Hello and welcome to the Friday ReFresh, a Ben and Travis podcast. I’m Ben from Ben and Travis and I have been working as a minister for 23 years and as a counselor for the last 10 years. I recognize that there are a lot of things in our world that impact different people in different ways. Working in counseling I’ve learned that there are a lot more things that can rock our world that I never knew existed. Many of those things are hidden struggles that others may never know about — or at least they don’t know about until something comes along and quite literally “opens up a can” of past trauma or hidden struggles.So I invite you to come along with me on this journey of exploration and understanding through this podcast which offers short episodes and hopefully informational and motivational material to help you as you prepare for the last day of the week. Not every episode will be about a mental health struggle but there will certainly be weeks that are. Sometimes we will just hope to give you a boost as you close out the week. However, there are some rules of engagement here though - some understanding that I want you to have before you agree to go on the journey.

1. Keep An Open Mind - Some of the things we talk about here may be new territory. It may be like one of those movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth where you see things that seem hard to comprehend. I know there were a lot of things that were hard for me to grasp at first and has certainly been hard to relate to others. So think of it like Journey to the Center of Your Soul.2. It’s an Ever-Changing Landscape - The counseling field is something that seems to change all the time so understand that I may say some things that may be different than what you might have been taught in the past. It may also change as I record these over time. It is also true that various theories of counseling reveal different techniques for dealing with things so I will likely be sharing things from a wide variety of therapeutic mindsets.3. No Two Experiences are the Same - Just because we share a thought about anxiety or depression doesn’t mean it will apply to every person who hears and so this is certainly not a replacement for good person centered counseling - but you may very well find some helpful tips for various things you may face.So, do you think you are good to start that journey? I hope so. Travis and I hope through this short podcast, along with the weekly Helping, Healing, Humor Podcast and our website to bring a better understanding of mental health to all people but especially to the church. It is a part of us that has been ignored for far too long. I hope that even in this short little podcast to help us have a little more understanding.