MANSFIELD – Heritage Christian Counseling Ministries showed off a brand-new expansion to the building during an open house on Sunday afternoon.
Tom Russell, president and founder of the faith-based counseling business, moved the practice to its current location at 1066 Lexington Avenue in 2013; he realized an expansion was probably needed by about 2014.
“When we moved in, I told my wife that in five years we’d probably outgrow it, and we outgrew it in about two,” Russell said.
Heritage Christian Counseling Ministries is a group of State Licensed Clinical Counselors (LPC, LPCC) and Licensed Social Workers (LSW, LISW) who work in tandem with clinical learning and spiritual disciplines to instill hope to those struggling through challenging life experiences.
“We counsel from a biblical perspective,” Russell said. “We diagnose just like we all learned in psychology together, but some of our treatment mentality would be different, more encouragement through scripture along with standard stuff. We work inside the church, and we can work outside of it.”
Russell resigned from his teaching job in Cardington in 1991 to attend Ashland Seminary, with plans to start his own practice in psychology and family counseling. After he completed the program, he started Heritage Christian Counseling in 1996.
Currently, Heritage Christian Counseling employs 11 people, six as full-time workers. The expansion grew the offices from four to six, including Russell’s current office, a kitchen area, a business office, and a multi-purpose room for large group therapy.
The counseling business sees patients for all different types of counseling, including marriage, parenting, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia, and panic attacks. For Russell, he knew early on that he wanted his focus to be on marriage counseling.
“I can remember 42 years ago, my wife and I had recently gotten married, and our neighbor about three doors down told us they were getting a divorce, and it just shocked me,” Russell said. “I have always promoted my own marriage, and one of the things we learned in seminary was your calling ought to be what you have the capability of talking about late into the evening. To me, that was talking about marriage and impacting marriages.”
Russell hopes that Heritage Christian Counseling will make an impact on families in north central Ohio. As for the future of the practice, he aims to follow God’s will for what He wants to see it be and grow.
“It’s not out of the realm of possibilities that we could have another location,” Russell said. “Also as Heritage continues to grow, maybe to do more writing on marriage and family issues.”
Ultimately, Russell models Heritage Christian Counseling after their official logo – a lighthouse shining over the water, designed by an art teacher at Madison Comprehensive High School.
“We hope to be a light in the darkness,” he said.
