Counseling & Discipleship

Broken & Hopeful is a ministry offering donation-based counseling and discipleship.

Counseling is offered by many facilities and people, and we want to be clear about what is and is not being offered before you make a decision about pursuing counseling with us. We do not offer psychotherapy. We believe in a holistic approach to counseling, dealing with the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. We offer Christian counseling, which is often termed “discipleship” or “spiritual coaching”.

Our definition of counseling is discussing the past, present and future in light of what God is doing in your life in order to gain healing and peace. We think often our relationships with God can be inhibited by emotional walls we have built, and we need to work to remove those walls before we can make progress as a healthy person in a healthy relationship with God. Our goal is to be a participant in what God is doing to remove those walls.

Scheduling

Hannah does internet and phone counseling on a regular basis. Internet counseling (using FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, etc) allows her to work with people all over the country, and to provide a greater level of privacy than going to an office in person. Use the Contact page to schedule an appointment.

Costs

We do believe that something is valued more when one financially contributes to it. We offer free counseling but ask for a donation to help cover costs for the ministry, as well as to help others who can contribute even less. Even if that donation is $10 per month, it allows a counselee to be more invested in the work we are doing and helps keep the ministry able to continue to offer this service. Counseling often costs upwards of $100 per hour, so this is a great help to many people. For this reason, we do not take insurance, but remember that this is a ministry and not a business. God provides through many so that those who are financially unstable can still come.

History

Hannah has her Masters in Counseling Ministries from Denver Seminary, and has been working in counseling/discipleship for 15+ years. She learned pastoral counseling and discipleship from Mike Wells of Abiding Life Ministries. If you know anything of Mike, you know most of what she says comes from him. He taught Hannah to go to Jesus and find healing in His nearness. He helped her to see how Jesus loved her even when she was making decisions that He didn’t like–and Mike demonstrated that for her. He is really one of the reasons she wants to walk with people in their struggles, because Mike walked through Hannah’s with her. He’s been in heaven since 2011 and she misses him. He wasn’t perfect at all, and yet he was the most genuine example of abiding, hopeful Christian life she’s ever seen. He taught her what it looks like to be broken and find hope in Jesus.

The Difference

The goal in counseling and discipleship is not to fix people. That might bum you out as maybe that’s what you were hoping for. Usually, though, when trying to “fix” people, we either change circumstances (which assumes that negative circumstances are never God’s will and we should always try to abandon ship when things get hard) or we change self (which generally involves trying really hard to stop doing the thing we want to do or have been doing–while failing in the process).

We believe the Bible states pretty clearly that we don’t find salvation through trying hard to clean ourselves up. We also believe that God starts with heart change before behavioral change. We try to sort out our behavior, but can’t do that without heart change. Heart change can’t be manufactured by trying harder. Heart change is God’s job, and heart change will lead to behavior change.

If you just want to get “fixed” you’ve got your order wrong and you will be in the same place again in a matter of days, months or years. Heart change means we don’t need a change in circumstances–we can behave very differently because we have a power we didn’t realize before in Christ. That’s exciting stuff! The best thing is that the Holy Spirit is the real Counselor in all of this–Hannah talks to people for a limited time and he works round the clock in hearts.