Grief and Loss

Individual and Couples Counseling Now Available in the Joplin/Webb City Area!

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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.

Stone and Sky Counseling, LLC

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

Counseling sessions now available in Joplin!

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Starting in a couple of weeks, I’ll be seeing clients at Mt. Hope Christian Counseling Center on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. And since I’m an intern, Mt. Hope offers clients a sliding scale payment option that makes sessions pretty inexpensive.

Please help spread the word, and let me know if you have any questions.

Here’s the announcement from Mt. Hope’s Facebook page:

Meet Jonathan Trotter, our newest counseling intern!

We are excited to announce that Jonathan is currently accepting new clients for individual and couples counseling.

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Read Jonathan’s bio:

As an intern with Mt. Hope, Jonathan is excited to offer marriage counseling, pre-marital counseling, and individual counseling to clients thirteen and over. Since 2014, Jonathan has walked alongside hundreds of couples and individuals in dozens of countries. He has experience journeying with people through issues such as grief and loss, life transitions, anxiety, depression, trauma, OCD, abuse (spiritual, sexual, physical, emotional), debriefing, ministry burnout, and addictions.

With couples, Jonathan utilizes an attachment-based, emotion-focused approach. He also greatly appreciates the evidence-based tools and resources from Dr. John Gottman. With all clients, Jonathan takes a person-centered, trauma-informed, experiential approach.

From 2012 to 2020, he and his family served as cross-cultural missionaries in Phnom Penh Cambodia. Prior to that, he worked bi-vocationally as an ER/trauma nurse (RN) and youth and worship pastor. He is a licensed attorney in California (inactive) and is currently completing his master’s in clinical mental health counseling at Colorado Christian University.

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Click here to see availability.

For questions, or to schedule an initial consult, contact the office at (417) 624-9659 or contact Jonathan directly at JonathanTrotterCounseling@gmail.com.

On Fundamental Sadness and the Deeper Magic {A Life Overseas}

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by Jonathan

Some call it pessimism. Unspiritual. A sickness best treated with peppy music and cliché-riddled Christianese. They caution and guard against sadness, considering it a rabbit hole (or a worm hole) leading nowhere good. Others call it holy. Jeremiah-ish. Defending it with the label of realism – open eyes that see things as they truly are.

It is Fundamental Sadness.

Do you know what it feels like, this fundamental sadness? The sadness that seems to be part of all things?

Sometimes the sadness is very personal; it’s the loss of a sister or a father or a good friend. Sometimes it’s the loss of a country or long-treasured plans.

Sometimes the sadness is more global. It’s the emotional darkness that comes after you hear about Las Vegas, Mogadishu, the Yazidis, Paris, the Rohingya, or Raqqa. Sometimes its triggered by hashtags like #MeToo or #BringBackOurGirls.

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It is the blazing sunset that sears, not because of who’s present, but because of who’s absent.

It is the baby’s cry in a mother’s arms that taunts your empty ones.

It is the background sadness, fundamental, and seemingly underneath all things.

It’s the threat of miscarriage behind every pregnancy.

It’s the one who sees the beauty of the dawn, but feels deep in his gut that the dawn comes before the dusk – that sunrise precedes sunset.

It is the lover who knows, at the beginning of a beautiful kiss, that it will end.

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“…of all conceivable things the most acutely dangerous thing is to be alive.”

— G.K. Chesterton

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For me, this foundational sadness is not necessarily depressing, but it is always pressing: exerting force, demanding to be heard, demanding to be observed.

Do you know this feeling?

People get scared when I talk like this. I sort of do too. What will people think? This doesn’t sound right. Or mature. Or Holy.

And yet Jesus wept.

“And yet.” A powerful reminder, hinting at the deeper magic.

Jesus knew Jerusalem would destroy the prophets, and he knew Rome would destroy Jerusalem.

And yet.

Though the sadness feels fundamental, the deeper magic is there, waiting, pulsing. It absorbs the sadness, bearing it, transforming it, then re-birthing it.

Continue reading at A Life Overseas.