What I Continue To Think About
At a certain point in professional disciplines, we find the niche or the problems that we think are the most interesting and worthy of our time, attention, and ultimately frustration... because chances are smarter minds than ours have tried to crack the code on these problems before we got here and there the problems are... still waiting to be solved.
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Below are issues which I feel need to be addressed by Clinical Counseling in the long term and with emphasis. They are the challenges I think we face that are the most worthy of time, talent, and tears. You won't find them in the DSM-5 TR, but they are as real as the problems that we see when we open up the news, and perhaps more disastrous because of their obfuscation.
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If I had specialties and emphases beyond what is talked about elsewhere on the site, it would be these.
The Dilemmas of Our Time
Artificial Intelligence
As both a Christian and a counselor, I take a particular interest in the psychological, neurological, and spiritual implications of artificial intelligence. More profoundly than even screen time, AI is rapidly reshaping how people think, relate, and even understand their own consciousness. The mental health field is only beginning to grasp its effects. I pay close attention to emerging phenomena such as AI-related delusions, dependency, and what some are calling “AI psychosis,” where prolonged interaction with generative systems begins to blur the boundaries between imagination, identity, and reality. From a counseling perspective, this raises profound questions about cognition, agency, and the formation of belief. From a Christian perspective, it raises even deeper questions about the nature of the soul, truth, and human responsibility in a world increasingly mediated by machines. At present, we have far more questions than answers about what AI can do for us... or what it may quietly be doing to us... and I believe careful, morally grounded reflection is urgently needed in both clinical and theological circles.
Faith and Mental Health Intersection
My work often sits at the intersection of faith and mental health, where the wounds of life and the questions of belief frequently collide. Many people who seek counseling today are navigating experiences such as church hurt, betrayal, depression, trauma, and various forms of anxiety (including the quiet but powerful burden of social anxiety). Others are wrestling with seasons of faith deconstruction, trying to sort through what was truly biblical versus what was cultural, institutional, or simply human failure. In these moments, counseling becomes a space where psychological healing and spiritual clarity can unfold together. Rather than treating faith as separate from mental health, I approach it as one of the central frameworks through which people understand suffering, identity, responsibility, and hope.
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Because of this, I also pay careful attention to the theological and intellectual questions that often arise during these seasons of struggle. Issues such as Christian anthropology, debates over interfaith language, the reliability and interpretation of Scripture, and even curiosity about apocryphal and pseudepigraphal texts frequently emerge when people are reconstructing their beliefs. Textual criticism and historical context can either destabilize or strengthen a person’s faith depending on how those topics are approached. Through a mental health lens, these discussions are not merely academic. To me, they are deeply connected to meaning, trust, identity, and the rebuilding of a coherent worldview. My goal is to help individuals engage these questions thoughtfully while also tending to the emotional wounds that often sit beneath them, allowing both the mind and the soul to recover their footing.
Moral Injury/Soul Wounds
A significant focus of my work explores the intersection of faith and mental health, where moral injury and spiritual struggle often take root. Many people carry deep wounds shaped by guilt, shame, betrayal, anger, and isolation; experiences that strike directly at a person’s sense of identity and self-worth. These injuries frequently arise in contexts where faith, community, leadership, or personal convictions were violated or misunderstood, leaving individuals unsure how to reconcile their beliefs with their pain. From a counseling perspective, these struggles are not merely emotional; they involve questions of meaning, responsibility, forgiveness, and identity. Through a faith-informed lens, I help individuals confront these wounds honestly, untangle the psychological and spiritual dimensions of their experience, and rebuild a grounded sense of self that is not defined by accusation, failure, or betrayal but by truth, dignity, and restored purpose.
Hope as Praxis
I also emphasize hope as a lived practice rather than a vague feeling. Drawing in part from Snyder’s Hope Theory, hope can be understood as the disciplined ability to envision meaningful goals, identify workable pathways toward them, and cultivate the inner agency required to keep moving forward despite obstacles. In counseling, this framework becomes a practical tool for helping people recover direction when despair, burnout, or prolonged adversity have narrowed their sense of possibility. Hope in this sense is not naïve optimism; it is a cognitive and behavioral posture that can be strengthened through reflection, goal-setting, and deliberate action. When grounded in a broader spiritual framework, hope becomes both psychologically stabilizing and existentially orienting—restoring a person’s capacity to act, endure, and pursue a future that once felt closed off.