WELCOME!
You’re probably reading this because you’re suffering from depression, anxiety, anger, an addiction — or possibly a marital or family conflict — and you believe that God is leading you to a professional Christian counselor. If so, I’d be honored to walk alongside you during this season of your life. As a doctorate-level clinical counselor, licensed in Colorado and Illinois, I’ve been in private practice for over 25 years. My office is located in Canon City, Colorado, near the Royal Gorge, up here in the Rocky Mountains, but my licensure also allows me to also counsel residents of Illinois online or by phone.
My mission is to glorify God by helping His people learn how to ABIDE in CHRIST until LOVE, JOY, PEACE and other fruit of the Spirit become the NORM under ANY set of conditions, no matter how difficult. Most of my clients share my Christian faith, but all hurting people are welcome in my counseling practice.
ARE WE A GOOD FIT?
To help you decide if my counseling services are a good fit for you, this website provides you with a description of my Christian counseling approach, my qualifications, my published work, my specializations, and an open statement of my Christian faith along with frequently asked questions I often receive from new clients. Also there’s a brief description of my personal and family life and an article I wrote on Transformational Prayer Ministry (TPM) primarily for counseling students, my colleagues, and anyone else interested in this topic.
WHO ARE THE CLIENTS I SERVE?
My typical client is a Bible-believing Christian under a lot of stress who wants to experience more love, joy, and peace and other “fruit of the Spirit” under very difficult circumstances: depression, an anxiety disorder, marital conflict, childhood trauma, anger problems, severe stress, or a debilitating addiction.
Some of my clients have a medical condition causing psychological distress, such as excruciating physical pain, hormonal imbalances, OCD, ADD, bipolarity or chemical imbalances in the brain. No matter what condition they suffer, my services are geared towards helping clients learn how to “abide in Christ” (John 15:4-5) until love, joy, peace and other spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) become the daily norm, no matter what difficulties they suffer.
Other clients are “spiritual seekers” who are troubled and confused and want a trained, experienced counselor for help in navigating through life’s struggles. I have a big heart for hurting people — those whom Jesus calls the “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:2) — who are humble enough to seek counsel and invest their time and resources to experience lasting change. That means that no one — absolutely no one — is turned away from my Bible-based, Christ-centered, Spirit-led services based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or political worldview. In fact, I actually enjoy working with a very diverse clientele!
EFFECTIVENESS OF MY COUNSELING APPROACH
Most clients experience significant improvement after 6-12 weekly sessions. After reaching your initial goals for counseling, we might start meeting every other week, followed by monthly sessions, until I am no longer needed to sustain improvement. One reason for the rapid progress in many of my clients is that I provide time-tested tools along with reading materials that I have developed over the years at no extra charge that greatly help the momentum of progress to keep moving along in between sessions. Also my clients are invited to text me brief prayer requests in between sessions. I typically repond to each prayer request within a few hours.
SETTING YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT
- If you have a question or want to request an appointment, feel free to call my office 815-980-2449 day or night, and just leave a message if I am not immediately available. I try to return all calls on the same day.
- Appointment times are as follows: 3:15 PM, 4:30 PM, 6:15 PM Monday-Wednesday (Mountain Time). Each session runs for one full hour.
- You have three options for how you want my services delivered to you:
- Online therapy, in which you would receive an email link before each session for confidential counseling through a telehealth video conference platform that is HIPAA compliant. (That means that it meets regulatory and ethical standards in guarding your privacy and confidentiality).
- In-person visits at my counseling office here in Canon City, CO, about an hour’s drive south of Colorado Springs.
- Confidential counseling over the phone.
- After you have called my office and set your appointment, you will be asked to complete each of the documents (PDF files) on the bottom of this page. Each form MUST be FULLY completed and received by me before the first session can begin.
PAYMENT AND FEES
Please recognize that my advanced education, training and experience puts me at a much higher pay scale than most other therapists. But thankfully I am able to significantly reduce my fee for highly motivated clients who cannot afford my standard fee of $225/hour. To learn more about receiving a REDUCED FEE, just click these red letters — SERVICES AND FEES — and it will take you to a page of this website that prepares you for some questions to answer before calling my office to request your sliding fee rate.
IF YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE please be aware that I am NOT associated in any way with any insurance company and that I do NOT join insurance panels or “preferred providers” lists. Also I do NOT submit insurance claims for my clients. However, at your request I will provide receipts for services that you may submit to your insurance company to request reimbursement for payments for my services. To find out if your health insurance plan will reimburse you for my services, just call the phone number on the back of your insurance card and ask the insurance representative to answer each of the questions regarding your coverage on the Insurance Information Form provided for your convenience at the bottom of this page below.
STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions whatsoever that are not answered here, please click frequently asked questions or feel free to call my office at 815-980-2449. Congratulations on your decision to seek Christian counseling. May God richly bless you on your journey!
Love, joy, and peace,
Dr. Scott Lownsdale, Ed.D. (“Dr. Scott”)
LPC (Colorado) / LCPC (Illinois)
“MY MISSION is to glorify God by helping His people ABIDE in CHRIST until LOVE, JOY, PEACE and other fruit of the Spirit become the NORM under ANY set of conditions.” – Dr. Scott Lownsdale