Long Time Coming
My husband loves to write blogs with song lyrics in them, and I guess that’s rubbing off on me.
So with apologies to Bruce Springsteen, I’ll explain myself.
Normalcy is a long time coming, isn’t it?
Hard to stay focused and positive when the crises in our country just keep coming and coming. Hard to stay upbeat when day after day the news is worse and worse.
Covid-19. Quarantine. Racial distress. Election year. Killer hornets. Australian bush fires. Brexit. The wildly fluctuating Dow Jones. Joblessness. Homelessness. Ebola. Flooding. Wild fires. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Explosions. Kobe. Bubonic plague.
It sounds like the plot of a bad horror movie, and yet we’re all living it every day. It’s as if all the possible horrific things that could happen got together and decided to give us all a giant raspberry.
And it’s been a LONG time since things felt even part-way normal.
We at Sanctuary were reflecting the other day how, when we closed our brick-and-mortar office on March 13, 2020, we thought for sure we’d be back in June. At the latest. Instead, it was July until even one of us returned, and our face-to-face hours are still somewhat curtailed.
However, some very positive things have happened, at least with us.
We began – and love – virtual therapy. Ellen has decided to do online therapy exclusively because she loves it so much. Andrea, Ashley and Chris continue to do a mix of online and face-to-face. But in any case, it’s enabled Sanctuary to expand to helping anyone anywhere in PA. So if you’re in Pittsburgh, we can help you. Harrisburg? Ditto. And Philadelphia? We’re online for you, too. This has added an important new dimension to the services we can offer.
Ashley Gaines has joined Sanctuary during the pandemic, and a great addition she is, too. Ashley is the guidance counselor at local Cumberland Valley Christian School, and specializes in therapy with kids and teens. We are so excited to have her join our team.
Jennie Sheffe has also joined our team since Covid reared its ugly head. She is a Messiah University graduate student specializing in marriage and family therapy, and a wonderful addition to our team as an intern. Jennie has a passion for military families and spouses.
We have used this time to continue to work on our new program, Disconnect Recovery, which helps people deal with their internet and device addictions and dependencies. It’s much needed in these Zoom times, when all of us are even more connected to our phones, laptops, tablets and computers than before. We are currently working on a book about this topic, so look for that and some resources to help later on this year.
We are also about to launch our series of webinars to help churches, health-care organizations and others deal with current mental health issues. Beginning with a look at how we thrive during Covid-19, look for these webinars and series to offer great tips for improving lives around the Cumberland Valley.
Mostly, we’re all just holding our breaths … waiting for 2021. Nevertheless, it really hasn’t, as I’ve noted, been all bad.
I urge you to make your own accounting of things that have gone well during 2020 and focus on those things, instead of getting lost in the list of “bad” things. You will likely find that you have been more blessed than you thought.
If you need help processing this crazy year – or anything else – give us a call or shoot us an email. We help grieving individuals, distressed kids and teens and couples in conflict find peace, solutions and connection.
Sanctuary Christian Counseling
9974 Molly Pitcher Highway, Suite 4 and Online
Shippensburg, PA 17257
717-200-3158
