The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond LMHC Kelvin’s life was in shambles once again. The past 30 years of his adulthood resulted in three divorces with children from each marriage, five major career changes, and several moves across the country. As he moved back into his parent’s house for the fourth time in his adult life, he knew he needed to change. This was a revelation for him. In the past, change had been about his ex-wives, kids, job, and even location. Now it was going to be about him. So he willingly and openly went to counseling, instead of feeling forced into it. The first area he needed to tackle was his own destructive thoughts. These opinions became beliefs and sometimes self-fulling prophesies. The problem was that his thoughts were rooted in lies that he held onto as if they were gold. And the result brought chaos to his life. This is his list. “That didn’t happen.” Denial is the most powerful defense mechanism because it can erase a traumatic moment...

By Chris Hammond, IMH, MS Spend some time in a nursing home and you will come across two very general types of elderly people: ones who are still happy and others who are still miserable.   If you listen to their stories, both sets have had their fair share of life tragedies, health problems, loss of loved ones, wars, disappointments, and successes.   Yet one group walks away with a sense of having lived life well despite all of the tragedies and the other with regret despite any successes.   How can this be? Erik Erikson defines the last of his eight psychosocial development stage as Integrity vs. Despair which begins around age sixty-five till death.   The outcome of the previous seven stages sets the standard for this last stage in life as a person who has progressed well in previous stages will most likely end well.   When a person ages, their ability to moderate thoughts, feelings and emotions diminishes so good habits that were formed earlier te...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Oftentimes, we see spiritual warfare as an attack from the outside. Some larger force outside of us is coming after us with the intent to cause harm. These attacks can take the form of financial failure, marriage infidelity, natural disasters, rebellious children, economic depression, war, or dissension in churches. And sometimes, correctly, this is spiritual warfare. But sadly, sometimes these events are instead direct consequences of our own sinful actions and desires. Yet the greatest battle for spiritual warfare is not the larger than life events happening outside ourselves; rather it is in the smaller thoughts and feelings stirring inside. Thoughts. Ask yourself these questions and answer them honestly to better evaluate your thoughts. • What do you really think about and how much time do you spend thinking about it? • Do you replay conversations over and over in your head instead of what you did say? • Do you fantasize about h...