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  • Janice Davidson of Christian Family Counseling talks with Clinical Director Glen Ryswyk about some paperwork Tuesday evening. Joshua Kellogg/The Duncan Banner

    Janice Davidson of Christian Family Counseling talks with Clinical Director Glen Ryswyk about some paperwork Tuesday evening.
October 17, 2012

Community assistance important to Christian Family Counseling

Joshua Kellogg The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Education is the key for Christian Family Counseling as counselors work to provide support for those seeking their services without focusing on the ability to pay.

An agency of the United Way of Stephens County, the organization’s mission is to provide affordable counseling for everyone, including couples, families and children.

“Our mission is to provide counseling to people without regard for ability to pay,” Clinical Director Glen Ryswyk said. “We do a lot of work with depression, anxiety and adjustments to many things.”

Marriage and couples counseling are available along with options for children, family, divorce, single parenting and other issues.

Ryswyk said depression and anxiety are probably the biggest issue for the out-patient clinic, as the disorders tend to be manifestations of the same thing.

“Depending on the situation, people going through a bad marriage are likely to be depressed,” Ryswyk said. “Taking care of kids can cause uncertain anxiety.”

As clinical director, Ryswyk manages the staff of counselors as well as working with patients himself.

He takes information gathered from the initial contact, including demographic information along with brief statement about why the patient desires counseling and makes assignments to the staff to best provide the service.

“When they come to Christian Family Counseling, they are getting lots of guidance and interaction of getting the right help to people,” Ryswyk said. “It’s about education, one on one. It is sitting with someone and hearing their story.”

While providing guidance in the office, counselors and board members for the organization are making strides in raising awareness in the community.

“A number of our counselors teach at Cameron (University) and train others in the community and our Executive Director (Dr. Charles Baer) has visited clubs like Kiwanis,” Ryswyk said.

Baer and board members recently finished up working with Halliburton locally, making several presentations along with working with the local Oklahoma Department of Human Services, working with young mothers.

Ryswyk enjoys the chance to providing counseling to those in need, seeing people’s attitude on life change for the better.

“It’s tremendously fulfilling to see people come in depressed, or in despair, and to see them talking about their pain and issues and seeing that pain dissipate,” Ryswyk said. “Just six weeks ago, a man came in with much distress and he walked in today with a smile, saying he felt creative and happy again.”

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