Jessica Gallant, Author at Allen Christian Counseling

About Jessica Gallant

I believe no one should struggle alone and I commend anyone with the courage to reach out for help. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I offer faith-based therapy for teens, adult individuals, and couples. With empathy, transparency, and honesty, my aim is to act as a professional mentor to guide you through life’s challenges. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, relationship issues, or other concerns, I would be honored to join you wherever you are on life’s journey as you search to find peace and restoration.

Strategies to Seek Help for Depression

Strategies to Seek Help for Depression

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2025-04-16T18:21:41+00:00April 2nd, 2025|Depression, Featured, Individual Counseling, Men’s Issues, Women’s Issues|

Anxiety As one of the most common mental health illnesses, Mental Health America states that more than 8% of American adults (more than 21 million) are affected by major depression and an alarming 15% of youth aged 12-17. The number of people who struggle with some sort of depressive disorder is likely far higher, and it is said that only about a third of people who suffer seek help for depression. Depression and Christianity have in some circles earned a bad name for how depression has been treated – as something that can be simply “prayed away” or a sinful response that fails to focus on the joy of the Lord that has been given to believers. These are unhelpful approaches to supporting someone who is struggling, and unlikely to bring the help for depression that is so needed. Indeed, the treatment for depression is in no way one-dimensional; just as it can’t necessarily be “prayed away”, it is also unlikely to disappear just by “taking a pill.” For Christians battling depression, it is important to arm yourself with strategies that include both a spiritual, medical, and psychological component. Seeking Help for Depression Help for depression is likely to come from a combination of these aspects, and a biblically trained counselor will be able to walk the journey with you as you seek healing. Here are some of the strategies, with some less conventional approaches to fighting well: Visit your healthcare professional as a first point of call If you have experienced symptoms that don’t go away in a reasonable period, the first thing to do to get help for depression is to visit your healthcare professional. The most common symptoms of depression include feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness, or hopelessness that occur nearly every day. They also include [...]

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How to Deal With a Bad Friendship

How to Deal With a Bad Friendship

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2025-03-26T10:30:01+00:00March 21st, 2025|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Friendship is one of many good gifts that God gives us. In the wisdom literature of the Bible, there are several sayings relating to friendship such as, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24, NIV). We see many examples of friendship throughout the Bible and in history; some of these are great, like David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel of the Old Testament, or the friendship the Inklings had. This was a group of friends in the 1930s and 1940s which included authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Warren Lewis, and others. A good friendship can steer you in the right direction, while a poor one can amplify the worst parts of your character. Having the wisdom to discern between a good and a bad friendship, as well as a good from a bad friend, is invaluable and can save you a lot of heartache. What does a bad friendship look like? One of the Christian writers in modern history who has written extensively on friendship is C.S. Lewis. Friendship permeates just about all of Lewis’ writing, but in a book called The Four Loves, Lewis writes at length about friendship due in part to being connected to a close-knit group of like-minded men who shared his passion for communicating truth. One of the marks of a bad friendship is that it’s fragmented with jealousy. This jealousy can take the form of unhealthy competition between friends, such as when friends begrudge and are bitter about each other’s successes instead of jubilant. The other form of jealousy that can take place and that makes for a bad friendship is when someone is unwilling to share their friend with others. Lewis wrote the [...]

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Tips for Getting Rid of Bitterness in Relationships

Tips for Getting Rid of Bitterness in Relationships

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2025-02-21T06:58:01+00:00February 21st, 2025|Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

There are some hilarious content creators out there on social media. Humor is deeply subjective, but it can be endlessly fascinating to see TikToks or YouTube clips about babies tasting something like a lemon for the first time. Many find themselves puckering their lips as the first sensations of sourness tantalize their tastebuds, faces screwed up into all manner of expressions. Less hilarious, but no less powerful, is how a person reacts when certain people in their lives are mentioned or enter a room. Adults are more adept at hiding their discomfort, but there are always telltale signs that something sour, akin to a lemon, has been introduced into the mix. It might be crossed arms, or visible signs of disgust on a person’s face that alert you to what they’re feeling. Things don’t always go swimmingly in our relationships. When they don’t, one of the results is bitterness developing between people. This makes the relationship difficult to enjoy and can eventually lead to the relationship ending. The Roots of Bitterness in Relationships Feelings of resentment, anger, and bitterness can creep into any relationship. While interacting with one another, people may say and do things that elicit these feelings. That much is mostly inevitable, but what matters is what you both proceed to do after that. It’s helpful to know the sorts of behaviors and attitudes that tend to generate bitterness and resentment to avoid those, and it also helps to know how to resolve the situation. Bitterness is an expression of having been hurt in some way by someone. Bitterness is one of the emotions that alert you to what’s going on in your world; you typically experience it when things haven’t gone well. Some of these situations include the following: Being ignored or not heard If you [...]

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10 Bible Verses to Help You Remember Who You Are in God’s Eyes

10 Bible Verses to Help You Remember Who You Are in God’s Eyes

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2025-01-11T06:11:34+00:00January 15th, 2025|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Spiritual Development|

It is human nature to be easily enticed or confused by the materialistic and fake society we live in. Unless you remember who you are in the sight of the Lord, you may live your life as a mere shadow of your true self. As the world gets increasingly fast-paced, the lines between what is real and what is false, or who is genuine and who is a pretender, have become blurred. It is easy to lose your identity in a world that is getting further away from the original description of the life God had intended for us from the time of creation. The only way to hold on to your original purpose on earth and remember who you are is to align your everyday life with biblical truth. Thankfully, you have the gift of Scripture, which paints a wonderful picture of how and why God created us and reminds His people of who they are in Him. Who do you think you are? Which answers do you give first when people ask who you are? If you’re being honest, your answers are probably one or all of the following: Your birth name. Your gender. Your marital status. Your profession. Your interests. Your family. Technically and lawfully, this is all correct. These are the characteristics that help society distinguish one person from another. This perfectly curated checklist is who you are in the eyes of the government and all those around you. However, is your legal checklist the sum of who you really are? Consider the fact that any one of those items listed up there can now be legally altered, renounced, or changed. For example, there are plenty of people who have lived half their lives using one name, then change it for one reason or another, [...]

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How to Avoid Work Burnout

How to Avoid Work Burnout

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2025-01-10T05:58:45+00:00January 10th, 2025|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Professional Development|

Love it or hate it, work is one of those things that needs doing. Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives working and we do so to earn a living, which allows us to take care of our responsibilities and gives us room to enjoy things like vacations. Work can be enjoyable, but it is also often quite stressful. One of the major sources of stress in people’s lives is their work, and that stress can cause considerable damage to one’s health. One of the challenges that comes with work is the possibility of work burnout. Being able to identify when you’re on the way to burnout, and how to recover from it can help you immensely. What is work burnout? Work burnout, also known as job burnout, is a form of stress related to one’s work. When a person is burned out, they are worn out physically, mentally, and emotionally, as a response to constant stress. Some people may feel as though they are powerless and empty, or they may feel useless. The term ‘burnout’ is relatively new, coined around 1974. However, the experience described by that term is quite common, and is marked by a loss of pleasure in one’s work, a lack of motivation to get work done, and the sense of inability to do that work and complete assigned tasks. A person who is burned out or on the road to it may find themselves struggling with simple tasks or having uncharacteristically angry or irritable responses to loved ones. Some of the signs that you may have burnout or are on the way to burnout include not being able to get a good night’s rest, feeling disconnected from your work, every day feeling like a bad day, having trouble telling the days [...]

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Bible Verses About Grief to Help You Express Your Loss

Bible Verses About Grief to Help You Express Your Loss

Jessica Gallant, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:11:43+00:00October 14th, 2024|Featured, Grief Counseling, Individual Counseling, Spiritual Development|

At its heart, grief is the often-prolonged sadness we feel after a loss of some kind. Sometimes the loss is concrete, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship due to divorce or moving away, or the loss of a pregnancy, job, health, or possessions. At other times the loss may be more abstract, such as the loss of an opportunity or the death of hopes and dreams In the Bible, God invites us to draw near to Him when we are grieving, no matter the reason for our loss. He is the only one who can really understand how we feel. When dealing with grief, our emotions can be complicated. Sometimes we feel anger, betrayal, or even relief mixed in with our sadness, which can be confusing to understand. However, this is normal and quite common. We are complex creatures, able to feel two or more contradictory emotions at the same time. Think of the happiness yet sadness that can be present in certain memories and celebrations – anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, etc. At times it seems that there is an unspoken time limit on feeling sad, after which we are supposed to cheer up and get over it. Feelings, especially grief, have no time limit. Yet grief is something that even months or years later can sneak up on us and bring us to tears or even to our knees all over again. Processing grief is just that – a process that moves more in cycles and patterns rather than progressing through linear stages. We know the reality is we can feel and experience all these “stages” in any order at any time. Maybe they are familiar to you: shock, denial, anger, depression, and acceptance. As time passes, the intensity of our feelings [...]

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Jessica Gallant

About Jessica Gallant

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