CIRCLE OF LIFE

Do you have a nagging health concern or personal dilemma that you tell yourself you need to get around to, but never quite do?  Are you experiencing symptoms of stress?  Are your personal or professional relationships strained?  Do you worry about finances?  When was the last time you really had fun and felt creative?  Do you feel that you are living up to your potential in terms of life purpose, service, and your career?  Has your doctor suggested that you exercise, but you can’t get off the dime?  Is your spiritual well-being at a crossroads?

If you would like to begin to address issues or concerns that bother you, we have a resource for you!  The Circle of Life is a wholistic curriculum and a process that focuses on twelve life areas:  Stress Mastery, Nutrition and Diet, Exercise and Fitness, Self-Care and Health Care, Relationships and Communication, Work and Career, Life Purpose and Service, and Beliefs and Self-Esteem, Financial Health, Play and Creativity, Environmental Responsibility.  Circle of Life participants assess their level of satisfaction with these life areas and begin by focusing on one area at a time.

Through a process of acknowledging strengths, setting goals, predicting challenges, and identifying clear and realistic action steps, group members learn to achieve and maintain changes in different life areas.  They soon discover how interrelated the different aspects of their lives are as they achieve balance in one area and soon experience greater balance in others as well.

The group holds one another accountable in loving, supportive, and often playful ways.  Failure is impossible because everything is considered helpful information.  A group member might, for instance, learn that the reason he or she didn’t achieve a goal was because the goal was too overwhelming and needed to be broken down.  An additional advantage of the group is that we learn self-care practices which are simple but very effective tools for daily living.

Circle of Life groups meet for 8 sessions for 2 hours each time.  A group consists of 8 members, plus the facilitator.  Please contact LCS at 407-644-4692 (lcsflorida@earthlink.net) for more information on how you can become a part of a Circle of Life group. 

Pastoral Care Specialist Program
A training program for pastors and caregivers who want to enhance their understanding of counseling techniques and to grow in their ability to provide pastoral care.  This training program qualifies one to apply for membership in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors as a Pastoral Care Specialist.  For  more information on next program, admission and fees, please call 407-644-4692.

Congregational Educational Resources

Aging and Older Adults

• Getting to Know the Blues - learn about symptoms/treatments of depression. 
  Free, confidential screening to interested individuals
• Living with Hope in Anxious Times - examine sources of hope and strength and learn how to live with hope and peace.
• Relaxation and Meditation - learn methods of deep relaxation to help deal with worry and anxiety, increase energy and prevent tension.
• Young at Heart  - learn new ways to stay young while sharing experiences and drawing from coping skills and wisdom.
• The Healing Power of Humor - learn the value and importance of humor for health, healing and wholeness.

The Health Ministry Resource provides support services for these congregational efforts. We believe that improving the wholistic health of those we serve will help strengthen their relationships with family, friends and with God. The Health Ministry Resource at Lutheran Counseling Services offers: