Please don’t suffocate emotions (yours or your kid’s). Instead, give emotions AIR…
Allow
Identify
Respond
It’s a simple mnemonic to use when feelings start flying.
For more, visit Stone and Sky Counseling, LLC
Individual and Couples Counseling Now Available in the Joplin/Webb City Area!
Hello there, and thanks for stopping by!
I’m so excited to offer individual and couples counseling in Southwest Missouri! If you’re interested in setting up a session, please visit Stone and Sky Counseling or see my listing on Psychology Today. Three-day individual and couples counseling intensives are also available.
Background
Since 2014, I have had the privilege of walking alongside hundreds of couples and individuals in dozens of countries. As a pastoral counselor, empathetic coach, Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and Provisionally Licensed Professional Counselor (PLPC), I have experience journeying with people through issues such as grief and loss, life transitions, anxiety, ADHD, depression, trauma, OCD, abuse (spiritual, sexual, physical, emotional), debriefing, Autism, ministry burnout, addictions, and more. With all clients, I take a person-centered, trauma-informed, experiential approach.
Before moving to Cambodia in 2012, I worked bi-vocationally as an ER/trauma nurse and youth and worship pastor. I am also a licensed attorney in California and hold a master’s in clinical mental health counseling from Colorado Christian University. As a PLPC, I am supervised by Dr. Karl Wendt, LPC #001808.
For Pastors and Ministry Folks
My wife and I have been involved in local church ministry, in one form or another, since 2000. Before moving abroad, I was a youth and worship minister for about ten years. From 2012 to 2020, my family and I lived as cross-cultural missionaries in Phnom Penh Cambodia and I served the community as a pastor at an international church and as a pastoral counselor at a local counseling center, working with folks from over thirty nations.
I’ve led trainings, seminars, or coaching sessions in China, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Laos, the US, England, and Myanmar.
For Marriages
With couples, I utilize an attachment-based, emotionally-focused approach. I also greatly appreciate the evidence-based tools and resources from Dr. John Gottman. Since 2014, I’ve had the privilege of meeting with several hundred couples who were trying to overcome unhealthy patterns in their relationship, boost communication, improve their sex life, prepare for married life, and more. I am trained to administer the Prepare/Enrich relationship assessment. See the “Roadmap” I often use with couples here.
For Medical Professionals and First Responders:
It is my privilege to offer specialized care for for medical professionals and first responders. If that’s you, keep reading.
If you’re looking for a counselor who understands what a Level 1 Trauma Center feels like during a full moon; if you’re looking for a therapist who’s assisted Kansas City police officers in subduing violent patients; if you want to visit with someone who knows the unique stressors and pressures of dealing with life and death situations during a normal Tuesday, keep reading!
With a background in ER/trauma nursing, law, ministry, and counseling, I now provide individual and couples counseling at Mount Hope Christian Counseling Center in Webb City.
Visit www.stoneandskycounseling.com for more information or to book an initial session.
with Jonathan Trotter, RN, MA, JD, NCC, PLPC
at Mount Hope Christian Counseling Center
2830 Mt. Hope Road, Webb City, MO 64870
(417) 624-9659 · jonathan@stoneandskycounseling.com
The Window {a poem}
They gather here for their daily bread,
and a drink,
Unaware that behind this window is another.
There, a portal opens to an El Salvadorian summer,
a Central African power outage,
a thick Indonesian night.
Paris.
Does he not care more for you than the birds of the yard?
There is such beauty in the large, grand things;
the great arc of justice or rainbow.
But there is beauty too in the miniscule;
the bird on wing,
the hosta’s veiny leaf.
The heart at rest.
Not even a cardinal can fall but that he takes notice and sees.
The world is loud and gaudy, demanding we be afraid,
and drown.
Thanatos lives here.
But there is more.
The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.
I will not fear, for through both windows I see the Father at work,
tending,
mending.
I see the living among the dead.
___________________________________________
The Client {a poem}
The client,
Courageous,
Opens the room, not knowing what lies beyond, trusting that hope is somewhere in the darkness.
In session, the client sometimes knows where he’s going and goes there striding. In session, the client sometimes discovers where she’s been and falls to her knees.
Other times, the tears just fall and the Kleenex box empties and the minutes run out. Next week is obscenely far away.
The client,
A person with a story,
Desperate
Longs for relief of long buried pain or grief or silence. Who will bear witness? Who will see this?
Unbearable history, yet borne.
Unspeakable pain, yet screamed.
Unwitnessed trauma, yet seen by many.
The client,
Resolute
Slowly turns into the pain and finds a heart filled with compassion and curiosity and kindness. There is mercy here, and light.
There is a future.
The client,
Courageous,
Opens the room.
Loving Someone with Anxiety (or ADHD or Autism)
These three books have been very helpful for a bunch of clients, and if you feel like one might fit your situation, check it out. They seem to do a pretty good job of validating the spouse’s experience, while also giving hope and compassion and ideas for moving forward. Find the books on Amazon here:
*affiliate links
NOTE: Asperger’s is no longer the correct technical term for that end of the autism spectrum, although some people with Autism Spectrum Disorder still prefer it. This particular book is several years old.
Jonathan & Elizabeth Trotter 