There is Always a Cost

No Non-Profit Organization provides FREE resources. Somebody, somewhere, somehow is paying for the resources or services rendered. This is typically accomplished either through fundraising or selling products and services. Though we are not opposed to fundraising and do realize the tax benefit for the donor, we have never spent the time, money, or energy to launch an official campaign.

We have developed an alternative to fundraising by providing a super low-cost opportunity for our friends. These alternative supporters can receive something better than a tax benefit. This is why our membership site is ONLY $4.95 per month.*

Our philosophy of supporting non-profits gives more people the opportunity to support us at a very low dollar commitment, while receiving immediate, practical, and relevant sanctification help for their support.

By choosing to support us through our membership site, you not only receive excellent discipleship and training resources, but you help free us up to develop more practical resources for the body of Christ. Here is a short list of some of the sanctification helps we provide for people each day:

• YouTube Training Videos
• Webinars
• Our public website with nearly 1000 resources
• Social Media Communities like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Weekly eBlasts through our Tuesday morning Coffee Break
• Featured Articles for Other Christian Organizations

This does not include the hundreds of hours of counseling, church consultations, and leadership training we do, plus our charity work through our weekly bread distribution to local churches and needy families.

This new discipleship-counseling training site is the latest addition in our on-going quest to serve God’s community. I would love for you to join our new site, not only to receive help, but to help us continue this God-glorifying work of training the body of Christ. Also, would you send this link to anyone you think would benefit from our training and programs?

*For $55 you can invest in our ministry and receive access to our resource site for ONE YEAR! Or for $100 you can purchase a two-year subscription. Would you consider supporting us and spreading God’s wisdom in counseling?

Click this Facebook link to share this article on your Facebook page with a brief note to your friends.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

In an effort to make things more feasible for you, I have been working over the past month building a new membership site for The Counseling Solutions Group. It is now ready!

The best news is that the new site has a NEW MONTHLY & REDUCED MEMBERSHIP PRICE OF $4.95

You can access the new site here: Counseling Solution Resources

I think the lower dues will be more doable for people. My thought is that if a larger number of people sign up at the lower fee, that would be better than a smaller number at the higher fee. This would not only allow more people to enjoy the benefits of this site, but it would also free me up to develop more training materials, which is the focus of our ministry.

As you can imagine, fundraising, administration, marketing, accounting, and the scores of questions that come in each month take a large chunk of my time and reduces the amount of time I can spend on writing, developing, coaching, consulting, counseling and training, which is my heartbeat.

If you think this kind of work would encourage others, please ask them to consider joining, even if it is just to “support” the work, though they may not have a specific interest in doing counseling themselves.

A Small Way to Contribute to Our Ministry!

Their support will allow me to do more of the things that are in line with our Mission Statement:

The Counseling Solutions Group is a worldwide non-profit organization helping people who are in situational difficulties. This is accomplished by using Christian principles to train leaders to competently counsel as well as by providing practical and compassionate counseling to individuals in need.

If they knew about our work, I suspect there are many people who would believe in what we are doing, and wouldn’t mind giving 5 bucks a month to support our efforts.

Please let others know about this ministry.

Also know that the site is always a work-in-progress. As you think of things we can offer or any general observations about the new site, please let me know. This site is for you and your friends. Let me serve you by listening and doing what we can to make this an incredible experience for God’s family.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Bringing in the Dough

Earlier this year we announced our partnership with the Atlanta Bread Company. Part of being a Non-Profit Organization allows us to serve others in biblical counseling as well as non-traditional-counseling ways. The Atlanta Bread Company gives their extra bread and pastries away at the end of each day. However, they only give their “leftovers” to Non-Profit Organizations.

Enter The Counseling Solutions Group!

Earlier this month Panera Bread Company accepted our Non-Profit status and now, in addition to our weekly Atlanta Bread pick-ups, we also make a “bread pick-up” once a week at one of our local Panera Bread restaurants.

The Counseling Solution’s Group, Inc. is now distributing bread and pastries to several churches, unemployed men and women, as well as a few singles and families who are struggling financially.

It has been a joy to encourage those who are currently struggling by giving them food!

The Droids Are Coming!

A local marketing firm asked me if I would give the new Droid cell phone a test drive over the next couple of weeks. Being an avid iPhone enthusiast and general “Mac-head,” I was more than willing to give the Droid a shot.

Our counseling organization is highly dependent on technology as we provide long-distance phone counseling and church consultations around the US and as we communicate God’s truth around the globe daily through LinkedIn, Facebook Groups and Pages and several Twitter accounts.

Therefore, we had more than a passing interest in the redemptive value of such technology. For us it becomes a stewardship issue as we seek the most productive and efficient ways to serve God and others. This week I’ll be blogging each day on the Droid vs. iPhone wars.

I must say that when Lucia and I were at a local Thai Restaurant this week with friends, my AT&T iPhone would not come through for me, but the Droid was ready for action. This was disappointing, but it speaks more to the service provider than the phones.

Verizon carries the Droid, while AT&T provides service for the iPhone.

Will You Join Our Work?

The end of the year is a big opportunity for God’s people to come alongside the many Christian Non-Profit Organizations who have dedicated themselves to helping others. If you believe in what we are doing, would you give financially to this work? Read Let Me Ask You a Favor to learn more. Your gift will be tax deductible.

Other Articles in This Series

• Taking Care of Business
• Droid vs. iPhone 1.0
• Droid: it’s so easy a 6-yr old can do it – 2.0
• Droid: The Final Verdict – 3.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Is it OK to post some of your entries on my blog? I would gladly give your name and URL the credit? – Greg

Here is a question I get regularly through my website.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:7, What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

If there is anything on my site that is worth sharing with another, I assure you that it did not originate with me. God has been very kind to give me topics to write about. God loves people and he uses people to help people. I’m glad to be one of his chosen vessels that he uses to share practically how to help others.

If you want to spread my material around, please feel the freedom to do so. It would be a joy to me to know that God is encouraging his children around the world through these small efforts.

The only thing that I ask is that you link back to my site so folks will know where you found the thoughts. My site is the primary portal to my business and counseling is the means by which I support my family. My wife and kids would be most appreciative if you let others know about what we do!

Also if you are interested in using our logo in your work, you can grab some code at this LINK. If you have any problems with the code, please let me know.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

On July 06, 2009 The Counseling Solutions Group, Inc. was granted a 501(c)(3) determination letter by the IRS, stating that we are a not for profit organization.

In South Carolina insurance companies do not recognize Christian counseling as a viable solution in the psychological counseling field. Therefore, individuals who are seeking help from counselors with a distinctive Christian worldview must pay-out-of-pocket for these Christian counseling services.

Because of the lack of “insurance support” Christian counselors cannot charge industry standard rates for counseling services. Industry standard rates can be $150 or more for a one hour counseling session. Because Christian counselors charge less than these standard rates, it is not possible for them to have a counseling business like their secular counselor counterparts since their client fees cannot sustain the business.

Additionally, at Counseling Solutions we rarely meet with a counselee for less than two hours per session. For us, it is a relational challenge to listen effectively, ask questions and offer hope with practical solutions in a 60-minute truncated counseling session.

People Matter!

The counseling session is not the time to process people through. We are a people-helping-business and to help people takes time.

It also seems incongruent to me to tell a friend that I can help them with their problems while charging them industry rates that they must pay out of pocket. In many cases the counseling fee compounds their other problems as finances are often a component to their other problems.

For us, it became a conscience issue not to charge high rates, but from a bottom line business perspective we cannot stay in business without finances. We are stuck between two priorities:

1. Helping people in situational difficulties vs.
2. Staying in business to help people

Fortunately, the IRS agreed and, therefore, they made it possible for us to help people, lower our rates and stay in business by giving donors, who believe in what we are doing, a tax benefit when they give to Counseling Solutions.

In addition to being able to lower our rates, in some special circumstances we can do limited pro bono work for those who cannot afford any kind of counseling and/or do not have insurance to help subsidize their counseling needs.

This is God’s faith-building kindness to us

If you have been encouraged by our work, benefited from our work and/or believe in what we are doing, would you be willing to help us by giving to this ministry? This is also an excellent opportunity for churches or businesses to partner with us financially.

If so, you can make checks payable to The Counseling Solutions Group, Inc. and mail to 120 Goodridge Court, Greer, SC 29651 or you can click on the PayPal Donate Button on our webpage and donate directly to our PayPal Account. (Please know that PayPal deducts 2.9% from monies that come through their service.)

Thank you for prayerfully considering partnering with us in the Gospel.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Passive counseling is the counseling I do through my Social Media sites. It is predominantly a one-way conversation designed to encourage, envision and equip in a fast-paced culture.

This type of counseling is not designed for extended two-way, relational conversations and problem solving. Social Media are multi-faceted contexts for passive counseling. Passive counseling is more about a counselor communicating to individuals to encourage them rather than a counselee actively pursuing a counselor for help.

Our Passive Counseling Social Media Network

• Counseling Solutions Blog
• Counseling Solutions Training Site
• Rick Thomas Profile page
• Counseling Solutions FAN Page
• NANC FAN Page
• Friends of NANC Facebook Group
• Twitter: Counseling Solutions
• Twitter: The Gospel Coach
• Twitter: The Savior Says
• LinkedIn: Business Network

Social Media are networks where insights, encouragements and advice can be communicated to reach pockets of people who choose to be part of these various Social Media contexts.

The insights, encouragement and advice have a passive effect on the recipients. The recipients are not seeking counseling for specific challenges, but do desire to be encouraged or equipped in a general way. This type of communication is typically free of charge.

For those seeking counseling, coaching or training, Social Media is not as effective as far as a comprehensive solution. An individual looking for answers actively pursues a two-way dialogue with the counselor or consultant.

Our Active Counseling, Consulting and Training Network

Here is a list of the services we provide for those who are looking for in-depth help. This type of equipping is fee-based.

• Phone counseling or consulting around the world
• One-to-One personal counseling
• One-to-One personal coaching
• Marriage counseling
• Counselor training through our Distance Education Program
• Supervising NANC Counselor Candidates
• Seminars on various counseling topics
• Consultations for counselors seeking advice
• Church consulting regarding counseling issues or counseling programs
• Business counseling, coaching and training

Because of the thousands of people we interact with on a day-to-day basis through our Social Media sites it is impossible to respond appropriately and timely to all the requests we receive.

If you have a situation where you need advice, we suggest you email us and set-up an appointment. You can book a one or two-hour appointment. This way we will be able to set aside dedicated time to listen and respond to your specific situation.

For counseling, counselor, coaching, consulting or church help please email through our Contact link above and request a time for a phone or face-to-face meeting.

We are for People Seeking Solutions!

Also read A Day in the Life of a Counselor to gain insight on the behind the scenes life of a Christian counselor.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

It is 6:30AM and I just came home from my two-day-a-week Boot Camp Exercise Program. I pop open my laptop and there is an instant message on my Facebook Profile Page.

A friend in China is asking for advice regarding a couple, an addict and his wife, that she is counseling.

An hour later I’m getting to my day. You can read the content of that instant messaging consultation session HERE.

I tweet on my Twitter Micro Blog account, which lands simultaneously on my Facebook status update page.

The inbox is full, my social media sites are chumming along and I have to decide where to plunge in. I choose to begin supervising a National Association of Nouthetic Counselors Case Report Form (NANC) from a counselor candidate I am training. You can see that form along with my supervisory observations HERE.

I send out another Tweet to my Social Media Community.

Next up is a counseling session with a lady who is separated from her husband. You can read the session notes from our meeting HERE. The session lasted two hours, which is the length of my normal counseling sessions. I have a NANC Counselor Candidate sitting in on the session as part of her training program.

After the counselee and counselor-in-training leave, I send a follow-up email of the session, to further encourage the counselee and to “extend” the counseling session beyond our two-hour meeting time.

The Magic Hour in Counseling is NOT in the Counseling Session, therefore I seek to extend the session beyond the actual counseling time, to better serve my friend. You can read a sample of follow-up notes HERE.

I send out another 140-character Tweet to my Social Media Community.

Some friends on my Facebook FAN PAGE asked a couple of questions that I need to respond to. My local newspaper blog has a request from a lady who wants to meet to talk about counseling. She stumbled onto my site while looking in the Want Ad section in the local electronic newspaper. I catch up on some of this email.

I send out another Tweet to my Social Media Community.

My inbox has 11 more requests and my noon appointment, which is a four-hour lunch with a NANC Candidate coming in from Tennessee, who wants to get to know me before she commits to our training program, is 20-minutes away from now.

A counselee from Florida calls with a question as we are working through what day I can fly down to meet with her and her husband for a half-day counseling session.

At the traffic light, on the way to my lunch appointment, I send out another Tweet, using my iPhone. Praise God for technology. I also have time to squeeze in another phone call.

After the lunch meeting I have time to make two phone calls while driving home.

I’m home now and dinner is ready. After family and wife time I send tomorrow’s blog post to my editor for his critique. He sends it back and I have it posted before the 12:05 AM launch time.

A few more emails, another Tweet to my friends on the other side of the world and off to bed. It’s been a good, long and full day while living and resting in the good of the Gospel.

Read about Passive and Active Counseling

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Our rapidly advancing technological age is an incredible opportunity for Christians to explore the redemptive usefulness of technology.

Though our culture can turn God’s favor, through technological advancement, into selfish indulgence, Christians do not have to imbibe in similar ways. We are other-worldly.

Because of God’s kindness to us through the Cross of Christ, we can now think redemptively about technology rather than selfishly.

Facebook and Twitter are two examples where we can explore the opportunities to go into all the world with the Gospel message.

I do wonder at times what the great Apostle to the Gentiles would think about Twitter. Imagine how many Christians in spiritually starved regions of the world would be waiting with baited breath to read a 140-character tidbit of hope and encouragement from one of God’s revelation writers.

It would be a joy to “follow” Paul.

Though we are not writing God’s Word the way Paul did, we do have the same Spirit and God has chosen us as his ambassadors to carry his message to the world.

technology can be a wonderful thing if we think redemptively

I’ve also had the privilege to connect, through phone counseling, with hurting Christians around the country, who are in various situational difficulties. Here is part of a recent email I received after a long-distance phone counseling appointment.

You have no idea what our talk tonight did for me. I have to believe with a certainty that it was not by chance that I stumbled across your counseling service on-line and actually contacted you. I have felt completely overwhelmed and backed into a corner these past few weeks, sensing I had nowhere to run and hide anymore, uncertain how I could move forward.

Thank you for be willing to listen, to allow me to be completely open and honest without feeling “judged,” and to be willing to speak the truth of God’s Word to me. I needed that more than you can know.

Thank you so much again.

Mary S.

If you or a friend need counseling, please know there is hope in God and his helpers are closer than you may think. We live in a day where counseling is not only just around the corner, but through technology, our world is many times smaller than it used to be. Around the corner or around the globe, help is available!

If you would like to set-up an appointment, please click HERE.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Clemson University had a great idea a few years ago when they began their IPTAY campaign. For those of you who are not Clemson fans, which I’m most certainly not, let me explain. It simply means I Pay Ten A Year! You can support Clemson University Sports at 10 bucks per year. Imagine 250,000 folks doing this. Now, that’s a great idea!

You may suspect what is coming. Relax! It’s not. No, I don’t want your money. 

However, I do have an idea that I’d like to float by you. Though I’m not much on those guilt-motivated chain letters I’d like to appeal to you to consider starting one with my blog. 

Would you be so kind as to send my blog to ten of your friends and ask them to read it and pray for my business?

That’s it. Will you do this for me?

You see, my blog is the front door to my business. And the more folks that read my blog the more chance there would be that someone would call for help.

And that’s the goal: to help others.

It does not matter if the person you send it to is living locally or around the world. I get mail daily from all over the planet. What a joy! What a kindness of God!

And, lastly, if you would continue to pray for these feeble efforts in God’s big world, I’d be most appreciative.

Rick

This email was super-encouraging from a blog reader, friend and a small group member. What is most cool about this email is her love for the Savior and seriousness about sanctification: 

The posts on counseling solutions over the past two weeks and our small group the week before last have been most helpful in guiding my time in prayer, scripture, and with God’s primary means of change, the church. Thank you both for shepherding my heart. Please continue to be real friends and speak correction into my life when necessary.

I so appreciate you both. 

Your friend, because of the Cross!