Kimberlyn Jaggers, Author at Allen Christian Counseling

About Kimberlyn Jaggers

As your counselor, I will meet you exactly where you are with unconditional compassion to help you navigate life’s trials and challenges. No matter where you are in your relationship with God, I offer a safe space to be heard in all situations. My ultimate goal is to display the love of Christ to each individual who enters the therapy room, no matter their past, their religion, or their trials. Clients will also benefit from my work being supervised by marriage and family therapist Monica Marterella, MS, LMFT-S, LPC-S. With kindness and a nonjudgmental presence, I will work with you to create a treatment plan to help you meet your goals and experience the growth God has planned for you.

4 Ways to Help Children of Divorce Adjust to This New Life Transition

4 Ways to Help Children of Divorce Adjust to This New Life Transition

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2025-02-19T11:55:55+00:00February 18th, 2025|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured|

Divorce is a difficult life transition for adults, but children have an even more difficult time. Divorce can be filled with unknowns and a fear of the future. Additionally, kids must split their time between parents, and parents sometimes use the time with their children to gain an advantage over the other, making the kids choose which one to love more. This puts a lot of stress and anxiety on children because they love both their parents. We must also add that parents sometimes begin dating again, and kids must acclimate to new partners and stepparents. This transition is a lot for a child, especially with school and other activities vying for their time. Although professional help might be the best way to go when helping a child cope with divorce, some children don’t want to (or can’t) afford therapy, which makes it easier for kids to suppress their emotions and carry them with them as emotional baggage throughout their formative years. Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. – Proverbs 22:6, NIV 4 Ways to Help Children of Divorce Adjust Despite all the typical transitions that transpire, there are ways parents can help children cope with divorce. Here are four ways to help children of divorce come to terms with a new chapter in their lives. Give them space Some parents, out of emotional guilt, force their kids to talk about their feelings when they’re not ready. Some kids need more time to discuss their emotions than others. If they grew up in a home where they tend to be quieter and not express their feelings freely, it will be more difficult than ever for them to talk to their parents about how they’re [...]

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5 Steps to Dealing With a Lying Teen

5 Steps to Dealing With a Lying Teen

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2025-02-15T05:02:48+00:00February 17th, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Our relationship with our teenage children often gets rocky or fractured as they grow. Statistically, teens are more likely to lie or conceal the truth than any other age group, which can damage our relationship with them further. There are many reasons why our teens lie, and there are many ways we react to them, some of which will drive a distance between us and them. It takes patience and self-reflection to deal with a lying teen, but practicing some simple disciplines could be enough to mend a broken relationship with them. Why Teens Lie While we should never try to generalize teenagers, some characteristics are true of many teens that can help us understand them. Firstly, most teenagers are concerned with peer approval. It is a time in their lives when they are trying to establish their identity, almost like building a house brick by brick. Gaining the recognition and respect of people in their sphere of influence means finding a foundation for their identity, and establishing themselves in the teenage pecking order. On the other hand, teens who find themselves on the fringe of their society without community or connection are as shaped by this experience as the popular teens. Secondly, most teens are focused on establishing their independence and autonomy, which will be an important part of their adult lives. During the teen years, they might begin struggling with the tension of being part of a family unit with its own established value system and determining their own set of morals and values. Many teens will pull away when they realize that they don’t agree with the way things are done in their family. This is not necessarily a judgment or indictment of our parenting but is a common event in a teen’s life. They are [...]

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Attachment Issues in Relationships: How They Could Affect You

Attachment Issues in Relationships: How They Could Affect You

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-12-21T09:30:29+00:00November 25th, 2024|Abandonment and Neglect, Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

It’s been said that to understand where you are and where you are going, you need to look back to see where you’ve been. The person that you are today didn’t materialize out of thin air. You’ve been shaped by various experiences – the good, the bad, and the ugly - and these have contributed to how you think, act, and are in daily life. While we aren’t determined by our past, it does play a role, whether big or small, in who we are today. If you look at your current relationships with other people, a large part of how you relate to others today is shaped by past experiences that formed your expectations and posture toward relationships. A person’s ability to form emotional bonds and connections with others is referred to as “attachment.” Depending on certain formative experiences, a person may have a healthy or unhealthy attachment style. Attachment and Attachment Styles A person’s attachment style will often be shaped by the early childhood experiences they have with their parents or caregivers. These experiences, which include whether their various needs were met, consistently influence how one navigates and perceives relationships with others. What a person goes through shapes their expectations about whether it’s safe to share what you need, and if others can be trusted to understand and meet your needs. There are a few different types of attachment or attachment styles. Some attachments are secure, which describes a posture of feeling safe, supported, and comfortable with intimacy and independence when in a relationship with others. There is also an anxious-preoccupied style, describing a posture of being fearful of abandonment, which often results in seeking constant reassurance and being overly dependent on others. Then there is the dismissive-avoidant style, where one is emotionally distant and unavailable, often prioritizing [...]

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How to Handle Insecurities in a Relationship

How to Handle Insecurities in a Relationship

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-12-21T09:45:56+00:00September 16th, 2024|Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Finding a person who qualifies to become your significant other can be a feat in and of itself. Someone once said that the world of 21st-century dating and relationships is an extreme sport. As you come to that relationship, whether through a dating app, a blind date, or a meet-up at a coffee shop, you bring everything that you are, both the good and the bad, into the relationship. The good thing about healthy and secure relationships is that we can entrust ourselves to our partners, warts and all. If we are primed to give and receive love, we can be vulnerable and open about our weaknesses. However, if you feel insecure in a relationship, you may be hesitant to divulge your weaknesses, and you aren’t able to enjoy the relationship because you’re constantly on edge. Being able to handle your own and each other’s insecurities in a relationship can help you be at peace and flourish as a couple. What are insecurities? The term insecurity can cover a broad range of thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that indicate uncertainty and a lack of confidence. Sometimes, our insecurities are about the relationship itself, such as when we’re not sure that the person we’re with is right for us. At other times, our insecurities are more about ourselves than they are about the other person. For instance, when you’re not sure if you are the right person to be in this relationship. The motivational speaker Tony Robbins says: “Relationship insecurity means you’re unsure and unconfident about your relationship. It’s a deep belief that you just aren’t good enough for your partner, that you don’t deserve love, or one of many other limiting beliefs that cause you to feel anxious. You may doubt your value and have a low sense of [...]

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How to Effectively Overcome a Negative Body Image

How to Effectively Overcome a Negative Body Image

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:13:04+00:00August 21st, 2024|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Spiritual Development|

A few millennia ago, a wise person wrote “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV). Inside the culture from which this proverb emerged, your heart was the seat of your desires, your will, your emotions, and the source of your actions. In other words, your heart is what makes you who you are, and you need to guard what goes into and influences it because it can determine the course of your life. We are constantly bombarded with messages about who we are and what makes us valuable. Through social media, interactions with friends, movies, and music, and through magazines and legacy media, our tastes, worldviews, interests, and passions are shaped. This is to say nothing of how our family, friends, and the culture we are embedded in work the same way to shape who we are. These various influences and our life experiences can combine to help us form a healthy view of ourselves, but they can also conspire to create an unhealthy or negative view of our bodies and ourselves. Understanding body image Body image relates to the feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and experiences of your own body. We can appreciate our bodies, but we can also have a negative attitude toward them. Any number of influences from your life experience and the culture in which you’re embedded can shape your body image. In the U.S., most of our media portray the standard of beauty in a certain way. If you accept that standard, it can lead to dissatisfaction with who you are, or pressure to maintain a certain feature. A negative body image emerges when you dislike your body (or parts of it) and you have a negative attitude toward yourself and your body’s capabilities. A person’s body [...]

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How to Take Every Thought Captive: Two Aspects to Consider

How to Take Every Thought Captive: Two Aspects to Consider

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:13:18+00:00August 12th, 2024|Anxiety, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Spiritual Development|

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. – 2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV What does this mean? The Message paraphrase provides some insight: The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fairly. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way – never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. – 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, The Message According to the Message’s author, Eugene Peterson, we take every thought captive by weighing, “every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” We encounter hundreds (if not thousands) of thoughts in a day. From the moment we wake up we are bombarded with ideas, thoughts, concerns, and choices. Even before we open our eyes the litany of thoughts in our head can be overwhelming. It can feel unmanageable, but we are not without hope. We have all seen the turnstiles used to let people onto the subway. People swipe their cards or pay the fee, and they are let in. What if someone tries to slip through without paying or whose card has expired? The turnstiles don’t work. Taking our thoughts captive is like letting each thought pass through a turnstile. If it is good, beneficial, [...]

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Graced for Growth: Tools for Spiritual and Personal Development

Graced for Growth: Tools for Spiritual and Personal Development

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:13:32+00:00June 27th, 2024|Coaching, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Spiritual Development|

In distinct parts of youth and childhood, we experience what many know as growing pains. Bones and bodies shift. Cells multiply, making room under the skin’s surface for what isn’t yet seen. Our adult lives mirror a similar process. Personal and spiritual development hinge on our willingness to engage in intentional goal-setting as well as the ability to respond with flexibility to inevitable life change. Life stretches us where we may be skilled, while also strengthening us in areas of weakness. Human errors color, shade, and highlight parts of our journey, revealing what needs attention and alignment with God’s ultimate purpose. Our mistakes not only make for a more intriguing life landscape but also create a wealth of life lessons for both personal and spiritual development. Missteps provide us with opportunities to learn, love, and live forward with the God who has created, chosen, and called us to life with Him. When we leave room for grace amid flaws and failures, we can encounter God’s greatness and strength even more than what we imagined possible on our own (2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:13). Self-talk For us to see and secure the vision that God has concerning our personal and spiritual development, we must rescript our self-talk to align with Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1). The Bible articulates the Truth we need for abundant living. When we interact with God’s Word as a living force, it awakens parts of us that need to come alive to the spiritual blessings and soul benefits that the Gospel has made available (Hebrews 4:12). With the Word of God, we deconstruct the negative thoughts and limiting beliefs that our enemy craftily uses to poison thoughts, feelings, and actions. We can better demolish arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge [...]

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7 Common Signs of Depression in Children

7 Common Signs of Depression in Children

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:13:49+00:00May 27th, 2024|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Depression, Family Counseling, Featured|

Depression is a common mental health condition in adults, yet as many as 2.7 million children were diagnosed with depression between 2016 and 2019, according to the CDC. These were the statistics before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, isolation, and lockdowns, the number of cases of depression in children may have doubled, according to a review in JAMA Pediatrics. It is usual for children, like adults, to feel down from time to time. However, depression can last for weeks or months. If your child shows symptoms and behavioral changes for two weeks, contact a medical professional for an assessment. Would you recognize the signs of depression in children? As a parent or guardian, you will do anything to protect your children. Learn the common signs of depression in children and how you can help them. Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. – Psalms 127:3, NLT Common signs of depression in children When our children hurt, we hurt. It pains us to see them behaving contrary to their true selves. Several causes of depression in children include problems at school or home, bullying, feeling overwhelmed, grief or loss, trauma, chemical imbalances, family history of depression, and social comparison. Whatever the reason, the symptoms are often the same. Eating too much or too little Rapid weight loss or gain is a sure sign that something is wrong. Have you noticed that your child is eating more than usual or skipping meals entirely? Sometimes children will use food for comfort during depression as they might feel an emptiness in their hearts, a new sensation for them. They long to fill that empty hole. Conversely, they may not feel up to eating and only pretend to eat at mealtimes. Be aware that other mental health conditions [...]

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The Landscape of Loss: Navigating Grief and Transition

The Landscape of Loss: Navigating Grief and Transition

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:14:06+00:00May 6th, 2024|Featured, Grief Counseling, Individual Counseling|

The experience of loss forever shifts the landscape of our lives. Without question, grief changes things. Sometimes, it changes everything, including us. It is important to embrace the reality that the life we once knew before death or loss simply won’t be the same. But what we identify as a single major change in life impacts many areas that have compound effects, in the seen and unseen, in what is felt as well as the imperceptible.Death as disruptionThe rhythms we became accustomed to, even those that may have irritated us from time to time, were predictable, familiar, and known to us. When disrupted, the change and transitions associated with adjustment can make us feel unsafe, as if our entire world is crumbling. Death is part of the life cycle, and we simply want to buffer ourselves from the sting and sharp edges of loss.Even in this, we must allow ourselves to feel what we’re feeling to process what we’d rather escape. Though it may be excruciatingly painful, beauty can emerge from death’s ashes.The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. – Isaiah 61:1,3, NIVThe evidence of Jesus’ resurrection provides the best evidence. What seems negative and forever lost in death can produce newness and life. Although Christ makes all [...]

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How and Why Help for Depression Is Needed

How and Why Help for Depression Is Needed

Kimberlyn Jaggers, Kate Motaung2024-11-13T11:14:20+00:00April 2nd, 2024|Depression, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Did you know that about 10-15% of the population will suffer from depression during their lifetime? It is a common illness that affects an enormous number of people worldwide. Although depression is seen more often in women and elderly people, men are affected by it as well, but help for depression is available. There are several different treatments for depression and receiving help is often successful in most people who suffer from it. It can be a relief to realize this, as the symptoms of depression can have an incapacitating effect on all who suffer from it and significantly affect those who care for them. In this article, you will find more about what causes depression, and how to treat it, so that you or anyone experiencing it and their friends and family can better understand the illness. By arming yourself with knowledge, you will be able to maximize the benefits that treatment offers. Understanding depression better Depression is an illness. Like other illnesses, it can significantly impact every aspect of someone’s life. This includes their enjoyment of hobbies and fun activities, their ability to perform well at work, and their relationships. One significant feature of depression is that no two people display it in the same manner, which can make it difficult to diagnose. While a well-known feature is that one suffers from a low mood and is generally more pessimistic with a loss of interest in activities they previously thought of as fun, there are many other common symptoms. Some of these are: Weight changes. Headaches, backaches, and other physical symptoms. Reduced appetite. Feeling irritable. Feeling guilty and helpless. Feeling anxious. Finding it difficult to get up in the morning. Always feeling tired or lacking energy. Trouble with sleeping, this can be falling asleep when going to [...]

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Kimberlyn Jaggers

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Allen Christian Counseling

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