Fund Development

Why do we need Fund Development? Since 1960, when Samaritan Center began as Presbyterian Counseling Service, our mission has been to provide high quality, faith-integrative, affordable counseling for individuals, couples and families regardless of the clients’ ability to pay. As other faith-based counseling agencies have ceased to exist, we’re aware that we are the go-to referral source for those who need fee assistance and want to have their faith included in the counseling process. In order to remain true to our mission and keep the doors of Samaritan open, we…

I Will Not Give Up

…a half hour before each Sunday service and discovering that calls for counseling began dropping. I quickly ordered his book, Meditations of the Heart. I find myself returning to it from time to time and each time I find a new jewel. As always, the jewel seems to shine ever brighter as I read and reflect again and again.”     true 1720462236:14 14 default Howard Thurman, from his book “Meditations of the Heart” 2732 39 Pastoral Counseling pastoral-counseling therapy_topic 39 48 Surviving & Thriving After Trauma surviving-thriving-after-trauma therapy_topic 48…

Optional Forms

to you at Samaritan Center. Teletherapy – Complete Set of Forms for Individuals These four forms are required for beginning Teletherapy (virtual or on-line therapy). 1. Informed Consent Teletherapy Addendum (Explanation of terms and conditions of teletherapy) 2. Teletherapy Intake Addendum (Information to assess crisis level) 3. Teletherapy Emergency Plan (Allowing therapist to respond to a medical or psychiatric emergency) 4. Authorization to Exchange Information (Described above) Teletherapy – Complete Set of Forms for Couples Teletherapy – Complete Set of Forms for Families   true 1635463544:4 2 default 1 default…

Re-entry from Covid

And Now… How Do We Think About Re-entry? It’s spring. We can feel the changing, evolving season. Light that lasts longer. New growth appearing. A taste of warmer days to come. People venturing out of hibernation. It’s been a long winter, a long year, and we’ve become accustomed to the many ways in which we’ve been separated from one another. Many of us are wondering what this season of re-entry–the emerging from separation–will look like. There’s a feeling of uncertainty, a forgetting of how everyday relationship with the outside world…

Saturday in the Park

…games; and there was plenty of summertime picnic food. Likely no one was happier to see the event come off than Executive Director Beverley Shrumm. In spite of only moderately healthy air quality and numerous folks with conflicting vacation plans, the gathering marked the end of a long dry spell for handshakes and hugs and shared meals and genuine face-to-face conversations. “It was deeply satisfying,” said a smiling Bev Shrumm, “to see people together again and to hear all the excited talking.”     true 1699395371:2 2 default 1 default…

Remarkably Bright Creatures – Book Review

…the possibilities they might offer? Van Pelt sensitively attends to the experience of each of four characters as they seek to understand and find some resolution to their grief. Tova’s quietly painful reflections about her lost son. Cameron, a misfit soul who comes to this small seaside town searching for the father who abandoned him 30 years ago. Ethan, the local music-loving grocer burned in his youth by love lost. Marcellus, the 60-pound octopus who muses on his “end of days,” adding a humorous, magical realism to the mix. The…

Change Your Mind

…is good and acceptable and perfect.” Perfect—not meaning without blemish or error—instead perfect meaning whole and integrated. Such is God’s good will for each of us, that we might find wholeness and healing in our holy lives. Perhaps the Apostle Paul and Nikita Gill are onto the same thing. That by God or by grace, these mysterious and wonder-filled minds are key to our transformation, even the changing of our very universe. Which for us—and for those we hold in our hearts—begins right here… begins right now. true 1720461521:14 14…

Change Your Mind

…your thoughts, You, too, can change your universe. As I reflect on this, part of me is skeptical: Change your universe? Really? Another part of me nods along, “We CAN change our/the universe If we allow our “same-stuff-as-stars” cerebrums to shift. For there is a whole universe in there. And, somewhere in my same cerebral space are swirling around words from the August 27 lectionary passage, the starting words of Romans 12: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSformed by the renewing of your mind, so that…

Parenting Teens and Social Media

…Davidson, L. (2013). Moms, you oughta know: 11 social media apps teens are using now. Retrieved July 31, 2014 from: http://www.today.com/parents/moms-you-oughta-know-11-social-media-apps-teens-are-6C10833314 Felsenthal Stewart, R. (2014). Social Media: What parents must know. Retrieved July 31, 2014 from: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/social-media-and-tweens-teens. Pew Research Internet Project. (2012). Teens Fact Sheet. Retrieved July 31, 2014 from: http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/teens-fact-sheet/ Wallace, K. (2013). The upside of selfies: Social media isn’t all bad for kids. Retrieved July 31, 2014 from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/living/social-media-positives-teens-parents/ Geltman, J. (2014). A Survival Guide to Parenting Teens. New York, NY: AMACOM. Levkoff, L., & Wider, J. (2014)….

Remarkably Bright Creatures

for change. But can she open to the possibilities they might offer? Van Pelt sensitively attends to the experience of each of four characters as they seek to understand and find some resolution to their grief. Tova’s quietly painful reflections about her lost son. Cameron, a misfit soul who comes to this small seaside town searching for the father who abandoned him 30 years ago. Ethan, the local music-loving grocer burned in his youth by love lost. Marcellus, the 60-pound octopus who muses on his “end of days,” adding a…