This week Nicky Lock from the Cottage Counselling Centre and Anglicare kicks off a new blog, examining the Christian take on relationships and offering advice for the 21st century.
Hi Everyone. At the beginning of this new venture I would like to introduce myself. Originally I trained as a scientist and worked in ergonomics research and physiology lecturing, before retraining as a counsellor about 20 years ago. In 1996 I founded the Cottage Counselling Centre at St Faiths Anglican Church in Narrabeen supported by Anglicare, where I am the Director and have been doing my counselling work with couples and individuals ever since.
About six years ago I co-authored two vocational courses in Christian Counselling that are now run in Sydney, Victoria, ACT and NT. I have been training pastors in Ambon (Indonesia) and Pakistan in trauma and relationship counselling for the past three years.
I am married (to an engineer) and have three adult children - two young women and a young man. We are just getting used to being "empty nesters" and wondering if we are enjoying the freedom or missing the "busyness" of family life! We are active members of St Stephens Anglican Church, Belrose.
One of my passions has been to develop others and myself as "integrated" Christian people and counsellors. What do I mean by this? Most Christian counselling courses include study on how to integrate secular thought and human process such as psychology with theology, and to develop the critical thinking necessary to do this.
However, when I talk about being an "integrated" counsellor I mean more than that - I am referring to the way in which a person is in relationship firstly with God through Jesus, secondly with themselves, and how this plays out in their relationships at home, at work, in their communities and in the world in general.
This passion sets the background for the topics I hope to be opening up to discussion through this blog - the examination of the ways in which we relate to others, how our view of ourselves colours that, all set against the background of our growing and deepening faith in Christ.
I am looking forward to a journey of interesting discussion with you fellow bloggers, and to your comments and requests for topics for discussion. I guess I need to add that I am not a theologian (though I am studying theology currently) and would like to keep the focus of this blog on individual and relationship issues, leaving the finer points of theology to those who are better qualified than I am to deal with!
So, there’s an empty comment box waiting for you at the bottom of this article. Feel free to let me know what relational topics you’d like to hear more on…
