Tag Archive for: LPC

Marriage Enrichment Workshop

One Thursday, January 19, 2017. 7:00pm-8:30pm

Free and open to the public. Registration required.

Do you know …

  1. Half of all marriages that end, do so in the first 7 years.
  2. Four behaviors predict divorce with 94% accuracy: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
  3. Two behaviors predict divorce at 16 years of marriage.
  4. Unhappy couples have a 35% increased chance of serious illness.
  5. Happy couples live 4-6 years longer.
  6. Trying to solve conflicts when you are too stressed only makes things worse. It is kind of like talking to a drunk. You won’t get anywhere.

In this workshop, you will learn practical tools to become a master of marriage.

  1. Discover the 4 most deadly behaviors that kill marriages so you can stop doing them.
  2. Communicate, listen and empathize so you develop emotional intimacy, physical intimacy and spiritual intimacy.

Who Should Attend

  • Married couples and pre-marital couples: engaged, co-habitating, dating.
  • This workshop is inappropriate couples with severe relationship distress, significant emotional or physical abuse, serious emotional or mental health problems, relationships where one or both partners are actively addicted to drugs or alcohol, and relationships with serious compulsive behavior with gambling, sexual acting out (including affairs), and other disruptive behaviors. If these situations are discovered during class, a referral will be made for individual or couples psychotherapy.

This workshop does not include sharing problems publicly. Since the class involves couples doing exercises together, both partners must participate.

This workshop is based on these books:

  • The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, PhD. Three decades of research on what makes masters and disasters of marriage.
  • Biblical Reference Guide for the Gottman Method by David Penner, PhD
  • Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson, PhD. (Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy)

Want a Preview? Watch this TV interview. Search YouTube for Benita Esposito

Where: United Community Bank, Community Room. 177 Highway 515 East, Blairsville, GA 30512

When: One Thursday, January 19, 2017. 7-8:30pm. Please arrive by 6:45pm.

Format: Lecture, interactive exercises and Q&A discussion.

Tuition: Free

Registration required by 1/17/17. Space is limited to 10 couples.

Call Benita Esposito, LPC at 770-998-6642. Email: Benita@EspositoInstitute.com, or complete the Contact Form on this website.

Facilitator: Benita A. Esposito is a 29_BenitaEsposito2011 69KB closeupLicensed Professional Counselor with a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. She has practiced psychotherapy for three decades, helping individuals and couples in private sessions, groups and intensive retreats. She belongs to Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and lives in Young Harris, Georgia. Psychotherapy in Georgia, in-person, telephone and videoconference. Spiritual Counseling worldwide.

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12 Agreements for Healthy Relationships

1.  Vulnerability + authenticity + empathy = safety and intimacy
2.  Tell the truth faster.
3.  Ask: What can I do to love my partner in more purity?
4.  Increase your ability to love yourself deeply.
5.  Find the innermost pain, be non-judgmental. Stay present. Breathe! Read more

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Marriage Story: From Cold War to Resurrection


“Our Journey Together With Benita A. Esposito”

 In the following story, you’ll see how a distressed couple on the verge of divorce transformed their marriage in six months. The story is told by the wife.  Scroll to the end to read about the breakthroughs and what worked in therapy.

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“A Journey into Wholeness” CD

Do you want to reduceAKD0563 insert mcwP001.art stress?  You may never become a black belt karate master, but you can master your mind and emotions. Read more

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Marriage Counseling Story. Healing the Physical Heart and Emotional Heart.

Research published by the American Medical Association indicates that 90% of all disease is stress-related. Our mind, body, emotions, spirit and relationships intricately affect each other. When we heal the emotional or spiritual root of dis-ease, pain can ease up. Sometimes other physical symptoms vanish completely. I’ll show you what I mean in the following story. Emily’s heart condition and her emotional pain healed when her husband joined her in counseling. Psychotherapy can accelerate healing, and is used as an adjunct to medicine. Read more

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Stress Management at Work ~ Checklist

In many organizations, chronic stress is the most significant health problem facing the employees and managers. Often daily activities appear to be a never ending series of too many things to do with insufficient time and resources to allow acceptable job performance, let alone the level of professionalism which is desired. Read more

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Marriage Counseling, Increasing Marital Intimacy: Carol’s Story.

Carol’s heart was racing. She thought it could be a heart attack so she went to the emergency room. An MRI revealed no heart dysfunction so her doctor diagnosed it as a panic attack. She came to therapy because she wanted to discover the underlying cause so she could heal the condition without drugs.

Session 1. Carol opened our first session by explaining her recent medical emergency and then announced, “Let me tell you what I think is really causing this. It’s my relationship with my husband!”

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Why Retreats are So Effective

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My transformational retreats are held in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia.

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This is a message to my clients and prospective clients:

I know your path is not always easy. I know you are intelligent, conscientious, and you have a big heart. I know you are courageous. Every time you take a step toward your goals, every time you speak up for yourself, every time you extend compassion to yourself or someone else, I applaud you.

Part of me cries when you cry. Part of me aches when you feel stuck. Part of me wails my tigress roar when people mistreat you or neglect your needs. You are not alone. We are in this life together, connected through the web of humanity.

I’d like to tell you a little about my own transformational journey. I have struggled with some of the same issues that you probably have, and I’ve grown and healed. I hope my story inspires you on your Hero’s Journey to the Authentic Self.

My Transformational Journey: An Overview

When I was doing my heavy-duty inner healing work in the 1970s and 1980s, two things made the biggest difference for me:  (1) having 2 long-term teacher mentors I trusted and (2) attending multi-day intensive retreats. My teachers saw dynamics in me that I couldn’t begin to understand, let alone heal. I wouldn’t be where I am today without their help.

In order to break free of my past programming and the emotional wounding that held limiting patterns in place, I had to go deep. Really deep. I would never have gone there without my teachers. I had to trust them to take me into the unknown. I soaked in their love for me, and because of that, I felt safe enough to let go and explore my inner wilderness. Sometimes I challenged them, and they were strong enough to let me ask all my questions.

The toughest thing was for me to drop down into my emotions and feel my body. I had to learn how to stop being so intellectual. That can only be learned experientially, not from reading a book.

I was willing to do that in retreats because I had enough time to pussy-foot around and stick my toe in the proverbial water. I watched other people as they were coached by my teachers, and I learned vicariously before I asked to be on the “hot seat.” I had plenty of time to deal with my anxiety instead of shrinking back. I was scared of the unknown, but I didn’t let it stop me because I saw other people making breakthroughs. They’d come out smiling, even radiant sometimes.

I knew I was playing too small in my life. I felt God prompting me to unfold more of my divine blueprint.

Private counseling sessions were great, weekly groups were wonderful, but my biggest changes occurred at retreats because we had three full days to go deep. “Deep” is what I needed.

What About You?

Are you feeling an inner prompting to go deeper like I did?  Do you have a sense that God designed a blueprint uniquely for you, and you want to fulfill it?  Are you feeling the need to break out of the patterns that have kept you stuck?  In my mind’s eye, I see the picture of a chick tap, tap, tapping from the inside of the shell, and finally breaking it open. It is the beginning of its new life.

I want this for you with all my heart, and that’s why I am writing to you today. I want you to break free.

I love to lead transformational personal growth retreats more than any of the work I do because of the deep bonding we experience over two to three days and the remarkable changes that occur.

If you are a highly sensitive person, my Breathwork Retreats are made with you in mind.

To view the current list of Retreats, click here.

Links to Retreat Stories

1)    If you’d like to read about one of the first times I participated in a retreat and how I learned to be vulnerable in public, click here.

2)    To read a story about how I facilitated a client’s healing trauma in a retreat, click here.

3)    To read about a participant’s reflections after a Retreat, click here:  “The holy connection between body and spirit.”

4) To read about Breathwork combined with our Lake Lanier Yacht Retreat with amazing Nature and animal stories, click here.

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Contact

If you feel your spirit urging you to explore these opportunities, please contact me to arrange a complimentary discovery session.

Complete the application on the Contact Page.

Author and Facilitator

Benita A. Esposito, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor in Georgia and North Carolina, USA

The Esposito Institute, Inc.

Psychotherapy Website: www.Flourishing-Lives.com

Life Coaching and Spiritual Counseling: www.SensitiveIntrovert.com

Specialties: Highly Sensitive People, Individual and Couple counseling with adults. Emotional roots of disease, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, grief, and success skills. Combining intuition and evidence-based practices, Benita gets to the bottom line quickly to help clients create flourishing personal and professional lives. Psychotherapy and Life coaching for high achievers is available worldwide via Zoom. Retreats are facilitated by Benita A. Esposito as spiritual therapy which includes hands-on-healing. Benita is an ordained minister with the AIWP.

Photo credits: Benita Esposito

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Radio: Benita Esposito’s Work

Listen to Benita Esposito speak about the benefits of psychotherapy and life coaching for S.M.A.R.T.* Women and the Men Who Love Them.

Services: Couples Counseling, Marriage Counseling and Counseling for Individual Adults.

Click here for Podcasts.

S.M.A.R.T. = Spiritual, Mature, Authentic, Responsible and Trustworthy

Complete the Contact Form to request a 10-minute complementary phone interview to see if my services are right for you.

Credentials for Benita A. Esposito, MA, LPC

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Depression Checklist

Do you think you might be depressed? Or, are you concerned about a loved one?

Click on the link below to complete the Burn’s Depression assessment. Read more

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