My friends who are in the construction business tell me that they would much rather build a new house than remodel an old. Counseling itself is a lot more like remodeling a house than new construction because by the time a person reports to the counseling office, they have built layer upon layer of old thought patterns, beliefs and defense mechanisms! What a job it is to tear down the old, haul away the rubble, and prepare to add the new materials! The problem with many traditional counseling programs is that they focus so entirely on removing the old behaviors, the old beliefs and the historic pain from the old traumas that attention is not given to rebuilding new ways of behaving, believing, and relating.

Similarly, my computer savvy friends tell me that when my computer is crashing and not operating to its potential, there are probably some viruses that are interrupting the programming on the hard drive and doing it harm. They tell me that not only do we have to run a program to find and destroy the virus, but the corrupted programs and data then also need to be replaced. Counseling is much the same. We find and destroy old thought patterns deeply programmed into our minds, but the need for reprogramming still remains once the viruses are gone.

We at Renewal Center are not content with tearing down the old without building up the new! We are not content with wiping out the viruses and not reprogramming with new coping skills.

At Renewal Center we have groups modeled after, and that use tools gathered largely from, a cutting edge, research proven therapy called Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Dialectic means to balance, and in this case means a balancing of our emotions by learning to regulate them in order to be at a place of peacefulness no matter what emotions of anxiety or depression come at us. Behavioral therapy has been around for a long time and really focuses us not on just talking about our problems, but on finding ways to act out solutions. DBT then will teach emotional and spiritual tools for staying at peace and acting out solutions as well as focus on Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotional Regulation, and Distress Tolerance. Is it time for you or someone you love to take initiative in remodeling your heart and reprogramming the old thinking in your mind?