation to see yourself as
whole, worthy, and loved - the way that God sees you.

Some reasons to choose Christian counselling:

To have your faith respected: Our team of Christian counsellors and Registered Psychologists will honour your faith and desire for a healthy spirituality. We recognize that you are a whole person, with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. We are body, mind and spirit, and as such, true healing will address each of these interconnected areas. This does not mean that you need to identify with a certain religious background; it simply means that we acknowledge and support you as a whole person with spiritual needs as well as emotional, physical, and mental needs. We offer many forms of therapy and support to guide you in your healing journey. Our southern-Alberta-based team seeks to offer an approach that honours your faith, religious background (or lack thereof), and spiritual needs.

To gain a healthier spirituality: one that does not make you emotionally and mentally ill

Something we frequently see in clients who have come from a place of unhealthy spirituality and/or unaddressed spiritual needs is a variety of mood disorders and pleasing behaviours. These can look like:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • OCD
  • Over-apologizing
  • Compulsive service towards others
  • Self-abandonment to please others
Letting go, a path to freedom.

Letting go of unhealthy spiritual beliefs: 
As you form a healthier spirituality, your relationship to yourself and to others will drastically improve. When we work through these core issues in counselling and begin to address and heal the beliefs that lie at their roots, many of the maladaptive behaviours listed above will naturally improve. At Christian Counselling Calgary, we provide a wide range of therapy and support to wonderful individuals with anxiety, OCD, depression and other mood disorders. Time and time again, we have seen how the process of letting go of unhealthy core spiritual beliefs has incredible healing power. If you are struggling with any of the above, please know that you are not alone and that there is hope and deep healing to be found in examining and healing your deepest spiritual beliefs.

To heal a broken relationship with yourself:

Christian counselling operates on the core belief that all human beings are worthy, accepted, and deeply loved. That we are made in the image of a God Who is perfect, Who loves us deeply, and Who will never let us go. We all have a deep desire to live, as Christian writer John Eldredge writes, “more fully human lives.” We want to live whole within ourselves; to engage with ourselves and the world from a place of deep worthiness; to be free of the identity wounds that are fed by an unhealthy spirituality. One of our most important relationships is the relationship we have with ourselves.

At Christian Counselling Calgary, we offer a wide variety of support to help you to heal from the lies that keep you from realizing your deep worthiness and belonging. We offer therapy and education for addictions, grief and loss, stress, anxiety and panic, eating disorders, recovery from infidelity, sex therapy, and many others. We also provide spiritual direction services. As these areas are addressed, your relationship to yourself will flourish and you’ll begin to experience self-trust, self-love, self-acceptance, worthiness, and a sense of comfort in your own skin.

To heal broken relationships with others:

Open, free relationships are the goal. If we drown our marriage, friendships, children, parents, or employees in judgement-based rules, pressure to behave, people-pleasing, resentful service, and other harmful and controlling behaviours, it is only a matter of time until these relationships will suffer. 

Healing for couples and families

Marriage Counselling and Couples Counselling:
Our team of Christian counsellors offer a variety of tools to support you in your journey to repair relationships that have been affected by unhealthy core beliefs. We offer marriage counselling and couples counselling to help you restore the intimacy, passion and trust in your relationship. We also provide family therapy to help create better communication, eliminate destructive anger, create balance in the home, and resolve parent-teen conflict. We all want to be fully known, fully accepted and loved. We want freedom and grace in our relationships. When we are operating from a place of a healthy spirituality, we are accepting of ourselves and others and our relationships heal and begin to flourish.

Christian Counselling FAQs

I’ve been hurt by the church and want to avoid further pain: is Christian counselling a good choice for me?

Faith-based therapy is, in our opinion, an excellent choice for those who have been hurt by the church. This is because a Christian therapist will be intimately familiar with the myriad ways in which religion can be used to create systems of control that shame and wound individuals. Of course, healing from wounds inflicted by the church through therapy will be contingent upon connecting with a counsellor who does not further the damage that has been done. We offer support to many clients who have experienced great hurt at the hands of the church and other believers.

 Please know that you are not alone in this experience. We’re here to support you, to listen empathetically, to affirm and validate your perspective and to walk with you on a journey into healing and freedom. We offer more than just counselling services - we have many ways to support you in this healing process. Your story, hurt, pain and disillusionment with the church are welcome and safe here.

I’m no longer sure I believe in the religious principles and worldview that I grew up with: will Christian counselling be the right fit for me?

Yes! We enthusiastically welcome your whole self, including your questions, doubts, anger and disillusionment. Our role is not to tell you what to believe. Instead, we are here to provide you with a multi-faceted range of support, unconditional acceptance and grace as you stretch and grow. A crucial step in growth and maturity is to ask questions. To examine our religious programming and worldview. To question our beliefs and to sort out what is life-giving and true from that which is toxic and serving an agenda of shame. 

Walking away from dead religion

This process can be very unsettling for many of us who grew up in the church. We may feel we are betraying our parents, our religion, or perhaps even God. We may feel disoriented and alone as our view of the world, God and self shifts and crumbles beneath us. Rest assured that this process of examining and rejecting aspects of our worldview and religion is a sign of growth. On the other side is a beautiful opportunity to form new, healthy attachments and beliefs. Our team of counsellors in Southern Alberta deeply respect and understand the process of questioning and abandoning aspects of the religion and worldview we grew up with. We meet you wherever you are at, we welcome your questions, and we offer a wide variety of support as you examine your beliefs and reorient yourself within a worldview that might look very different from the one that you grew up with.

I’m LGBTQ+: is faith-based counselling an option for me?

Yes! Your whole, beautiful self is honoured and welcome here. Our team is an open, accepting group of compassionate Christian counsellors who are familiar with the hurt and shame common to LGBTQ+ individuals who were raised in the church. We are well-versed in issues of identity and sexuality and our core mission is grace and acceptance. 

We are not here to tell you what to believe, do, or think. Our purpose is to come alongside you with unconditional love and support. For many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans individuals, church and religion have become associated with shame, rejection, and judgement. Many leave their faith communities with varying symptoms of abuse and rejection. These can manifest as mood disorders, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and others; or as people-pleasing, perfectionism, self-criticism, and self-abandonment. At Christian Counselling Calgary, we support you in your journey towards healing these identity and interpersonal wounds and assist you in developing a healthier spirituality: one that does not make you emotionally and mentally ill. In healing our core spiritual beliefs, there is radical freedom, acceptance and grace. A life of self-respect, peace, and worthiness is available to everyone.

I’m from another religion/I am an atheist: Is Christian counselling appropriate for me?

Yes! Many of our clients come from other religious backgrounds and about 10% of our clients identify as having no formal religion or spirituality. The term ‘Christian counsellor’ does not mean ‘counsellor who wants you to be religious.’ Being counseled from a faith-based perspective means that you are working with someone who has identified their own worldview and perspective. 

Becoming fully human and fully alive

From this vantage point, your therapist operates on the viewpoint that you, as their client, are a whole person with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. The ‘spiritual needs’ portion need not be attached to any particular religious philosophy. At its core, it is merely an honouring of human beings as whole and worthy of something that humanististic psychologist Carl Rogers called ‘unconditional positive regard for the person’. From our faith-based viewpoint, we seek to offer a credible, researched and proven psychology that honours human beings as whole people. We provide a wide range of support and therapy consistent with this viewpoint.

Are your therapists fully credentialed?

Yes. Nearly all of our faith-based therapists are also registered psychologists. We are fully trained and educated in the same manner as all provincially-regulated registered psychologists, with the same professional standards and licensing. Learn More

Can I be reimbursed by my insurance?

If your insurance plan offers coverage for care under a registered psychologist, you can submit your receipt for reimbursement. Please check with your insurance company to determine what type of coverage you are eligible to receive. Upon request, we will provide you with an official receipt so that you can submit your claim.

Ready to make a change?

Ready to make a change? If you are tired of equating faith with guilt and if you are seeking the freedom of radical grace, Christian Counselling Calgary is here to offer you hope, healing, and unconditional support.

Contact us today to learn about the many ways in which our team of faith-based therapists in Southern Alberta are available to support you.

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