Iaomai Farms
Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Direction
Welcome!
Welcome to Iaomai Farms! We (Aimee and Brian) are Pastoral Care Chaplains offering Christian-based pastoral counseling and spiritual direction. We are both ordained ministers with doctoral- and graduate-level theological education, professional chaplaincy training in hospital and military settings, experience with a variety of helping models, and more than 20 years of experience caring for people.
Our pastoral counseling often includes support for areas such as marriage and premarital counseling, grief, depression, anxiety, child-loss, life transitions, and personal growth. God has wonderful ways to meet us in these challenging situations. We are happy to join people in their journeys of wrestling with them as they work towards healing and wholeness.
Brian also offers spiritual direction. Often also referred to as spiritual companioning or soul friendships, this is a wonderful relationship for pursuing growth and greater awareness of God’s activities in our lives. So much of our Christian practice is focused on doing, whether it’s doing things for God, being closer to God, or simply doing/not doing the right things. Spiritual direction attends to interior life and helps us grow in being —with God, with ourselves, and with each other. It’s a relationship that helps us become more aware and attuned to the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives and His invitations to greater abiding with Him.
Whether through pastoral counseling, spiritual direction, or another of the services we offer, we hope to partner with you in your journey with God and His continued healing and wholeness in your life.
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Are you in a situaton where you want help, want to believe God can be at work in your life, but you keep hitting a wall? Deeply rooted in Scripture and prayer, trained in a variety of therapeutic models, we integrate Christian theological realities and practice as we engage life challenges. Areas we support include pre-marital and marital counseling; anxiety, depression, and loneliness; grief and trauma; life, relationship, and career transitions; church hurt and broken trust with faith communities; feeling stagnant, stuck, or derailed in your Christian journey; and discerning God’s plan and leading in your life. If there’s a situation weighing heavily on you, we are happy to see how we may come alongside you in your journey.
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Have you been walking with God for some time, but feel like there’s something you’re missing? Maybe you have been faithfully serving but feel alone, burned out, and unseen. Spiritual direction is a relationship in which someone comes alongside and sits with you in your experience, not having all the answers, but listening to you and helping as you discern where God is in all this. This is a relationship of being seen and heard, and of abiding with God and one another.
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Pastor, so often you and your family are surrounded by people you love and care for, but have few people truly caring for you. We are happy to come alongside you, giving space for you to be human, wrestle with God and life, and be in a place to receive care rather than expected to care for all others. This support might be relationship counseling; compassion fatigue, burnout, depression, loneliness, or anxiety; grief support; continued spiritual and personal growth coaching; sabbatical planning and support; or other needs you might be unsure of where you can honestly, safely go for support.
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Have you been a Christan for years but look back and feel like you haven’t really grown much for a while? Do you struggle to integrate your faith with your relationships, work, and other aspects of daily life? Do you sense there must be more to your Christian walk than church on Sunday, reading your Bible, praying, and maybe volunteering, but are unsure of how to move beyond that? We can come alongside and provide personalized coaching to help your spiritual growth go from what it has been to a richer, maturing walk with Christ.
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Are you sensing God’s invitation to a season of rest, renewal, restoration, and healing? Sabbaticals are not an extended vaction—though they certainly may include a vacation as part of the plan! Rather, sabbaticals are a set period where you receive God’s invitation to invest in you and your family. This can include intentional rest, counseling, fun and recreation, hobbies, implementing new spiritual disciplines, and other activities that God may use to restore your soul and transition you to a fresh, new season. We come alongside and assist with discerning your needs and developing your sabbatical plan with its different components. While on your sabbatical, we offer ongoing support with calls and pastoral care needs.
What is pastoral counseling?
Pastoral counseling is different from professional counseling provided by a licensed counselor (LPC, LFMT, or LCSW). Most professional counselors are trained in a wide variety of helping theories or approaches, rooted in scientific study based on measurable outcomes. This can be very helpful but does not attend to the spiritual component of people.
Rather than leaning primarily on the psychological helping models (ie, cognitive behavior therapy, emotion-focused therapy, family systems, etc), we lean on the Holy Spirit, attending to His role and work in our lives. Pastoral counseling varies widely based on the pastor providing it: their personal and ministerial experiences, theological leanings, professional or formal training, approaches to discipleship, and other influences from their church background.
Here at Iaomai Farms, as Pastoral Care Chaplains we begin with the awareness of God being present with us. He has meaning, purpose, healing, and growth for every person. We have a holistic awareness of each person’s living and growing in the many aspects of their lives. We often think of these as the spiritual, emotional, relational, cognitive, physical, and vocational parts of us. Each part impacts the others, often without our realizing it. The spiritual component is often neglected or misunderstood. With a Christ-centered and holistic awareness, we integrate Biblical, theological realities with a person’s lived experiences—the joys, travails, and everything in between—to facilitate the hope and restoration God has for each person.
Two special emphases we share…
While we offer support to people of all walks of life, we have a special emphasis of caring for clergy and their family members. So many ministers throughout our society devote their lives to caring for others…but few are truly cared for. There are exceptions to the rule, but many ministers work longer hours, have lower wages and benefits, live daily with high and unreasonable societal expectations on them and their families, and many other stressors most people do not routinely experience. We have experienced this loneliness and hurt in some seasons. We also have also been blessed with fellow ministers’ kindness and compassion in other seasons of our own lives. We love coming alongside fellow workers in God’s kingdom and getting to be a small slice of God’s loving-kindness in their lives.
Having walked through traumatic loss, we also care deeply for those walking roads of grief and deep hurt. People seldom walk the exact same road as someone else, but we often have experiences that result in similar wounds and pain. While someone does not have to experience something to be of help to another person, there is a special connection and encouragement from someone who has walked a similar road. In our own journey, we have been uniquely comforted by others who have also lost children to unexpected deaths and miscarriages. We have wrestled with grief and encountered God in those dark places and especially have a heart for walking with others on that same hard road.
We offer 50-minute pastoral counseling sessions for individuals and couples. As we do not accept insurance but desire to make this service available to more people, we offer sessions for $80. This is about half the rate normally charged in our region, and we wish for support to be more widely accessible. The fee is the same whether the session is with an individual or a couple. Spiritual direction is offered at $70/session. Coaching sessions are $80/session. Sabbatical planning services are $60/session. All services are available to clergy and their spouses at $40/session.
If you need help and have financial hardship, please reach out to us. There are a number of clients we can meet with at a discounted rate or pro bono, and churches and others can also pay it forward to help ensure access to care.
We primarily meet virtually. For those wishing to meet in person, we can meet at a public location of your choice in the greater Killeen-Temple-Georgetown area. For those who have met with us several times and wish to enjoy the quiet of the country setting, we offer the option of meeting at our farm, where they can enjoy porch sitting, wooded trails, and the company of miniature cows and miniature goats—surrounded by God’s creation as we work with Him on navigating life’s challenges.
Book appointment
Please call or e-mail us to schedule an appointment. Interested but not sure if what we offer is the right fit? We can do a free consult to discuss your situation and what to expect working with us.