Welcome to the CCCRD Blog Writing Team

Let’s get started.

Why do we have a blog?

The blog is an important part of what we do here at CCCRD. It relates to all three parts of our mission—counseling, training, and growth.

  • The blog helps us maintain our commitment to excellent counseling. As counselors prepare and publish articles, they continue to practice therapeutic thinking across a variety of topics. Our broad scope includes topics like info on relational skills, techniques used in counseling, self-awareness, psychological research, or theological reflection.

  • Counselors continue to train themselves and others through involvement with the blog. Counselors deepen their knowledge as they research topics and then put pen to paper. Likewise, through sharing what they’ve written, our counseling team learns more from what others have found in their writing process.

  • Putting our articles out for the public acts as a strong marketing effort to continue to grow our clientele and connections in the Christian counseling world. Readers witness how we as a practice continue to grow as counselors and devote ourselves to understanding therapy, humanness, and God more deeply.

Topics

A broad scope

Our articles have a wide focus. We’ve had articles reflecting on a biblical passage, examining therapy modalities, offering grounding exercises, and suggesting what to do in an existential crisis. Basically, if it has to do with therapy, faith, psychology, or just being a person, it probably works.

About the blog

Length

600-800 words

Blogs work best when all the frills are cut out. Some articles are longer than this, but we always try to make them shorter and snappier in editing.

Frequency

Once (or twice) per week

Blogs generally come out once per week. Sometimes special occasions or extra articles might produce a second.

Writing Style

Embrace skimmability

We seek to write professional but not-stuffy articles. One factor here is skimmability—writing so that the reader gets most of the important information through a medium-effort skim. Some ways to do this are to keep sentences short and bolden summary statements to keep the reader on track.

Bullying: Breaking the Cycle

By Sean Kelly, LAC

  • Interesting anecdote, addresses important/timely topic in psychology, models theological thinking

How Boundaries Make Marriage Safe

By Teresa Pressley, AMFT

  • Effectively explains a relationship concept, lists three specific areas, expresses how couples counseling would be useful

7 Measures of Healthy Self-Esteem

By Lauren Wycuff, LPC

  • Lists are almost always good, invites self-reflection, builds on previous articles on the topic

The Psychology of Food

By Michele Suarez, LAC

  • Models thinking psychologically, asks the reader clear questions, provides basis for related articles

7 Challenges Teens Face Today

By Brynn Gutelius

  • List format makes it readable and appears in search engine results, timely issue in culture, geared toward parents

5 Things to Do in an Existential Crisis

By Juston Wolgemuth, LAC

  • List structure makes it readable, personal touch to relate to reader, describes the benefit of therapy for this issue

How to write
a blog

1. Blog Expectations

Your part

  • Write three blogs on one topic

  • Blogs are due every other month (we’ll communicate the specifics)

  • Submit for edits

  • Learn something and enjoy it

2. Choose a topic

What are you interested in?

What are you interested in forming a clearer opinion of? What do you care a lot about but haven’t articulated directly and succinctly? These are the things that work well for blog topics.

3. Divide it up

Choose three prompts for your topic

Once you have a topic in mind, think of how to divide this up into three manageable segments.

Example: “Parenting” is too large of a topic. However, divide it into three parts and you have something to offer.

  1. 5 Characteristics of healthy parents

  2. What underlies conflict with your children?

  3. How to help your child navigate relationships

This takes the big, vague concept of “parenting” and makes it three tangible prompts to jump in on.

4. Please ask for help!

Let’s work together

The blog editor is here to help you along in this process. We’ll work out a way to divide your topic into three. Also, feel free to send your brainstorms, your very rough drafts, or your half-finished thoughts. We’ll help you out!