During counseling sessions, as therapists practicing Spiritually-integrative Psychotherapy, we are always listening for our clients’ source of ultimate hope. Hope is what will help a client get better, and knowing the source of hope helps us navigate to a place of healing. In the case of a client who has attempted suicide, it is essential to know the source of hope which keeps them grounded. One client, Beth*, came to Insight Counseling Centers referred by a good friend who saw…
This month, let’s take a few minutes to review Substance Abuse and Prevention together: Substance Abuse Points to Consider Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by compulsive use despite the negative and harmful consequences. Brain changes occur over time with drug use. The challenge brought to an addicted person’s self-control interferes with their ability to resist the urge to take drugs. This is also why relapse occurs. Drugs affect the brain’s reward system by flooding it with the chemical…
Suicide is a word we hear about through the news, friends, or pop-culture, but a majority of us feel it won’t affect our lives. We feel distant from this subject, not recognizing the devastating and vast effect it has nationally and here in our own state. According to the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network, suicide was the 9th leading cause of death for all age groups in Tennessee in 2013, claiming approximately 950 lives per year. This number, however, does not…
Insight Counseling Centers to provide support to Tusculum Elementary refugee students Nashville’s refugee children face challenges associated with adjusting to a new culture. Sadly, many of them have experienced traumatic events as a result of living in war-torn countries. Classroom teachers have limited access to resources to help the sensitive needs of this population. Insight Counseling Centers is providing play therapy to Tusculum Elementary refugee students in grades one through four. Through creative art activities, Insight’s counselors will teach life…
Written by Pam Brown, Executive Director Media misrepresentation and what we can do about it Since joining Insight Counseling Centers in January, I've become more attuned to the ways in which therapy and therapists are portrayed in the media. Here are two examples I recently noticed. 1. A couple was meeting with their therapist for marriage counseling. The actor playing the therapist approached the part as a loopy, clueless character whose suggestions elicited eye rolls from the husband and wife.…
We’re Moving! Insight Counseling Centers was formed as the Pastoral Counseling & Consultation Centers of Tennessee in 1985 when a handful of visionary people from Vine Street Christian Church brought to fruition their dream of providing spiritually informed and psychologically sound counseling for the Nashville area. For 32 years, Vine Street Christian Church has housed our Nashville Center and administrative offices. The church has sold a portion of its property, which includes our office space, and will renovate the remaining…
It is estimated that over 40,000 deaths by suicide occur in the United States every year. Suicide leaves in its wake a host of family, friends, and others affected by tremendous and sudden loss. How can these survivors of tragedy move forward with their lives? First must come the understanding that one will never "get over" such a loss. Rather, the aim is to "get through" it, accepting that life as you have known it is forever altered. In fact,…
“Vulnerability begets vulnerability, so when you open up and you have that conversation with somebody it validates those emotions in somebody else. What we've seen in this campaign is that people start talking, and it's good and it's healthy and it's fun! It's encouraging, and you know that someone else out there in your own community is feeling the same things that you're feeling.” Insight’s Director of Development & Marketing, Taylor Cochran, was live on Facebook with Williamson Source today,…
Executive Director 100 Day Report I recently observed my 100th day with Insight Counseling Centers. Since January 3rd, I have been meeting with agency stakeholders including staff, board members, former board members, and people who were involved in the agency’s founding 32 years ago. I quickly assessed that Insight is blessed with counselors who provide exquisite, spiritually integrated psychotherapy; a “lean and mean” administrative staff of three who approach their development, marketing, communications, and finance responsibilities with extreme dedication; an…
Effective May 1, 2017, Insight Counseling Centers will transition to a centralized intake department for all locations. This department will be staffed by trained Interns and Volunteer Intake Practitioners. We believe this move best ensures exceptional care for all our clients. To make a referral or schedule your first appointment, please call the Intake Department at (615) 383-2115, extension 100. The Intake Department will assist you with: Scheduling initial appointments Establishing fees for service Making a contribution Scheduling workshops for…
Accept each other: When we fall in love, we usually gravitate toward someone who is like us in some ways but different in others. At first this attraction seems ideal, but within about 6-18 months of the relationship the differences will initiate conflict. It is important to normalize these differences and to accept each other, warts and all. Be vulnerable: Assuming the relationship is safe, sharing tender, vulnerable emotions beneath anger and strife can help soften interchanges and keep the…
Claudia Avila-Lopez, Licensed Master Social Worker, coordinates Insight Counseling Centers’ services in Spanish. Most of the clients in her caseload have immigrated to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking countries. “I try to keep spots open for clients who do not speak English and are in crisis situations,” she says. Claudia describes the trauma she sees from these clients’ experiences in their countries of origin – childhood abuse, gang-related violence, war, and even torture. Unfortunately, these problems don’t disappear once they’ve crossed…
Today we are remembering Dan Marshall, LMFT. Dan began with us as a practicum student at Trevecca Nazarene University, and after graduating, coordinated our Franklin office. He was a gentle and kind man, committed to serving in whatever ministry was before him. We are honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him. He blessed not only the lives of his clients, but our lives as well. Daniel Lynn Marshall, age 63 of Columbia, TN went…
The middle of November through the beginning of January is probably the time of year with which the most Americans have a powerful love-hate relationship. For some, the holidays are a time of joy, reuniting with loved ones, excitement over presents and delicious meals, and a sense of hope for the new year to come. But for others, Thanksgiving and Christmas bring with them reminders of the person missing at the table, difficult family conflicts usually avoided, or painful memories…
Our clients come from different walks of life and wrestle with a myriad of issues: depression, anxiety, divorce, PTSD, and relational issues, just to name a few. Often clients feel alone and without hope, wondering what the future holds, and commonly are without the ability to find affordable quality counseling. For the last 31 years, each of our clients has had an advocate like you who is providing hope to them. Your support is the reason clients struggling with depression…
Written by Sarah Grove “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” ― Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems “All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.” ― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty What would it be like to live in a world where…
Insight Counseling Centers received a $35,000 grant from The Healing Trust! The Healing Trust supports Insight's mission of restoring lives to wholeness and our commitment to providing quality, compassionate care to all who come to us for help. We're so grateful to The Healing Trust for this grant, which will support 350 sessions of pastoral psychotherapy for clients only able to pay $30 or less per session according to an income-based scale. Insight was one of 26 life-changing non-profit organizations…
Written by Karen Potratz This work starts in the quietness of a safe office and with a good connection. Working with people who are asking for help and confessing their vulnerability is an honor and a privilege. Specifically, many referrals come from family and friends. One such call came from a young lady in a desperate state, concerned that her body was responding to overwhelming stress. She was concerned for her health and her safety. She suffered from anxiety and…
Written by Karissa Curtis "Theodore! You know better!" the two-year-old's parents warn. But their words have no effect on their rambunctious toddler. My nephew knows he will get in trouble for banging his toys against the wall, but he continues to do it anyway. "You know better." I say it to my toddler nephew, but I hear the words being said to me. How often do I do things against my better judgment? How often do I knowingly sin? Well, I'm human, so my…
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Late last month, nine "mood walls" showed up all over Nashville, each one with 1,000 buttons naming 21 different emotions. MORE An idea by Insight Counseling Centers, the project was an offer to Nashvillians to take one and literally wear their emotion. Counselors wanted to see what they could tell by which buttons were taken. They said all of them being taken is telling them something too. "We live in a culture that mostly values strength…
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Insight Counseling Centers has placed nine “Mood Walls” around Nashville as part of a month-long mental health campaign called The Nashville Mood. Each wall has 1,000 buttons with 21 different emotions. “So the idea is, pedestrians walking by take a button off the wall that describes how they’re feeling and literally wear their emotions … to generate conversation around mental health,” said Taylor Cochran, development director of Insight Counseling Centers. “And just to have an open…
If you wander by Art and Invention Gallery (1106 Woodland) in May, you might notice a new, large, wall installation. And unlike most (OK any) other displays you’ll see at the Gallery, you’re encouraged to run off with parts of this one. Folks from Nashville’s Insight Counseling Centers are creating “mood walls” in nine different local neighborhoods, including ours, made up of 1,000 pins printed with different emotions. If you’d like, you can snag a pin that suits you, and…
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Several interactive mood walls have been set up across Nashville that offer buttons of emotions for anyone to take and wear. Whether you are hurt, grumpy, frustrated or excited, the idea is to wear the button and start a conversation. “It’s a very diverse group of emotions, both positive and negative,” Taylor Cochran with Insight Counseling Centers told News 2. Everybody feels, and he wants people to share their emotions. “The idea is to get people…
Tennessee's New Counseling Law & Jesus Originally written and posted by Executive Director Chris O'Rear at his blog, Just Thinkin' Out Loud. As has been reported in so many places this week, Governor Bill Haslam signed into law a Bill that willprotect psychotherapists from legal repercussions if they refuse service to any person based on their own strongly held principles. This bill was supposedly necessary because some Counseling professional organizations have re-written their codes of ethics to say that a…
Nashvillians are displaying their emotions, literally, after passing by interactive mood walls. Buttons describing 21 emotions from numb to frustrated to hopeful stick into the walls for people to take and wear in honor of May's Mental Health Awareness Month. Insight Counseling Centers is installing the nine walls, which were created by the Canadian organization Partners for Mental Health, in various Nashville neighborhoods. "I remember telling my therapist, 'I wish everyone didn’t feel like they had to hide what’s really…
Photos from the second annual Friends for Healing 5k & 10k race, benefiting Insight Counseling Centers, on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 in historic downtown Franklin, TN. To purchase an image, contact Martha Smith at MSmith665@comcast.net. Cost (including shipping): $5 for 4x6, $6 for 5x7. View all photos →
From the Executive Director, Chris O'Rear While affirming our core values and our historic identity, 2015 was marked by many changes. We finalized and revealed our new name, Insight Counseling Centers, and started the rebranding process. Our logo is in the style of a Mobius strip, a circle that turns from inside to outside seamlessly as you trace the outline, symbolizing our historic work of restoring lives to wholeness – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. As we help explore the internal…
Our emblem is in the style of a form called a Mobius strip. The 3-dimensional band of color flows from the outside of the circle to the inside of the circle and back out, seamlessly and endlessly. In his book A Hidden Wholeness, author Parker Palmer uses the Mobius strip as a metaphor to illustrate wholeness: Whatever is inside us continually flows outward to help form, or deform, the world -- and whatever is outside us continually flows inward to…