Women

Women need to be heard and feel understood. We meet you where you are, offering you tools to navigate through your current issue and move to the next step.

Our approach is holistic—including body, mind, and spirit. We bring extensive experience in the area of counseling for women.

Depression

We understand how pervasive and debilitating depression can be, interfering with all areas of the sufferer’s life. Our counselors offer practical techniques on how to reframe negative thinking and employ behavioral skills in combating depression. We will assist you to work through the root of your depression, helping you understand why you feel the way you do, what your depression triggers are, and what you can do to stay healthy.

Postpartum Anxiety and Depression Counseling

Postpartum depression (PPD), “postpartum” meaning “after pregnancy,” is a serious mental health concern that most often affects mothers within the first year after the baby’s birth. It’s normal to feel fatigued, stressed, or anxious after having a child. It’s also common to worry about being a good parent or making the right choices for the baby and the family. New parents often experience tearfulness, a low mood, fatigue, and other symptoms for two or three weeks after childbirth.

But if feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or excessive worry persist, or if you have thoughts about harming yourself or your baby, you may have postpartum depression. At NPS, we have counselors who understand both postpartum anxiety and depression. We invite you to let us walk alongside you during this time as a young mother. We offer both natural and medication interventions needed to help you get to a healthy emotional strength. We want you feeling solid on your feet for both you and your new child.  

Anxiety

The following are some signs of anxiety:

• Extensive worry
• Difficulty concentrating
• Sleep interruption
• Irritability
• Restlessness

We can help you uncover the underlying causes of your worries and fears, learn how to relax and look at situations in new ways, and develop better coping and problem-solving skills. Working alongside you, we will provide the tools you need to overcome anxiety and teach you how to effectively use them.

Eating Disorders

Do you feel out of balance in your eating? Do you think about food most of the day? Do you feel out of control to the point where you restrict your food intake or feel shame and guilt when you eat? Have you experienced binging, purging, excessive exercising, or the use of laxatives or diuretics for dieting purposes? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may have a type of eating disorder, and you may find eating disorder counseling beneficial. Women develop eating disorders for a variety of reasons, such as needing to feel numb to painful feelings, or needing a sense of control over their lives. If you suspect you have a problem in this area, we can help you to take the next step to wholeness and healing.

Infertility

Experiencing infertility can be emotionally volatile and taxing. Swings in emotion are common and normal. Perhaps you feel sad and hopeless one minute, then excited and hopeful the next. Each new month can set off an increasingly draining cycle of emotions, such as feelings of loss, failure, anger, vulnerability, apathy, or helplessness. Infertility greatly impacts your relationships, causing much strain. We can help you process and deal with your emotions in a healthy way, and help you stabilize your hope and vision for the future.

Relationships

Relationships are core to women’s being. When they are dysfunctional or out of balance, they affect every area of life. Issues you may be bringing to relationships can negatively affect the harmony and stability of your connection to others. Problems with children, spouses, parents, and friends can upset life balance and self-esteem issues in women. We can help you obtain and sustain fulfilling and meaningful relationships.

Codependency and Unhealthy Relationships

Being dependent on others “needing to need us” equals codependency. It becomes your oxygen, and reason/purpose in life. You may become addicted and obsessed with controlling others’ behavior, robbing them of their personal growth. You may also allow their behavior to dictate your mood. Oftentimes the codependent person will have poor boundaries, saying yes when they mean no in an effort not to offend. This behavior allows you to “remain in others’ good graces.” You become the resident expert about what others need but are afraid to trust your own feelings. This can cause great pain and betrayal. If this describes some of the issues you are struggling with, we can teach you about setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries, speaking assertively, finding your own voice, and helping you to self-care in order to maintain a healthy life balance.

Health and Wellness

As women, we are constantly in a state of change. Some of these changes may impact our bodies, including stress, hormonal changes, problems with body image, and altered mood states. We offer counseling for pregnant women, support through the changes of menopause, coping with a medical diagnosis, and core issues that result in overeating and other unhealthy habits. For these and all other health and wellness issues, we address the issues of stress management, self-care, and soul care. At the core of women’s issues is this vital truth: we must learn to move through the changes and transitions in our lives in a healthy, balanced way. We can use the lessons attached to psychological, physical and/or emotional changes along the way to help us discover and live a healthy and balanced life.

Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation is a journey of being conformed to God’s image. Though we are all spiritual beings, we tend to spend more energy developing the visible parts of our lives rather than the unseen. We can focus on that which we believe we can control versus that which we cannot control nor explain. We are so busy grasping for things to make us feel happy and fulfilled that we often miss out on the very essential part of us that holds the key to authenticity and wholeness. Joining you in your journey, we can help you to discover your true potential in God.