Education:
- 300+ CEU hours in mental & emotional health and counseling skills
- Post-graduate, sociology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX
- D.Min., pastoral ministry/proclamation, Southwestern Thelogical Seminary, Fort Worth, TX
- M.Div., theology-languages, pastoral care, Southwestern Thelogical Seminary, Fort Worth, TX
- M.A., American history, Samford University, Birmingham, AL
- B.A., history/english/education, Samford University, Birmingham, AL
Certifications:
- BCPC, Board Certified Pastoral Counselor credentialed by the International Board of Christian Professional and Pastoral Counselors, Forest, VA
- Basic Coach Training, Core Coach Training – Coaching4Clergy
- Corporate Coach U Coaching Clinic – BGCT Certified Coach
- Ministry Insights Leading from Your Strengths Level II Certified Trainer/Facilitator
- Certified SYMBIS Assessment Facilitator
- Certified Career Direct Consultant (careerdirect-ge.org Crown.org)
- Surrendering the Secret Facilitator Certification (post-abortion)
- Basic Mediation Training, (as set by Texas Mediation Trainers Roundtable and Chapter 154 of the Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code)
Affiliations:
- American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), Forest, VA
- Fort Worth Area Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (FWAAMFT), Ft Worth, TX
- Career Direct Certified Consultant
My Family
I am grateful for my family. Carol and I have been married since 1965. We enjoy our two adult children and their families –especially our five grandchildren and a great-grandson who bring joy to our lives. When I’m not involved with my family, I enjoy cooking, reading, walking, golf, and spectator sports, including NASCAR.
Called to Help Others
Two of my dominate childhood memories are loving animals and wanting to help people. From my early years on a southeast Georgia farm surrounded by animals to my teen years with horses, I’ve had a connection with animals. Through them I learned about myself. As a child, I also had a special connection to family and friends and invested energy to help them.
My desire to help people reached a new level when I, as a high school senior, became pastor of a church. Over the next five-plus decades, I worked as lead pastor in five churches, including the founding of two churches in the DFW Metroplex – Carrollton and Trophy Club. Throughout my pastorates, my counseling abilities grew as I served our church and community members in a supportive role.
In 1999 I became a pastoral care pastor. I initiated and oversaw professional counseling ministries, the lay-caring ministry, an extensive offering of support groups for emotional and spiritual healing, and developed and supervised facilitators for support/recovery groups. My six-year interval in this position was rewarding and enhanced my counseling abilities.
As a credentialed Board Certified Pastoral Counselor, I have been in private practice as a counselor/therapist since 2007, when I founded Becomer Counseling Services. I bring to my practice extensive skill sets in areas of individual, marriage and family, parenting, premarital, grief and loss, abuse, addiction, anger, anxiety, low self-value, spiritual direction, and personal growth counseling and coaching.
Becoming Through My Own Brokenness
A defining moment that altered my life occurred December 1992 when I hit an emotional wall. I, the pastor-counselor, chose to reach out for professional counseling. I’d spent my life helping others, and in the process had lost myself. I’d become a “human doing” when I was created a human being. I realized I did not know how to ‘be’, nor did I know how to do healthy self-care.
Something had to change, and that something was someone—me. I began my own healing journey, which involved individual and group therapy, as well as study of Scripture and prayer. This exciting and painful period led me down unexpected pathways…to face my unresolved emotional issues of abandonment, insecurity, inferiority, and childhood fears. It was a time of identifying, facing, embracing, releasing and letting go. I discovered we live our lives based on our views of ourselves, often distorted and inaccurate perceptions learned in childhood.
I came to accept and embrace both my pain and struggles as essential to personal healing and growth, and am grateful for each adversity I have experienced. Coming to the end of my rope and finding courage and strength to pull myself back up through Christ and counseling therapy — gave me a unique perspective to better listen, hear, understand, feel, value, and honor my clients’ adversities. I know from my own experience the courage it takes to ask for and receive help, and the strong commitment involved to achieve real change.
Equipped to Help You
My degrees and certifications provide a critical, basic foundation for giving solid counsel. Beyond that, I have many years of on-the-job experience as a pastor, leader of support groups, and doing therapy with clients. I have encountered and guided people struggling with a huge array of problems common to society. My own experience of losing and finding myself increased the empathy I have with clients.
I view counseling as a way of rediscovering who we really are, who our Creator God says we are and who He is, and once again finding that true inner beauty that was damaged along the way. I am a lifelong learner, open to new levels of awareness and growth. I stay in touch with current culture in order to meet clients on an authentic level.
If you are battered, broken, bruised, wounded, frightened, lonely, ashamed, enraged, depressed, ‘stuck,’ or simply overwhelmed, I encourage you to discover something new and true about yourself through pastoral counseling.
You can experience help, hope, and healing…transformation!