Agape Counseling Associates is a leading provider of clinical Christian counseling, in Wilmington and Jacksonville, NC.
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Services Offered
Family Counseling - Our staff is committed to you and your family. We understand that our timelines often become curvy with conflict. We experience life transitions like going to college, a divorce that leads to broken or blended families. We experience a significant fear or trauma from an unexpected event. For a woman, perhaps family planning hit a roadblock with unexpected perinatal or post partum depression. Her thoughts and emotions are being hijacked by parenting adjustments, sleep transitions and body changes that occurred during pregnancy. This can be a tough family adjustment period.
Lets start a conversation about these family challenges. Lets take a look at some parenting strategies, talk through the loss of a child or miscarriage, explore ways of self care, discuss what to do with an aging parent and strategize how to help with children who have emotional or behavioral needs, ADHD, other educational supports, understanding Autism or how to deal with teen rebellion.
Marriage Counseling - Often times our marriages meet challenges. Communication becomes toxic, Intimacy is interrupted by an affair or pornography addiction. We allow smartphones to replace our relationship with our mates, creating space and disconnect, or we fight about finances, family boundaries and life transitions. Our marriage counselors are passionate to help you and your spouse walk through these kinds of challenges. We also acknowledge that there are folks whose Happily Ever After ends with separation or divorce. Our counselors are trained and ready to walk this rough road with you and to help you talk through difficult decisions, gain some perspective and get back on your feet.
Adult and Individual Therapy - Sometimes it happens that way. Life takes us by surprise. Today looks different than yesterday. It can happen suddenly and our emotions take over. Perhaps it looks like anger or we find ourselves feeling sad and trapped by depression. The life that we had hoped for took a sudden detour and we became stressed and anxious. An unforeseen divorce hijacked our marriage or our parents marriage and we are fearful about the uncertainty. It could have happened when we told our loved one goodbye at the graveside. We weren't expecting it and now our grief is deep with the loss and we are desperate and feeling hopeless. Perhaps we experienced it when our aging parents needed extra care and became more dependent on us. Or, at some point in our life, we became a "fix it" person feeling responsible for everyone in our life and we are held captive by codependency, life just happens when we feel stressed by our circumstances, relationships that have become difficult with poor communication, our self esteem is destroyed. We are left feeling helpless. Our staff is trained to meet you at your lowest point. Let us help you find hope again, help to refocus your thoughts and get you on your way again.
Children and Teens Therapy - Todays culture is changing everyday. What was once defined as normal is being challenged and re-assigned by policy makers. The impact that this has on our children is HUGE. Today's youth are more stressed and anxious, concerned about safety at school, confused about their gender, and driven by social media. Their playgrounds have become overtaken by bullying, they are addicted to Facebook, You Tube and Instagram, using their cell phones for sexting, and searching for pornography. Body image concerns are also beginning younger, even before middle school, leading to eating disorders and other health concerns. Sometimes our children begin to act out emotionally or behaviorally. They begin to become angry or show signs of anxiety and depression. There can be many factors that contribute to a child's well being, such as a divorce or loss of an important family member, a blended family, moving to a new home or starting school. Often times academic success becomes more challenging.
Agape has trained counselors whose passion is to help bring clarity, offer help through the grief and trauma , family support to divorce and blended life changes, and to provide educational resources and assessments for academic improvement. We understand the helpless feelings of today's parents. Our clinicians are not only professionals, they are concerned parents and educators too. They stay on the cutting edge of trainings as technology daily ramps up the world that our kids encounter.
Addiction - Addiction has many different faces. Perhaps you or someone in your life has struggled with alcohol, opiates, or prescription meds. Maybe you are a person who has tried using marijuana or other substances. We live in a culture that feeds our need to feel good and look good. Body image concerns often lead to food addictions and move into eating disorders. With smart phones and the internet, a person has access to pornography in micro seconds. These can lead to destructive sexual addictions. At Agape, Addiction is recognized as a stumbling block in an individual's life path. Stumbling but not fallen. Temporary not permanent. It's a chance for our Licensed Clinical Addictions Counselors to come along side and offer a hand up and to steer you to recovery and freedom.
Pastoral and Church Care - Ministry is full of challenges and possibilities. Partnering with Agape is a great way to provide much needed counseling support to congregations and at the same time empower ministers to live out their call more deeply. To that end, Agape Counseling has been devoted to building relationships with local churches in the southeastern coastal Carolina region. We have begun to see folks drive in from the Myrtle Beach, Whiteville, and Clinton areas and we have also established an office in Jacksonville with a local ministry to the military families.
Missionaries and Expats - Missionaries and expatriates face a multitude of challenges: the stresses of functioning in a second language, learning to adapt to the customs of another culture, witnessing hardship and trauma, and being distanced from family, friends, and other natural supports. These obstacles can bear a heavy weight on every sphere of one's health- mental, emotional, physical, relational, spiritual- and being removed from everything that is familiar can make it difficult to find the help that one needs for support through the struggle.
Through the challenges of working in the mission field, this special group of people are often overlooked and underserved when it comes to mental health. Seeing this need, Agape Counseling is passionate to help those who are serving overseas. Telehealth is a platform that can provide the opportunity to meet across time zones and continents to offer counsel through the struggles,be it depression, anxiety, marital conflict, culture shock, or tension amongst teammates . We are fortunate to have a team member who has served on the mission field and is also a Licensed Counselor, ready to offer support through online counseling.
Telehealth - Technology advances everyday. With webcams our clinicians can provide counseling when coming to an onsite office appointment is just not working. Simply put, Tele Health is Online Counseling. This has become revolutionary for people who live out of state, who are traveling, but want to keep up with their counseling progress, active duty military and those who may have schedules that prevent them from scheduling during normal office hours.
Fees and Payment
Not available.
Services Offered To: Adults Couples Teens Children
Special Groups: Bilingual Faith-Based
Payment: Sliding Scale Medicare Medicaid
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Qualifying for assistance from North Carolina's program usually depends on the severity of your condition and financial circumstance. Read our full guide to North Carolina's program.
A community counseling agency is a group therapy practice that offers affordable mental health services. Most are independent non-profit agencies, state agencies, or publicly-funded agencies. A few may restrict who is eligible for services, so it is a good idea to check when you call.
Community counseling agencies are generally more affordable than other therapy providers, but how much more affordable they are will depend on whether you qualify for a discount or sliding scale fee (or if they accept your insurance). Many, but not all, have a policy that they won't turn away anyone due to inability to pay. You should ask about their fees when you first call.
Expect to talk to kind people who want to help you find the care you need. Most community agencies strive to connect you with a live person within 24 hours, if not immediately. If you're asked to hold or leave a message, don't give up; just leave a message and wait. You should hear back pretty quickly.
Most agencies try to set up an initial assessment appointment within a week (some do within 24 hours), though the waitlist to start therapy is usually longer—about a few weeks on average. If you're not eligible or if the agency is not right for you, it's usually still worth it to call or drop in, because staff are knowledgeable about local options and can often refer you to one.