Council of Counselors: Church Culture in #MeToo Era / Sexual Abuse in Marriage / #MeToo and Preschool Children / Broken Yet Bold / Resilient Relationships in Disaster

This is a weekly post that highlights resources from other counselors that I have found helpful. The counselors may be from the biblical counseling, Christian psychology, integration, or secular counseling traditions. By linking to a post, I am not giving it my full endorsement, I am merely indicating that I believe it made a unique contribution or raised an important subject for consideration.

How to Create a Church Culture of Accountability in the #MeToo Era by Diane Langberg

How can churches create a culture that honors due process alongside one that honors victims’ and survivors’ stories, experiences, and expectations? In short: How can churches create a church culture of accountability and victim care? Experts suggest four tips.

Sexual Abuse in Marriage by Darby Strickland

Though the recent #metoo movement has revealed the prevalence with which people are violated sexually, my heart remains heavy for wives who are victims of marital sexual abuse. Their stories remain untold, and I am concerned that many pastors and counselors are unaware of its occurrence… My goal, therefore, is to identify what sexual abuse in marriage looks like so it can be recognized more readily and these women can get the help they need.

Preventing #MeToo Begins in Preschool: 4 Books to Help You Talk to Your Kids by Brittany Salmon

Because most of us feel ill-equipped to address these topics, I want to share four books my husband and I have used this past year with our young children. Each fosters healthy, age-appropriate conversations about bodies, sex, secrets, and pornography.

Counseling Broken Yet Bold Women by Rachael Rosser

I recently returned home from spending a week counseling and training women in the Rift Valley of Kenya who were in the process of leaving or had left their life of prostitution, as well as two who were unsure about leaving. This occupational choice had been forced on these women due to poverty, abuse, and in some cases generational sin (their mothers had been prostitutes). A well-meaning Christian woman asked me if I really thought these former prostitutes were truly Christians and my heart was grieved over her question. The stories these women in Kenya shared, along with previous stories I have heard in both of my offices, has caused me to think through Jesus’ interaction with a sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50.

7 Characteristics of Resilient Relationships by George Everly

Did you ever wonder why some relationships can endure even the most stressful of times, while others are destroyed? Are there certain factors that characterize strong, enduring, and resilient relationships? There are no easy answers. However, we do believe there are factors which seem to foster resiliency in relationships and increase a couple’s likelihood of survival when confronted with adversity. Let’s take a look at those characteristics.

What I’m Reading

Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Diane Langberg. This powerful book deals with the issue of how Christians, especially those called to counsel, can help survivors of sexual abuse find healing and hope.

From 20 years of experience, the author demonstrates how counselors can walk alongside people deeply wounded by sexual abuse as they face the truth about who they are, who their abuser was, and who God is as the Savior and Redeemer of all life. Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse issues a strong call to the church at large to walk with survivors through the long dark nights of their healing.

Tweets of the Week

Meaningful Meme

On the Lighter Side

Because, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones,” Proverbs 17:22.