Tri-Lakes Relational Center Springfield

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~ Free Phone Consultation to Answer Your Questions ~ Flexible Fee Options to Make Counseling Affordable ~
Springfield MO Location ~ Branson MO Location

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What is counseling?
Counseling is about getting help. It's about connecting with a professional who can journey with you through hard times. Somebody who can understand your situation, offer encouragement, direction, and professional guidance. Counseling provides an outside perspective and a partner in overcoming life's difficulties.
The team at Tri-Lakes Relational Center, including Josh Spurlock and Dr. Jared Pingleton, strive to provide excellent professional counseling services to the Ozarks and all of Southwest Missouri. We're here to help you have the best life and relationships possible.
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Who can benefit from professional counseling services?
It's a myth that only "messed up," "crazy," or "disturbed" people can benefit from counseling. Normal people need help too.
The truth is all of us experience hardships in life and relationships; no matter how good our childhood, how great our kids are, or successful our career. Counseling is about joining with an experienced guide in the journey of life who can help you navigate through complex situations and find healing for painful, confusing emotions.
Professional counselors have training to help people gain understanding about their circumstances and find solutions to life's problems.

So what makes Christian counseling "Christian?" At Tri-Lakes Relational Center we believe Christian counseling means understanding both life's problems and their solutions from God's perspective.
We believe humans were created by God's design, and life is best enjoyed when lived according to His principles.
We also believe that God wants us to enjoy life! That's why He provided the Bible: So we can know who He is and how to enjoy life to its fullest.
God not only provided instructions on how to enjoy life, but also how to find healing when we've been wounded, and forgiveness when we hurt others. He promises to help us through the most difficult times in our life if we will invite Him to do so. He promises to be with us through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Christian counselors at Tri-Lakes Relational Center are dually trained in Biblical studies and counseling practice. They know how to bring together the best psychology has to offer and the truth of God's Word to help you.

Mental health can mean a lot of things. The way we understand it is for a persons body, mind, soul, and relationships to all be working together as God designed. All these components of a person's life are interconnected. If there's a problem in one area it can significantly affect the others.
That's why we have a holistic outlook on people, problems, and solutions. We don't discount the influence biology has on our sense of well-being or our ability to cope with life's challenges. We also do not ignore the importance of relationships and the spiritual part of life. When all these pieces are working together in balanced harmony, we believe, it's the picture of mental health. Some common mental health issues are...
Common Mental Health Issues

The counselors at Tri-Lakes Relational Center are trained to help with these struggles as well as other common mental health concerns. We are a comprehensive mental health outpatient service provider.
Love and Marriage Counseling
No relationship has more influence on our adult life than our love relationship with our spouse. Marriage can be a source of intense pleasure or unbearable pain. Our relationship with our spouse can build us up, encourage us, and help us grow, or it can demean, tear down, and foster immaturity. Some of the top love busters are...
Top Love Busters

When you've lost that loving feeling it can be difficult to know what to do. The counselors at Tri-Lakes Relational Center are experienced at helping couples identify the weaknesses in their relationship and helping them build on their strengths. Research indicates more than half of divorced people regret getting divorced and wish they would have worked harder to save their marriage. We can help you discover the secrets to a lasting, loving marriage and the skills to enjoy your marriage for a lifetime. Your marriage and your family is worth finding out how marriage counseling can help.
Christian Sex Therapy / Sexual Wholeness
Sexual Wholeness is about learning to enjoy, be comfortable with, and feel good about the sexual part of your life. The truth about sex is that it is God's idea and He wants us to know how to enjoy His good gift best. God wants us to be free from hurt, disappointment, guilt, shame, and feelings of inadequacy so that we can be free to enjoy His gift of sexuality.
Sex therapy helps individuals and couples enhance sexual fulfillment and/or resolve sexual conflicts and problems. Solutions can vary from simple education to more extensive counseling around complex or longstanding issues. Strategies are tailored to the goals of the individual or couples seeking help. Sex therapy maintains ethical boundaries and is sensitive to the personal values of the client. Techniques include relationship and intimacy enhancement, strategic reading, specific behavioral interventions, therapy groups and referral/consultation with other professionals. Sex therapy can be a catalyst for healing and enrichment in the crucial sexual component of intimate relationships.
Could you benefit from Sex Therapy?

Lack of Sexual Fulfillment ~ are you just not enjoying sex or are you having difficulty experiencing orgasm?
Pain from Sex ~ is sex painful for you either physically or emotionally?
Feelings of Inadequacy ~ do you feel inept or not good enough as a lover?
Pornography or Sexual Addiction ~ do you struggle with using pornography or acting out sexually in ways that you're ashamed of?
Sexual Abuse, Trauma, or Rape ~ do you have emotional wounds from being mistreated or exploited sexually?
Same-Sex Attractions ~ do you experience distressing same-sex attractions, question your gender, or wonder if you might be "homosexual" or "gay"?

There are many reasons why normal people can use some help in the sexual part of their life. Don't let fear or embarrassment keep you from getting help and learning to enjoy God's gift of sexuality to you.
Eating Disorders and Negative Body Image
Eating disorders and negative body image affect thousands of men and women as children and adults. It's a myth that only girls who are on the verge of starving to death struggle with an eating disorder or body image problems.
The truth is many normal people suffer from painful dissatisfaction with their body and the way others perceive them. The media and popular culture have established an unhealthy and unrealistic definition for beauty that is deeply wounding and alienating.
Types of Body Image and Eating Disorder Problems

Negative Body Image ~ a persistent critical appraisal of ones body and habitual comparing of one's self to others. Feelings of contempt, shame, dissatisfaction, and disgust with one's body.
Binge Eating ~ compulsive over-eating, eating to sooth negative emotions, or rapidly consuming thousands of calories in a short time.
Anorexia ~ starving one's self or restricting calorie intake out of fear of becoming fat. Often includes over-exercising.
Bulimia ~ a destructive pattern of binging on food followed by "purging" of calories through over-exercising, vomiting, or the use of laxatives.

Often eating disorders begin with negative body image. Strong dissatisfaction with one's body or life then causes a person to begin either eating excessively, severely restricting calories, or cycling from eating in excess to taking extreme measures to rid oneself of calories. It can start as just "wanting to lose a few pounds" or "be more healthy," but soon it becomes an unhealthy obsession. Food becomes the enemy; the battle for control is intense and consuming.
Stages of Eating Disorders

Early Stage ~ negative body image is strong and the desire to change oneself to be more "acceptable" is intense
Mid Stage ~ a person in the mid-stage is actively and regularly restricting calories, purging, binging, and/or excessively exercising
Late Stage ~ persons in late stages of an eating disorder are experiencing serious health consequences that may or may not contribute their behaviors. Permanent, irreversible bodily damage is possible - even death.

The counselors at Tri-Lakes Relational Center know how to help at every stage of a body image or eating disorder problem. They can help you recover and gain control of your life. They can teach you how to become a "normal eater."
Adolescent or Teen Issues
Adolescence is a confusing and difficult time for teens and parents alike. The teenage body and mind are undergoing significant developmental changes. Teenagers are struggling to understand who they are as persons, sexual creations, and what their role is in relationship with others. They're at a stage where important decisions will be made that will affect the rest of their life. Being a teen isn't easy...neither is being the parent of a teenager.
Top Teen / Adolescent Issues

At Tri-Lakes Relational Center we understand what teens are going through and how to help parents. We will join with you to help you parent your teen and to help your adolescent sort through this confusing time in their life.
Foster Care Families
Our experience with the Missouri foster care system and Division of Youth Services (DYS) enables us to understand and help families involved with these services.
We accept medicaid allowing us to work with foster care families to help kiddos experience healing in this difficult time in their life.

Life is tough and sometimes the answers we need are hard to find. Sometimes we need an objective voice that can know our situation and offer wise, Biblically-based counsel. The counselors at Tri-Lakes are dually trained in Biblical studies and counseling practice. We would be happy to join with you in your spiritual journey to help you gain objective insight and understanding.
You can start your journey today.