TheFlashToday.com NEWS & SPORTS – FREE & LOCAL
By KATY TONKINS
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (April 5, 2015) — We all struggle with hard times. If you’re searching for someone to talk to, Compassion Counseling Center, located in Oakdale United Methodist Church at 2675 W. Overhill Drive, has highly-trained and experienced counselors ready to listen.
The center, which is open to all ages and religions, was added to the church after a very tragic incident occurred right across the road.
“I believe, in August of 2013, a graduate of Stephenville High School committed suicide,” said MaryAnn Arnold, the scheduling coordinator for Compassion Counseling Center. She said her son received a plant from the funeral and she has been watering it since he’s been away at college.
Nurturing that plant inspired Arnold to start this project. And she proposed the idea to the church council.
“I went to our church council and made a proposal to them, and they were very enthusiastic about it,” Arnold said. “It was all an experiment.”
The center has counseling for all sorts of issues and problems and are very reasonable in price.
“We’ve seen about every issue that you can have,” Arnold said.
A big thing they have coming up is pre-marital counseling, which is also free of charge, unless you set up private pre-marital counseling. However, the price at Compassion Counseling doesn’t cost their clients an arm and a leg.
“Probably, half of our clients pay $5 or less,” Arnold said.
Pre-marital counseling starts Thursday, April 9, and will last for four weeks. This course can waive a couples’ fee for a marriage license.
The center will also be starting another new program — a marriage mentors program. This includes three married couples who help mentor other married couples because they have had a variety of experience. This is also free of charge. A matrix system will be used to match couples with the marriage mentor couple best suited for their issues.
Also, Compassion Counseling is starting Financial Peace University, a program started by Dave Ramsey, for financial counseling. This course starts Thursday, May 14, and runs for nine weeks on Thursdays, and will cost $93.
If you would like to help or volunteer, they always accept donations online at compassioncounselingcenter.com/donations/. They also accept donations in supplies such as: play therapy sand, dolls, paper, etc. They are also looking for someone to help out with scheduling and the administration side of the business. For more information on any of Compassion Counseling Center’s services or job opportunities, contact them at 254.485.6885.
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