Jerry,  and Sahera counsel individuals, couples and families with issues ranging from poor coping skills to relationships to mental illness. Jerry graduated from Cincinnati Christian University (previously Cincinnati Bible Seminary) with Master's degree in counseling in 1996, a Master's degree in management from Troy State University, Bachelor's in microbiology from Ohio State University and has been licensed since 1998 as a Professional Clinical Counselor (PCC) in Ohio. He is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC III).

	Sahera graduated with Master's in Mental Health Counseling from Wright State University. She is licensed as a Professional Counselor in Ohio.   Find out more about services provided including individual, marriage and/or family counseling by calling JMAC Counseling Center at (937) 427-9151.
	Our Children Are Our Future When we are young, we have some ideas how life should be and we evaluate our parents role in our lives as sometimes helpful, sometimes hindering, and sometimes impossible. Then, we become parents and we are determined not to be like our parents. Try as we might, our parents teachings come out of us as we teach our children. Good lessons and sometimes not-so-good lessons. We can all learn better ways of doing things-and that includes parenting. Many of us lean on God to help us-and God helps us. Our goal is to raise our children to be responsible and successful adults. We are not really raising children, we are raising adults. They are the ones who will be the power behind the next generation. There are some lessons that they need to learn. One is that life is not fair-it was never promised to be fair-it is just life. Our attitude makes all the difference in how we view what happens to us. We all have to do things we do not want to do at times that are inconvenient. We can always do better than we believed possible, we can do more than we thought we could, and we do things that we might have believed impossible. Another hard lesson is that we are disciplined and we have to discipline our children to guide them in the direction that will help them. We do not like that part. Parents, together with others that contribute, are the instruments of training up the next generation. With God?s help they will be able to do the same thing for their children.
	* Behavior is often a result of feelings and feelings are not always a choice. * What we think or believe (belief systems) can directly impact our feelings. * We can challenge and change our belief systems which will affect our feelings AND our behavior. * We cannot control the feelings. We can change our belief systems and we can control our behavior.

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BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MINDS// If an event has happened that has left you feeling sad, lonely, depressed, or some other "bad" feeling, you may find this process helpful. Your feelings generated from events are individual and they are real. The actions you took as a result of the feelings are often natural based on the feelings. Suppose you are angry over a comment from a family member and you walk off, slam the door and grumble about it. All may seem naturally a result of the comment. WE have to deal with a BELIEF SYSTEM! What do you believe about the person who made the comment and about the comment itself? Those beliefs may not be helpful. We can evaluate our belief as being true, helpful, and worth believing. If they are all of the above, they are probably "rational" beliefs. However, if they are not one of the above, they may be irrational. The bottom line of the flow chart shows a camera check. If you took this event and snapped a picture, there would be no emotion felt?what would you see. How would you have rather felt (feeling goal) and if you had felt that way, would it have affected your behavior. What do you have to believe in order to have that feeling? You can analyze your belief systems. Suppose a family at dinner has a five year old who reaches for something and in the process spills his or her milk (event). The parent feels anger and disappointment (feelings) and they ask (behavior) the child to leave the table. Parents may believe: children should be more careful and that spilling the milk was not an accident. The analysis may show that milk spilled and the people at the table are looking. We prefer to feel love and understanding. A better belief is that it was an accident and children are sometimes so anxious to do something that they are not careful. Teaching is easier if we have some examples to use. This may be a good example for a learning experience. Would the parents be transformed if they believed differently?

YOUTH AND VIOLENCE// We are all concerned about our youth and their health. We are also concerned about their safety and the possibility of violence. A recently released study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that youth are more likely to commit homicides near the start of the fall and spring semesters while student suicides are highest in the spring. According to Mark Anderson, medical epidemiologist for the CDC, the numbers of homicides spike in the months of September, January and February. He believes the reason for this is ?change.? ?There are often significant changes at the start of the semesters and it is possible that this may add to the level of stress students face and this could contribute to the violent behavior.? He also believes that ?some conflict is initiated at the end of holiday breaks and may spill over into the school year.? Brenda Belton, president-elect of the American School Counselor Association, believes ?the really stressful times for the kids are during the time they?re not in school. . . For many kids, school is a lot more structured than home.? She advocates ?keeping a pulse on the community? to identify some of the stress outside of the school year including car accidents, suicides, murders, or other significant events. Stress builds up inside people who do not have a way to release it. Talking and physical activities are some ways of releasing stress. Help may be needed if stress seems to be unmanageable.

GOD LOVES YOU///GOD LOVES YOU///GOD LOVES YOU///We believe that God loves us and is alive and active today. We believe that there is but one God in three persons, God the Father, God the son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit and we call that the Trinity. God is all powerful, all knowing and always present. Man was created with free will to make his or her own decisions and act on those decisions. God allows us to make mistakes and will forgive us of our mistakes if we ask him. Jesus is the savior that makes man acceptable to God. Jesus came to earth as a baby born to a woman, Mary, carrying with him the qualities of God and the qualities of man. As a result of this humanity, He understands our life and the struggles that we have. When He was sacrificed on the cross, Jesus took our mistakes with him. The Old Testament of the Holy Bible took a people, the Hebrews (which he called his people) to teach them about Himself. He gave them laws to follow and demanded a blood sacrifice when they sinned. They understood the need for a blood sacrifice to purify. The New Testament tells us about the final blood sacrifice, Jesus. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he left with us the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit which is in each of us who believe that is true. God did that because he loves us. What He did then still applies to us and the rest of the world was joined to his family as adopted children. We have hope in the future because God promises us that he is preparing a place for us. Please read John 14 to start with and continue to search out answers in the Bible. We will share our beliefs if you ask us.

FEAR IS THE TOOL OF THE TERRORIST//////////Terrorism is effective because of the ability to generate fear in a great many people. It is a tool of those who which to manipulate and harm without regard to their own safety. How effective is it? We all know that it is tremendously effective. However, fear has two faces. One face is that of preparation and watchfulness. The other face of fear is one of running away or attacking without thinking (actually or only in our minds). With the attack on the targets in New York and Washington, D.C., we have the attack in a horrific scale that is meant to create panic, kill and maim, and destroy the will of the people. The purpose of such action escapes the rational mind. In view of the pain our nation feels we must be aware of the fear that is generated. We need to pay attention to the face of fear that results in preparation and watchfulness. We need to control the part that makes us want to run away and/or attack without thinking. Fear is the greatest threat and is the tool of the terrorist. We can defeat fear by continuing to do things that help us remain capable of living. Gathering those around us who are important, talking about our fears and receiving confirmation that we are still rational. I found it good that some schools continued to have classes because of the peer relationship that students use for support. Families need to air the feelings of lack of control and sadness as well as the fear. When we find ourselves in fear of the fear, we are yielding to irrational control of our minds. We have to depend on others at times. Now, the people who are searching through the rubble have their job to do and those who are working to keep the nations workforce and economy going have their jobs to do. We all have our jobs to do. Students must continue to get the education that they can use to move into the next generation with more capability than they currently have. I value the work of the first responders at that scene?appearing to be without fear marching into the duty that they are trained to do. They did not know that the ultimate price would be paid by so many but they were just doing their job. I thank them and others like them?firefighters, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement, and well meaning volunteers. They can teach us how to continue to live WITH fear. As a counselor, volunteer chaplain for our fire department, and victim advocate, I urge all who continue to feel frozen with fear or stuck in depression seek professional help. There is help for you. I see the potential for people to become hopeless and want them to know that our nation has risen from disaster many times?and we will this time, too.

JMAC COUNSELING IS HERE TO SERVE FAMILIES////We help individuals, couples and families on a daily basis with a variety of concerns and problems. In addition, we have a class for men to learn more about MASCULINE SEXUALITY. This class is useful to enable life to be more complete plus there is an advanced level to assist healing from sexual addiction. Additional counselors are coming on the staff in January planning to begin counseling for CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE and EATING DISORDERS. If you are interested in more details about any of our programs, please call either Jerry or Becky at 427-9151.

jerrymccluer@earthlink.net