At Salt & Light our founder Val Mayer has extensive Biblical training to apply God’s Word to every counseling situation. Besides her knowledge of scripture and doctrine, she has counseling skills and wisdom that comes from education and experience.
Val is committed to assess situations through the lens of God’s Word, while maintaining an understanding of clinical care and a willingness to work with medical professionals.
What is Biblical Counseling?
The approach and philosophy of Salt & Light Holistic Biblical Counseling center is to offer distinctively Biblical counseling and to offer lasting help and hope to individuals. Biblical counseling is an approach that uses the Bible to address the multifaceted issues in the lives of individuals, couples and families. The Bible teaches that destructive thoughts, motives, attitudes, words, and actions flow from the sinful nature of man. Biblical counseling addresses this soul-sickness as the source of these offensive human actions and reactions and offers the wisdom revealed in the Bible as the cure. Biblical counseling is practical and effective. It does not view people as simply spiritual beings with spiritual problems. Instead the Biblical counselor sees the individual as a physical, emotional, cognitive and relational being as well.
One focus of Biblical counseling is to help others develop a worldview of life that is consistent with the sacred Word of God. The goal of Biblical counseling is spiritual maturity and thus highly values the role of the local church in bringing about the heart change via authentic Christian community. True Biblical change is the result of the Holy Spirit working in one’s heart and often includes intervention by other people such as a pastor, a mentor or a counselor. The Biblical counselor helps people identify their problems in Biblical terms. As this is accomplished, the individual is challenged to seek the root issue and not merely apply band-aids to a spiritual cancer. This process is filled with grace and is ultimately redemption. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation for the work of Biblical counseling.–
Meet your counselor
Val practically helps those hurting by anchoring their hope in Jesus and gaining a better understanding of his promises. She offers reputable, biblical counsel to those suffering or experiencing difficult seasons.
I feel like I have unofficially been counseling people my whole life. God has healed and continues to heal me of many of the issues people come to me for.
I feel privileged that God has allowed me to come alongside the hurting and broken as we grow together in Him.
My education journey led me to become certified as a holistic biblical counselor through Women Becoming Whole.
I recently became certified through Light University which is an extension of the American Association Of Christian Counselors as a Christian Mental Health Coach, a Christian Youth Mental Health Coach, and am currently finishing my specialized certification in grief to obtain a “MCBC Masters Christian Mental Health” certification.
FAQs
What types of counseling issues does Salt and Light HBC address?
People come to Val with many different struggles. She believes that the Bible addressed all of life’s struggles. Thus, she applies a Christ-centered, Biblical worldview to all of life’s problems.
Examples of common struggles that we often address include grief, self esteem, anxiety, infidelity, depression, anger, pornography, identity issues, and addictions.
Is Salt & Light Counseling right for me?
Salt & Light Holistic Biblical Counseling may be right for you if you’re looking to improve your contentment and are seeking a Gospel-centered perspective. Val works with issues, such as stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, eating disorders, trauma, anger, identity, grief, religion, self-esteem and more. Salt & Light Counseling is NOT the right solution for you if any of the following is true:
- You have thoughts of hurting yourself or others
- You are in an urgent crisis or an emergency situation
- You were required to undergo therapy or counseling either by a court order or by any other authority
- You do not have a device that can connect to the Internet or you do not have a reliable Internet connection (appointments are via Zoom)
Is counseling confidential?
No information is disclosed without prior written permission from the counselee. However, we take a few exceptions to this rule, which are:
- Suspected child, dependent adult, or elder abuse. The counselor is required to report this to the appropriate authorities immediately.
- If a counselee is threatening serious bodily harm to another person. The therapist is required to notify the police.
- If a counselee intends to harm himself or herself, the counselor will make every effort to work with the individual to ensure his or her safety. However, since counseling is virtual, additional measures may need to be taken to keep them safe.
Does Salt & Light HBC qualify for insurance payment?
At this time, the Salt & Light HBC does not work with third-party insurers nor provide the diagnostic codes needed for reimbursement. All counseling charges are due prior to each appointment.
Is medication a substitute for counseling?
We believe that people are embodied souls, meaning that in helping a person we have to help their body and their soul. In some cases, a combination of medication and counseling is the right course of action in order to treat both the body and the soul.
If we believe that the problems in your life might be body issues, we ask you to seek help from a medical doctor. However, rarely are the issues we see just body issues; almost always there is a soul issue. Therefore, we do not see medication as a substitute for counseling.
Life is full of difficulties.
Getting biblical help shouldn’t be one of them.
Salt & Light offers Christ-centered, theologically driven counseling that understands the human condition through the lens of Scripture, not secular psychology. Val seeks to be clinically informed in order to best communicate and care for all clients.
