Faith and counseling in the foothills

Can faith be part of counseling near Tryon?

Yes. Faith-integrated counseling means the therapist welcomes your beliefs as part of who you are and can draw on them where they help: prayer, scripture, the language of your tradition, or questions about meaning and purpose. It does not mean being preached at, and it does not require you to hold any particular belief. The longer explanation is in what is faith-integrated counseling?.

Laura Bass, a psychotherapist who works with adults, describes her approach as holistic, humanistic and integrative. In her own words, she helps people with a world of too many demands and too little real connection: with God or Creator, with yourself, with others and with the earth. She studied Spiritual Direction at the Haden Institute, which trains spiritual directors in what it calls the Jungian mystical Christian tradition, and she is an ordained minister with the Alliance of Divine Love. She sees clients at The Healing Cottage in Columbus, her part-time office since 2024, and at her main practice in Charlotte.

Her practice is to offer possibilities and let the client choose. Some clients want faith at the center of their counseling. Some want it in the background. Some want nothing to do with it, and that is respected just as fully.

Faith in a small community

In a county of about nineteen thousand people (the 2020 Census counted 19,328 in Polk County), a congregation is often more than a place of worship. It can be where your friendships, your volunteering and your support in a crisis all come from. That is a real strength. It can also make some struggles harder to talk about.

People in close congregations sometimes hesitate to tell their pastor about a marriage in trouble, a loss of faith or a depression they are ashamed of, because the pastor is also a neighbor and a friend of the family. Counseling offers a confidential place outside that web, where you can say what you actually think and feel without worrying how it will sound at Sunday lunch. What you share stays confidential within the limits the law sets.

That is not a choice between your church and a therapist. Many people find that each supports the other. The guide to choosing a faith-sensitive therapist has questions worth asking any counselor about how they handle faith.

When faith is part of the struggle

Faith is not always a comfort. Some people come to counseling because belief itself has become painful or confusing. Common examples:

• Doubt, or a sense that beliefs you held for a lifetime no longer fit. See doubt and changing beliefs.
• Hurt caused by a church, a leader or a community, including the grief of leaving one. See religious hurt and leaving a church.
• A long season of spiritual dryness or darkness. See spiritual crisis and the dark night.
• Couples whose beliefs differ, or have drifted apart over time. See faith and couples counseling.
• Guilt or shame that feels tied to what you were taught, which sits alongside the concerns Laura works with, such as shame, grief, depression and anxiety.

Grief, faith and the questions that come with loss

In an older community, many people meet grief often. The 2020 Census found nearly a third of Polk County residents aged 65 and older. Loss can deepen faith, shake it, or do both in the same week. Some people feel guilty for being angry with God; others feel their congregation expects them to be further along than they are.

Counseling can make room for all of that without hurrying you toward an answer. The site's article on grief and faith goes deeper, and grief counseling in Tryon covers local grief support, including hospice bereavement services in the area.

Pastor, spiritual director or therapist?

These roles overlap, but each has its own focus. A pastor offers care within a particular congregation and tradition. A spiritual director, in the words of Spiritual Directors International, accompanies people as they seek wholeness and connection with God or however they name the sacred; the focus is the inner spiritual life. A therapist, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, works to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts and behaviors, and can address conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Laura's training spans these worlds, and she works with mind, body and spirit together. That means she can welcome prayer or spiritual questions in a session if you want them, while the work remains grounded in counseling. The fuller comparison is in spiritual direction vs therapy.

If you are also interested in energy work such as the Emotion Code, which Laura offers as a certified practitioner, see Emotion Code and spiritual healing near Tryon. It is always the client's choice, and it is not medical care, crisis care or a substitute for treatment.

Getting started

The Columbus office is about five miles from Tryon, about ten from Saluda and about eight from Landrum. Laura is licensed in North and South Carolina, so people on both sides of the line can ask about working with her. Because the Columbus office is part-time, ask which days she is there, and whether video sessions are an option. She is in network with several insurers, including Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare; the full list is on the insurance page for Polk County.

You can tell Laura in your first message how much you want faith to be part of things, or leave it until you meet. Reach her through the contact page or at 704-706-3264, and read about individual counseling in the meantime. The Tryon counseling guide has the rest of the local picture.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Common questions