Recent Articles of Sunset Community Counseling

Understanding the Hierarchy of Human Needs

My life depends on relationships, but it also relies on structure. I need a place to live, but not just a couch to crash on. I need a safe place where I can launch each day without the worry or concerns that my stuff will disappear or that I will be physically harmed. I need…

Celebrating Life’s Seasons

“Tis the season”. I learned about seasons by living in them and planning for them. Seasons are topics to complain about, yet commonly used to strike up a conversation. Seasons were attached to holidays and structures of time such as New Years—winter, Easter—spring, 4th of July—summer, Halloween—fall. Then there was the school calendar that needed…

Feeling Stuck?

Don’t focus on where you are and how you got there… It is better to focus on where you want to go and how to get there! We seem to be well versed on all our foibles, warts, and scars along with how they got there and why nothing seems to help change their reality. …

Recovery or Discovery……You Pick

The word discovery has discover as its root. To discover is to find something or someone unexpectedly or it can be; in the course of a search a secret or treasure is revealed. I recall the “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” and Steve Irwin’s The Crocodile Hunter” where discoveries were around every corner and behind…

Me Tree

Where do I begin to tell a story of how great love can be? Telling my story is difficult because to tell my story means that I admit–it is my story. Telling my story is in telling it I show myself possibly through angles and lens that may not always be the same, but there…

The Key To All That Matters

What is the key? What is the key to myself, to one another, to those I know and those I don’t? What is the key to any stage or phase of life and is the essence that fills the gaps in between? What is the key to individuals as well as groups? What is the…

It is possible to Love Your Enemies – Learn How

In times like these, where are the proclamations and teachings of “love your neighbors” and “love your enemies”? Where are the billboards and the abundance of social media posts screaming out about this love that comes from a source of ourselves “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “Love your enemies…Do to others as you would…

Self-Help is Everywhere! Where shall I begin?

The self-help concept seems to ring out at the beginning of each year then die down by the end of spring. The Personal Development Industry has an estimated net worth ranging up to or beyond $9.9 billion. Self-help ideas are more convenient and within reach than ever before because of the internet. A variety of…

What is Christmas All About?

What is Christmas all about? Is Christmas any different from any other day of the year? Often the most difficult place of evaluation or learning lessons is when I am in the middle of the circumstances. I am backwards. Because I am backwards, I live out an experience without realizing its full potential immediately. Learning…

Promises Made – Unexpected Results

She called them “The Bulletin Boards of Life”. She explained that these bulletin boards are literally everywhere– littering our lives or better yet– waiting for each of us to open our eyes to see them. Her name, for the purpose of this article, is Marion. She had a nickname which was nothing close to her…