The Reader For Leaders Seminars, articles, and musings by Paul D. Casey

If you are interested in making an appointment for a consultation or a session toward getting unstuck and to your goals, please contact me at my email of pcgrowingforward@gmail.com

Paul D. Casey

M. Ed./Registered Counselor/Life-Coach

I welcome you and look forward to working with you, to be an encourager that walks alongside you to help you get unstuck and to reach your goals.  I hope that you will feel free to speak openly about your hopes, concerns, goals, and progress.  It will be critical to identify the debris (negative patterns) that are keeping you anchored from pursuing your goals, then to own the responsibility for the changes necessary for your growth within the boundaries of what you CAN control, and to replace old behaviors with emerging new skill-sets/tools that better get you where you want to be.  My goal is to stretch you to reach your fullest potential!

I utilize a variety of modalities including, but not limited to client-centered therapy, cognitive therapy, solution-focused therapy and life-coaching. Between sessions, I will provide homework: exercises or resources to guide your growth. Doing these activities will help you understand yourself better and hopefully give you more clarity for decision-making on the road you are traveling.

I am particularly interested in facilitating the areas of: life-coaching, rebuilding your life, marital separation, men’s issues, pre-marital counseling, parenting, and relationships.

In accordance with good professional practice, I am committed to updating my training with continuing education, especially in researching how I can specifically better assist you in your situation. I network with other counselors and am a member of The American Counseling Association.

http://www.familylife.com/articles/     Family Life

http://www.almenconi.com/topics/parent/ Al Menconi ministries

http://www.fathers.com Fathers.com

http://www.focusonyourchild.com Focus on the Family

http://www.parentscoach.org/ Tim Smith: the Parent Coach

http://www.ccl.org   The Center for Creative Leadership

http://www.fastcompany.com  Fast Company

http://www.madeforsuccess.com/   Chris Widener’s Made for Success

http://www.breakfastwithfred.com   Fred Smith’s leadership web site

http://www.cloudtownsend.com/channels/leadership.php  Henry Cloud/John Townsend

“You’ll have more happiness when it ceases to be critical to you.” –J.P. Moreland

Has it ever happened to you, that when you weren’t looking for something (love, an opportunity, etc.), that’s exactly when you found it. The same with happiness: if it’s your life mission to be happy, you will constantly be let down by people and circumstances that thwart that happiness state.  But instead a pursuit of joy, found in the person of Jesus, is fulfilling beyond imagination.

“All the maps tell us that on the path to authentic selfhood, we must remain for a time in the dark night of the soul, in the winter of our discontent, until we reach the very bottom of despair. Only then do we discover that the seeds of renewal are blindly pushing their way up...” –Sam Keene (Fire in the Belly, p. 147)

We are quick to want out of periods of time when we are suffering. It’s natural to try to escape to comfort instead of linger in pain.  But it is in the valley where the flowers grow. When we get to the end of ourselves, when we fully grieve a loss, when we abandon all to God because we don’t have the strength to make it all better, that’s where the deep roots form and growth can begin.  No denial. No escape. Just moving through the pain to strength, making you even more resilient and full of faith and hope for the next dark time that will inevitably come.

“In this trial that I’m going through, I don’t question cause I know it’s true that the sorrow brings me back to You, and You have made me stronger.” –”40 Days” (Third Day)

It’s so easy to ask WHY when life slams you to the mat. But it truly is the wrong question. The right question is WHAT: What do You, Lord, want me to learn from this experience? What in my actions is sorrowful to You, that I need to change, and in turn become stronger as a Christ-bearer.  Next time you get pummeled by circumstances, look for God’s ultimate plan in it, and enjoy the time in God’s presence, even while licking your wounds.

“But we will never know the awesome power of the grace of God until we let ourselves get swept away into this holy flood…Take the leap of faith. Come on let’s go!” –”Dive” (Stephen Curtis Chapman)

Faith truly is like stepping into a rushing river without a life jacket, but knowing you are safe and won’t drown if you are confident in the One Who controls the current. It’s exhilarating and scary at the same time. And it’s worth it. And there will be many regrets if choosing not to dive in.