Care & Counseling

Ryan has long valued building relationships, investing in people, and walking with others through the trials of life. Ryan started in pastoral ministry, first at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and then at Rockwall Presbyterian Church in Rockwall, Texas. During this time, Ryan realized that, for him, there are few things as rewarding as sharing life with someone and helping someone to move in a better direction. And Ryan always loved wrestling with the big and hard questions of life, which led him to earn a Doctor of Ministry while working in the church.

Ryan’s desire to work directly with people grew to the point he became licensed as a professional counselor. While he was working on his MS in counseling, Ryan worked as a chaplain at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where he walked hundreds of children and families through difficult and life-changing diagnoses. Here, Ryan came to understand that the opportunity to walk with someone through one’s pain is a gift.

Ryan began his career in counseling working with adults and teens wrestling with anxiety, depression, and the stress of life, and went on to focus on marriage counseling and received advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy. During this journey Ryan has come to focus on anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, addiction, existential/faith crises, premarital and marital counseling. Ryan has been married for twenty-five years and has raised three children, two biological and one adopted, who are now in their late teens and early twenties.

Life is often like a difficult puzzle. One knows one has all the pieces on the table, but it isn’t clear how they all fit together. Ryan considers it a privilege to put together the pieces with clients.

We welcome Licensed Professional Counselor Associate Kathryn Williams to our care team. Kathryn offers pro-bono professional counseling services to adolescents, teens, individuals, couples, and families on our church campus weekly by appointment.

Kathryn received both her undergraduate degree and Masters in Counseling from Southern Methodist University. She completed her Practicum experience at the SMU Center for Family Counseling and has worked in private practice and partial hospitalization/intensive outpatient settings with children, teens, and adults. Kathryn has completed specialized training in child-centered play therapy, adolescent therapy, and couples therapy, and she has a passion for working with young adults and parents. Her areas of specialty include:

• Self-esteem and self-concept
• Anxiety
• Behavioral challenges
• Parenting concerns
• Relationship struggles
• Family systems and multigenerational family trauma
• Co-dependency

“I strive to provide a genuine, empathetic, and confidential space for clients to explore their presenting concerns, needs, and goals using a client-centered therapeutic approach. My goal is to work collaboratively with clients to foster enhanced self-insight and develop meaningful tools to foster lasting change and transformational growth.” – Kathryn Williams, LPC-A, under the supervision of Martha Williams, LPC-S

We are pleased to welcome Licensed Professional Counselor Martha Williams to our Care Team.

Through personal and relational healing, hope springs and flourishes. Her goal is to help individuals, couples, and families honestly address sorrows, disappointments, fears, and conflict to cultivate transformation and restoration personally, relationally, and spiritually.

Martha seeks to provide a safe space for clients as they unravel the intricacies of their life story and process challenging beliefs, feelings, and decisions affecting their current reality. Her belief that God is present in our pain and that He can and does heal informs the theory and technique applied and anchors her counsel.

She received her undergraduate degree at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA, her master’s degree in counseling psychology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA, and her Doctorate of Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. She has worked in hospital and clinic settings, private practice, international healthcare and prison systems, the school district, ministry, and non-profit for over 30 years in the United States, Central America, and South America.

Areas of specialty include:

• Depression & Anxiety
• Relationship challenges
• Couples counseling
• Family counseling
• Parenting & Co-parenting dilemmas
• Divorce aftercare
• Loss and grief work
• Mood disorders
• Recovery from emotional, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse
• Crisis and trauma counseling
• Cross-cultural adjustment and adaptation
• Group counseling & facilitation

She provides counseling sessions by appointment to ages 16 and up, individuals, couples, and families in-person at HP Pres on Friday afternoons and virtually one evening a week.

“My goal is to help individuals honestly address their sorrows, disappointments, and fears, overcome their problems, and live a transformed and restored life. I seek to provide clients with a safe space to process any personal convictions, including issues of faith.”
 – Martha Williams

This four-part series helps you understand the basics of caring for a loved one with Alzheimers.

1. Session 1
2. Session 2
3. Session 3
4. Session 4