Deidre's Story

I first became interested in counselling during the last year of high school. I felt that school life was so academically based that it didn’t really focus on the whole person. During my nursing training in 1982 I managed to gain some experience with voluntary social work at the same time. Having felt very inadequate I longed to learn more. The following year I met my husband at the Bible College of New Zealand where we both gained qualifications specifically for ministry either at home (NZ) or for overseas. Mike and I felt called to our own people and pastoral ministry rather than the mission field at the time.

We were youth leaders for an inner city Auckland church (Ponsonby) and ran a children’s program in the local school. We did this as lay assistants for two years before moving south to New Plymouth to have twins. A year later, Mike spent a further two years in Dunedin to become a Presbyterian Minister. During this time our third child was born. We pastored a church in Napier for 4 years where our fourth child was born before moving across to a place called Te Kuiti for a further three years. During the seven years just gone we gave and learnt much. We developed in healing ministry and the prophetic, all of which we shared with our family.
Our children were healed of problems, released from hereditary curses and became free to make choices in following God and the life God had for them.

We even shared prophetic insights with them. They travelled everywhere with us and ministered with us. We felt God call us to leave NZ, that our home base would be in Adelaide, Australia. Since the year 1996, we began from Queensland where we spent nine months, four at School of the Prophets. During our time in Adelaide, we not only operated prophetically, but I gathered valuable foundational tools to help people deal with troubling every day problems through Careforce Ministries: “Training that offers insight into why people struggle and how to bring hope and help in a supportive group setting. It covers core issues in the emotional, cognitive, behavioural and spiritual domains. Included are strategies for leadership, intervention and group dynamics”, developed by those in the theology, psychology, social work and medical fields. I also studied the series on Boundaries, put out by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend who are popular psychologists, speaker and authors. We at Southland Vineyard Church thought it was so helpful that we devoted a whole year to studying boundaries. During this year I was part of the ministry team.

Another ministry tool was placed in our hands to help people out of the bondages created by secret vows taken in Freemason Lodges, effects that can range from relationship problems to a wide range of illnesses. Due to the nature of secrecy, whole families can be prevented from knowing the causes and source of their problems. The material I have helps eliminate causes and bring healing to whole families.
Five and a half years were spent based in Whyalla where we preached, sang and ministered as a family and in regional churches, encouraging them. I co- led a Philipino women’s group. I ministered one on one counselling, one of which was a lady with Bipolar disorder who was set free from a lot of things and in conjunction with medical treatment.

We moved later to Karratha where we stayed nearly four years. It was during this time that I added to my tools, the Theophostic ministry method. I found this to be very similar to how the Lord had already trained me. Where I have found the Theophostic ministry helpful is in being able to provide a way to bring emotional healing effectively. The aim of Theophostic Ministry is to heal emotional pain from present and past events by correcting false interpretations of them, expressed as “lie-based thinking”. The Anazao method too is an invaluable way to learn how to help people with dissociation. I find that every situation is unique and I’m always learning.

Having suffered sexual abuse myself and being healed from it, I am more than qualified to help others out of it. The ministry tool I encourage a victim to use is “The wounded heart” by Dr Dan Allender. This can be used minimally or as extensively as necessary. Apart from this I like to deal with areas not mentioned in the book. The book only serves as a base from which the counselee can speak and then seek counsel. A lot of healing is just from identifying issues, but it helps to uncover the problems stemming from the sexual abuse itself.

I would like to acknowledge that I could not have done any of this without the Lord Jesus Christ’s leading and direction. I am grateful to Him, my Lord and King. I acknowledge Him as the Counsellor of all Counsellors. I invite his total counsel into every session.

Break Free Isaiah 61 | Depression Counselling Albany WA