Charis Orlando

We are thrilled to announce our first Parenting Seminar! Vicky Hepler is Certified Parent Coach and brings years of wisdom and guidance to parents through speaking and training around the country.

Join us for her inaugural seminar on May 6th! Visit our for more information.

Many times we see our partner's behavior as either black or white, good or bad, right or wrong. This type of thinking can limit our ability to see the complexities of our relationships.

When we are in relationship with someone who is trying to change us, it's important to consider that they may not be trying to fundamentally alter who we are. Instead, they may simply be looking for us to show up in small but meaningful ways that demonstrate our support and commitment to them.

Since launching our partnership with GeneSight, we’ve already seen great success with clients who have received their results! If you live in the State of Florida, Charis can be your resource for psychiatric care and DNA testing. 🧬

We are so pleased to announce that we have our first therapist with licensure in a state other than Florida! Lindsey Horvatich is now virtually seeing clients who live in Tennessee. Give our office a call to set up a virtual appointment with Lindsey.

Spring Intensive Starting Soon at Charis Counseling Center!!

The Details: The FTS Intensive is a workshop designed to help individuals dealing with problematic or unwanted sexual behaviors kickstart their healing journey toward recovery. Using the powerful Facing the Shadow workbook (Patrick Carnes) as a guide, participants will gain an understanding of where their compulsive sexual behavior comes from and learn what the cycle of addiction looks like. They will develop practical tools for establishing sobriety, create a recovery plan, and address the challenges they can expect to meet along the recovery journey. In a large group setting participants will hear from a credentialed CSAT (Certified S*x Addiction Therapist) counselor and then be able to implement and process the material in smaller groups of trained therapists.

The format: 3 separate, day-long intensives held on one Saturday every few weeks this spring. Weekly drop-in groups are led by the Intensive counselors and are optional for participants to further explore the content and connect deeper with other participants. Participants can expect a combination of group teaching and small group processing.

The staff: Tim Burkholder (MA, LMHC, CSAT), Scotty Alderman (MA, CSAT-Candidate), Parker Johnson (MA, CSAT-Candidate), Anthony Barrett (MA, Bethesda-trained)

The location: All Saturday sessions will be held at the Charis Counseling Center offices located in the community of Baldwin Park, Orlando. The optional weekly drop-in groups will be held in an online, virtual format.

The dates: Saturday March 11, April 1, and April 22, 2023. All three sessions are required. The workshop will start at 9:00 am each day, and participants can expect to be finished no later than 6:00 pm.

The cost: Each session is $475 which includes all materials and lunch. There is a $225 discount for paying for all three sessions upfront.

See the video below for more info!

https://www.chariscounselingcenter.com/sexual-addiction-intensive-for-clients/

Scotty always has such insightful things to say. Thank you !

Like we've been talking about, it's important to figure out what parts of ourselves we need to heal so we don't look for healing in other dysfunctional relationships! Do you find yourself repeating patterns in romantic relationships or even friendships?

Unfortunately we repeat the negative patterns from our childhood in our adult relationships because we are seeking to have the ending be different this one time.



We often respond to ourselves in the way we were responded to as kids. Many of us were told “you’re fine. Stop crying. I’ll give you something to cry about.” Or some version of dismissal. We are taught to shut it down to survive. So now as adults we have contempt for ourselves when we feel pain. We are critical and unkind, or we throw ourselves into distraction. The hardest thing to do is to turn toward ourselves with compassion and care and give ourselves the comfort we deserve. It feels uncomfortable, wrong, selfish… but it is only through this connection with ourselves that healing happens.

Starting a new year leads many of us to reflect and make resolutions, promises, changes or vows with ourself. Make sure you understand the motivation behind your desired resolution.

Are you hiding in your own body?

Join Licensed Mental Health Therapist, Lindsey Horvatich, for a shame-free conversation about women's health, sexuality, and the role shame plays in keeping us from connection.

This is a two and a half hour virtual workshop designed to help you learn about the female body, separate myth from fact, and learn more about what your body needs. A combination of teaching and active participation provides you the tools you need to care for your body. Once you sign up, you will receive information on how to submit personal questions ahead of time.

This workshop will take place via Zoom on January 14th from 9:30 am - noon EST. Call us today to be added to the group! 407-894-5202

A necessary reminder as we head into the holidays. Think through your boundaries before you enter into high tension situations. Know where you are going to ask for respect, know what you are going to do if it is not given (your boundary) and something that is often overlooked, know how your body is going to react after you enact your boundary so you can care well for yourself! ❤️

A reminder to be gentile with yourself on the journey. Acknowledge the role of your protective parts. Create an environment of compassion, care, kindness toward self. If it’s hard to do, start talking about it, not just the trauma, but how you see yourself in it.

To follow up our most recent video on Instagram, this is a reminder that we can easily intellectualize our trauma without getting to the emotional part of ourselves; the part that can truly allow us to heal from our trauma.

Intellectualizing is important when we first start exploring our past by ourselves. We created a framework of what was, and what should have been. We conceptualize our pain and wounds and we connect the dots, but at some point we need to go back to those pain points and experience the emotions created. We have to engage with that part of ourselves in a compassionate, comforting way in order to truly heal.

Sitting with our pain and discomfort is a skill; one that was not modeled for most of us. We were taught instead to shove and stuff and dismiss. Because of this, even when we begin our counseling journey, we can continue to avoid pain by intellectualizing it, not knowing that is what we're doing.

When we use reason or logic to conceptualize our pain, we intellectualize it. Intellectualizing pain is a defense mechanism many of us learned to utilize quite well. We can spend a lot of time talking about the facts, perhaps the why, even naming our emotions without depth or feeling. Keeping emotions in our head prevents us from feeling it. Which might seem like a good idea at first, but when we don't feel and process our pain, we store it. It stays with us hanging around our neck and can manifest itself in so many ways: physically, emotionally, financially, even relationally. The only way to heal from our trauma is to engage with the emotions created at that time in a careful, kind way.

Do you find you struggle when you are put in a situation to comfort a friend or loved one? We hope this helps in those moments....

Our next DBT Skills group is starting January 12th!

Led by Lindsey Horvatich, this 6-week group will help participants actively learn tools to increase mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Give our office a call for more information or to enroll!

Bids for connection can be easily missed or overlooked. It can feel disconnecting when that happens. Attuning to our partner and noticing when they are bidding can deepen our connection. Knowing how we bid for connection and when it is missed can help us be clearer in our bidding.

How do you bid for connection?

No amount of tips or advice can make up for being uninterested or disengaged in your relationship!

Emotional connection takes genuine care and engagement with the person you're in relationship with. If you find it difficult to feel engaged it might be time to seek out some couples counseling.

Emotional connection needs mutual sharing!

Know how you are feeling, what you are looking forward to, what you desire and be ready to share that with your partner.

Sharing requires you to know your inner world! If you have a hard time accessing your inner self it might be time for some individual work.

As we start look at connecting emotionally with our partner, we begin with how to ask questions with genuine curiosity.

Our suggestion is to pay attention to what and how you ask your partner questions. Are you throwing out a "How was your day" and not waiting to hear the answer? Think about what you would genuinely like to know about your partner and ask for specifics. "How was your moms brunch today? I know you were nervous, how did you think it went?" If you feel at a loss, think about what your partner enjoys and engages in; is there anything you can ask about that?

This week we’re going to get specific with tips on how to connect emotionally with our partners.

Let's try to be intentional when we connect with our partner!

Emotionally connecting with our partners can be hard to do sometimes! When it is, we really try to remember mutual sharing can "break the ice" as we move toward trying to create better connection.

Over the years, we've found that marriage counseling is most successful when each partner is doing their own "Individual Work". When each partner is in therapy themselves individually, it only helps the marriage counseling process reach the best conclusion possible.

As we are wrapping up this series, be thinking about how you can guide your partner toward sharing feelings instead of accusing. How do you think you could best do this?

Do you find this to be true? If you take a minute and think about the times you've accused instead of communicated can you understand how the communication would definitely feel better to your partner? Can you imagine how easier the conversation could go?