Season 1 (Episode 23): How to Increase Your Impact as a Christian Therapist!

Hi, my name is Shakeeta Torres and I am a licensed clinical therapist and a certified life coach, and I love to help women to heal from their pain, discover their passions, so they can walk boldly in their God-given purpose. So join me as I educate you guys about mental health, share biblical teachings, and help you to understand and discover your God-given purpose. Welcome to Pain, Passion, and Purpose. I am your host, Shakeeta Torres, where I share mental health education, biblical teachings, and tips to help you to heal on purpose so you can walk boldly in your God-given purpose. This podcast is sponsored by Empowered Purpose Academy. A certified online Christian academy where we provide services such as certification for Christian life coaches, mentorship for master's level aspiring and existing Christian therapists, mentorship for Christians, and continued education courses for the body of Christ.

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Hey, you guys, welcome back to a new episode of my podcast. So today's episode is geared more towards aspiring Christian therapists and existing Christian therapists. And so I wanted to share with you guys a vision that God has given me and has asked me to do. And of course I said, yes, Lord, I'll do it. So I wanted to share, as many of you guys know, I am a Christian therapist and I have been for a few years now. And so going back to my journey to becoming a therapist was a long journey, first and foremost. But whenever I was beginning to do therapy in the office at a different agency, I noticed that I would get, you know, different clients that will, you know, come to me who specifically asked for Christian therapists without knowing that I was a Christian, if that makes sense. So the company that I worked at did not advertise as having like, you know, different denominations or anything. They were just a regular mental health agency. And it was like God would just send me specific people who were Christians who were in need of Christian counseling. And some of them weren't Christians, but they were curious, you know, about, you know, the spiritual realm. They were curious about, you know, the things of the spirit and things they would experience that the world will say, oh, they have schizophrenia. Now, schizophrenia does exist, that's not what I'm saying, but these people will specifically have experience of having spiritual attacks. And, you know, they will ask me if I believe in the spiritual realm. I'm like, absolutely. And so it gave me an opportunity to be able to teach them and educate them about the realm of the spirit. Okay. And so whenever God called me into entrepreneurship to open up my new, my own private practice in 2017, you know, I asked God, I said, God, you know, who, who's my people? Who are you calling me to work with specifically? And he said, I'm calling you to my lost sheep. Um, lost sheep meaning that Christians who are in church and they're lost. They're going through depression, anxiety, experiencing trauma, being in bad relationships, I mean, all types of things. And he said, um, so I went in and read scripture and it talks about that, you know. Then you have Christians who knew who God was, but for some reason or whatever, they feel away from Christ. And so I would get clients like that too who wanted to come back and try to, you know, regain their relationship with God. And so God is so amazing. And so since 20, you know, um, 17 actually prior to that, but in my own private practice in 2017, God was like, God would specifically handpick people to come and work with me. And it was amazing. And I wore two different hats in the therapy room. I'm wearing my hat as a minister, as a Christian, I'm hearing what God is saying, I'm seeing, he's showing me. And then the other side is the clinical hat where I have clinical skills and training and a lot of education. To be able to help my clients to get to where they want to be. Every client is different. Every client has different needs. I can have two people come to me with the same exact need, but they're different people and it will be different strategy. So let me get to the point. So the point I'm getting to is I didn't have anybody to help me and train me as far as the therapy room. Of how to incorporate both Christianity and the clinical part into therapy. And I asked God, I said, God, you know, I don't have a support, I don't have, I don't know a therapist or have a mentor that can help me to be able to incorporate both. And the Lord told me, he said, I'll train you. Because here's the thing, if you go to school and you're going to a school where they are teaching you about the Bible and you're able to incorporate scripture is one thing. Scripture is powerful, but the other part of that too is the spiritual part. Do you understand the things of the Spirit of God? Do you understand the gifts of the Spirit? Do you understand, you know, wisdom and how, you know, what, what to say, what not to say? Do you have the fruits of the Spirit? Like, you have to be able to apply what you learn and have to be able to be in tune with that person and what their needs are if you want to truly make an impact. And so my goal has always been to make an impact in people's lives, not just to see them just to be seeing them, but to actually make an impact. And God has taught me how to do that himself. He has taught me how to do that. Um, my best friend, she is, um, you know, uh, now a therapist as well, and she's like very keen to the spiritual realm, and so is my husband. And so when I would get stuck when it comes to the spiritual part, I would actually talk to them about, hey, this is what I'm seeing, but I'm not 100% sure what it is. Not using their names or anything like that, um, because that's illegal. But they would really help me to see things, um, from a different perspective because we all have blind spots, okay? When we in therapy, sometimes we see that person and we want to help them so much that, you know, we can— that we can begin to have blind spots of the areas that we need to target to help them to move forward, okay? And so when it came to the clinical part, for the most part, I had that. I had that. I know how to do clinical part. I have lots of training in that. I have mentors for that. I'm in support groups for that and all that good stuff. So that wasn't really the big issue for me. It was really trying to make sure that I'm not being overly spiritual and I'm not being overly clinical, but having that balance because we are mind, body, and spirit. Spirit and what goes on in our spirit manifests into, into the physical, okay? So over the years, you know, I would have people who come. Let's say I have a husband and a wife, right? And I'm seeing the wife, where the husband wants to see me too because the wife then told, you know, her husband how great I was as a therapist. But I can't see both because it's a conflict of interest, okay? They were doing couples counseling, it might be a little different, but they were separate clients. And I said, no, it's best for him to go see somebody else. Same thing with a male. I might have a male client, I might know it's best for your wife to be seen by somebody else because you don't want it to be a conflict, because I'm seeing both you guys for separate things, and that I'm knowing all this stuff about you, you don't want to— you don't want to overlap and get mixed in, okay? So they would want to have Christian therapists, and I know some people who claim to be Christian therapists but to be honest, you know, they dibbled and dabbled into a lot of New Age stuff that God is not pleased with. And so I really had a hard time with, you know, connecting clients or connecting people who call, who wanted to see me, who couldn't see me for whatever reason, um, especially from other states. As far as therapy, um, they wanted to have a referral for someone who understand the things of the spirit, and I didn't have anyone to refer them to, to be honest. And so I told him, hey, this is, you know, at your own risk. Here's a referral list. They are good therapists. If you want the spiritual part, I can't promise you that, but these people I have on my list are— they are good therapists. I'm not saying that you can't go to a counselor if you're a Christian and they don't have, um, you know, understand the thing of the spirit, because God can still use that. I've been there. I've been to counseling before where the person wasn't necessarily spiritual, but I would pray and say, okay God, like, can you please help them to see the areas that I need to work on, highlight them to me, you know, give me a place where I could process. And he did that. Like, he literally showed this lady, you know, areas that I needed to work on. And then after I met with her, I would go on about my business, and God would continue to minister to me about what it is that he showed me through her. And we would go over coping skills and clinical stuff and all that good stuff. So it is possible, but not everybody is in that place to be able to say, okay, this right here is good stuff, and this right here is not so good. And then people are led astray when they see secular therapists who are pushing you to do things that are not of God. Okay, you know, I had clients tell me before, I went to see this therapist before, and, um, I kept telling her that my significant other was like watching pornography and addicted to pornography, and I did not want to, um, see that with him. And she told me to join them, and she said I was so offended, I was so upset, because she knows how I feel about seeing, uh, about seeing pornography with my, with my spouse. I said, oh God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry to hear that. So I've heard so many stories too of people saying they've been to, you know, quote unquote Christian therapists and they are leading them astray, and that's not good, and God is not pleased with that. And so over the years I've been praying, God, can you please raise up Christians, um, therapists who were after your own heart? Who's going to take heed, who's going to listen, who's going to be in tune with your spirit. Because sometimes there's things that will come up and I will hear from other therapists, I'm like, God, that don't even sound right. So I will Google it or research that particular practice, and I'm like, oh my God, this is so rooted in witchcraft, so rooted in witchcraft. So you got— that's a whole new, like, episode right there all by itself, is these New Age practices and being careful about letting people introducing you to practices that are not going to lead you to anything but into darkness. Um, temporarily, will it feel good? Will it help you in that moment? Yeah, it, it will in that moment for sure. But as time goes by and you continue to get deeper and deeper into these New Age practices, it seems harmless, but over— Hey, hey, hey! I hope you are enjoying this episode so far. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a raving review. I also want to share with you more about Little Warriors in a Bottle. This is healing anointing oil that God instructed me to prepare back in 2015. I have received so many testimonies since 2015 about this oil. It is powerful. It has changed my life and others. So be sure to go visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com shakeeta.torres.shop to learn more about the oil. And while you're there, you can check out the new book that I co-authored called Just Say No, a number one international bestseller, where I share my story called What Trauma Stole from Me. It is amazing.

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So that's it for our little break. Let's get back into part 2 of this episode. But over time, it will definitely, um, try to destroy you if you try to, um, break away from it. So maybe about a year ago, you know, I was praying, and one, one of the things that God showed me was that he would want me to to like help other Christian therapists. I'm an aspiring Christian therapist, you know, on their journey as well. I'm in what capacity and what that looked like, I wasn't sure. I know God gave me a vision for my online school called Empowered Purpose Academy, which will consist of online courses and helping Christians to be, you know, stronger and be educated about mental health, spiritual development, personal development, all that good stuff. So if you want to go to that site, www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com, um, it's— that's like my landing page telling you a little bit more about it, and you can sign up just to learn more about EPA. EPA. So anywho, so, um, probably about a month ago, you know, I was, um, in prayer, and I was— I was actually in service, and the Lord, um, you know, began to talk to me about, you know, starting a group. Support group for aspiring Christian therapists and Christian therapists, for, for them to be able to have this space to be able to grow. And God said, go ahead and create the group now. Go ahead and create it now because there's a need. There's a need. I'm in some groups now who, they, you know, they, they are, they're asking questions about the spiritual realm. They're asking questions about how to incorporate, you know, different things, but they're not really getting clear answers. Okay, so there are a lot of groups on Facebook— well, not a whole lot, maybe about 4 or 5— that are Christian therapist group, but it's focused more so on development as far as business and development as far as clinical, but not the spiritual realm. And I believe people are afraid to talk about it. They are afraid to talk about it. I'm not afraid to talk about it. If someone ask me a question about it, I'll, I'll answer, I'll tell you. Um, but I don't, you know, sit here and just talk about it all the time because we have to have that balance. Right? You have to have a balance with it. And so God told me to go ahead and create, uh, a free Facebook group for people who are in need of that and who desire that. And so I have that group now. I have a free Facebook group. I will post the link to the Facebook group in this description box, and I will also, um, post in this description box a link to a guide I created called 10 Ways to Increase Your Impact as a Christian Therapist. Now, this group is for those who know for sure they want to be Christian therapists. If you— I'll prefer for you to be at least an undergrad, for sure, at least an undergrad getting your BSW, um, or taking classes that you're going to be using to go towards being a Christian therapist. Because I don't want this— it's not career development. And when I say that, if you are not sure, or if you are, you know, thinking about going to work in a different arena that's like completely away from therapy in general, then this group is not for you. Um, as far as being a Christian therapist or aspiring Christian therapist, I'm not saying that you have to be doing like outpatient therapy to be a part of this group, but if you are working in the prison system, if you were working, you know, um, at a hospital, you working in different places, you know, where you were counseling people this group is for you, okay? It's not for business development. Um, I have people who have asked me for that, and that is a separate service because that's my, you know, my energy, my time, my money, my resources, the knowledge I've acquired over the past few years as far as how to build a practice and build your business. That's going to cost you. But this group specifically is for support for us. For us to have that space to be able to process and grow. Okay, um, so if you're interested in that, go to the link in my bio— um, not bio, but in the description box— and click on it and join us. So I'm just doing what God's asked me to do. Um, there's no hidden agenda on my part. Of course, if I had something that you're interested in purchasing, like a course or something, of course you can purchase that if you want to, but there's no hidden agenda. Um, I'm just doing what God is asking me to do as far as creating that support. So yeah, um, so thank you so much for listening. And I feel like this, this November and December, I have a lot of podcast ideas that I want to kind of push out there. Um, typically I post every 2 weeks or biweekly, but I have some content, you guys, that y'all got to get now, okay? Because I'm counseling women And I'm like, listen, I have got to do a podcast episode on some of this stuff because I want you guys to be equipped. I want you guys to be knowledgeable and be aware of wolves in sheep's clothing and what that looks like, you know, in the physical, okay? Because I'm tired of seeing women of God suffer and be mistreated and be mishandled because of lack of knowledge. And it's, it's, uh, it's time. Oh, it's, it's time out for that. Okay. So again, I'll say it again. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you guys next time. Okay. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Our prayer is that this podcast episode has blessed you.

Don't forget to go and subscribe and leave us a raving review. If you would like to sow into this ministry or to this podcast, Pain, Passion, and Purpose, you can do so at anchor.fm/painpassionandpurpose or Cash App, dollar sign, Shakeeta Torres.

Thank you so much, and I will talk to you next time.