In this 3-Part post series I want to talk about our foundational beliefs, what I believe is going on in America, where we're headed, and how I see it affecting our profession. There are those who think that, as a counselor, I should just "stay in my lane". That way of thinking has gotten us where we are today, as a country, and it's time to fight back. The way I see it, there are factions that have seen fit to thrust themselves into my lane and I have a moral duty to defend my livelihood, my profession, and my country. I AM staying in my lane and I'm going to defend it.

Series Overview

In Pt 1 I'm going lay out our core belief system so you know exactly where we stand.

In Part II we'll look at some things that will add some historical flavor to the conversation, things that will give our final segment its context.

Part III will be a discussion between myself, Phillip, and Kip Rodgers that we recorded recently. We're going to have a deep-end-of-the-pool discussion about some of the nonsense that's taking place in our society and how it's affecting our practice. Then, we'll talk about what we can do about it to protect our chosen profession.

Here we go.

Our Foundational Beliefs

At PracticeMentors we are inexorably tethered to a very specific belief system and we make no apologies for it. You are entitled to believe what you want to as well; this is our position.

The Bedrock of Our Existence

We believe there is only one Creator God who manifests in 3 forms, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We believe that the bible is His inspired, inerrant communication with his children, outlines His creation efforts, the fall of man, and our punishment. It details how we are to live our lives on all levels including both the legal and social aspects; what's acceptable and what is not. And, it outlines His plan to fix His marvelous creation.

The gift of free-will affords us the opportunity to make choices, to do whatever pleases us. To rationalize our bad (ungodly) behavior, we must deny Him and the instructions He has given us. Deny Him? We're not willing to do that for anyone (and we hope you won't either).

On The Family Unit

God has mandated what a family unit should be. One biological father, one biological mother and the children they produce and/or are responsible for raising according to his rules. If the God that created me thinks this is the best environment in which a human should develop, then what am I to argue the point?

On The Constitution

The Great Experiment of self-rule is almost 250 years old. Despite never-ending attempts to bastardize the document it has survived and functioned beautifully so far, as experiments go. We believe that with modifications (called Amendments) brought about using the system for change outlined within, this document which represents humanities finest effort so far to institutionalize self-rule, is still the best governing document ever crafted to that end and is capable of serving a rescued America for an unlimited period of time.

On The Federal Government

We believe the Federal government has way over-stepped it's mandated boundaries and should be greatly reduced in size and scope of function. Real, historical evidence shows us that forces are in play that wish to replace our Republic with something more akin to what the original colonists were running from in the 1600's. We must do whatever it takes to thwart their efforts.

On States Rights

Each State should be the determiner of its own laws and destiny, subject to the agreed upon tenets present in both the Declaration and Constitution, of course. States rule!

On County and City Level Structure

At the very least, every citizen should participate in all local elections. Better yet, volunteer for precinct duty, voter registration teams, run for office, etc.

Citizens have the most impact at the local, city level. Cities make up counties and determine their governments, and those counties have the greatest impact on what makes each State what it is. The collective weight of States determines our Federal persona. Fix the local governments and we fix the Federal.

The genius of our bottom-up form of government is that it's not a top-down approach (Tyrants love a top-down approach. Just ask King George). Go vote. Participate!

On The Counseling Profession

As we stated clearly on our Home Page 8 years ago, we are a profession in crisis, stuck in the '80's. We are poorly equipped for the mental health tsunami headed our way, while those running the show argue semantics in the Rulebooks. Our licensing Boards are staffed with people lacking a view of the real problems I'm referring to here.

The only breath of fresh-air I've seen recently towards addressing this herculean problem is the formation of BHEC and most pointedly, those running it. I think they get it but there's only so much they can do with what/who they have to work with, and that includes our money-driven, social-agenda based professional associations. Yeah, I said it.

We buy into every social justice idea that comes along because we're terrified of being accused of racism, insensitivity, homophobia, being white, or whatever the sin-of-the-day happens to be. This is no way to run a profession.

We should be a few steps ahead of what's happening in the world, in the society we're supposed to be helping. Instead, we're squarely behind the 8-ball and Willie is cueing up his next shot!

SUMMARY

That's a fairly straight-forward view of how we see things so now you know where we stand. We're ready to move into the next phase of this discussion and paint an historical background for the current events we're witnessing. Bear with us as the proper historical context is a necessary back-drop to the discussion we're going to have in Pt III.

Plan Smart. Be Safe. Serve Others.

Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP