About Restoration Counseling Ministries
Maintaining a strong marriage takes work.
On July 1, 1995, I married Terri. We were both pastors who performed our wedding, assuming I was already a minister because we came from “Christian” families. Therefore, we decided to work in ministry without premarital counseling to prepare us for our life together. Two weeks after the wedding, we packed everything we owned and moved to Springfield, Missouri, so I could attend seminary and train for the military chaplaincy.
Unfortunately, we did not understand what it took to have the right marriage. After a few years of marriage, we can truthfully say that “We didn’t divorce or kill each other.” However, as part of my degree in pastoral counseling, I was required to go to counseling and learn about God’s designs for healthy marriages, including how to communicate and resolve conflict effectively. This experience led me to come home and ask Terri, “I learned this today. Can we try it?”
Because Terri trusted God and not particularly because she trusted me, she agreed, and we began to have the best conversations ever. We also sought couples counseling and saw God transform our brokenness into a strong marriage.
That transformation ignited a passion for marriages that has raged ever since. We felt called to marriage ministry, ultimately leading to the formation of what is today known as Restoration Counseling Ministries.
All marriages need guidance.
In 2005, while serving as a chaplain in the United States Air Force, I felt called to start Mighty Marriages Ministries to address a problem I saw at each base where I served. Many of my civilian pastor colleagues had no training in counseling people, yet needed to counsel people in their congregations. I used the acclaimed and effective Prepare/Enrich relationship inventory tools for years and decided to become a trainer to teach pastors how to use these tools.
Soon after, those pastors asked me to conduct weekend marriage workshops in their churches. It wasn’t long before I felt convicted by God that the weekend workshops had been getting dozens of couples excited about working on and improving their marriages. As a result, the responsibility fell on their pastors after I returned to base. The pastors were being asked to fit dozens more people into their schedules for counseling, which was very hard for most pastors to say “no” to, and added to the overburdened pastors’ workload.
To correct that, I sought training in starting and running Marriage Mentoring ministries, and to this day, I have continued to conduct weekend workshops at churches. These workshops help every church start marriage mentoring and mental health coaching ministries. As the weekend marriage workshops ended, a “wedding reception” for the renewed marriages is held at the church, and every couple who wants to continue working on their marriage sits down for a meal with their Marriage Mentors, who will walk alongside them for a season.
Over the years, Mighty Marriages Ministry grew as I continued my active-duty chaplain ministry. A massive change occurred in 2011 because I was medically retired from the Air Force. As a result, Mighty Marriages Ministry was incorporated. It was renamed The Center for Mighty Marriages & Families (TCMMF) and became a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit, opening up the ministry’s first office in our new home in Texas.
It took time to build our ministry.
After completing my doctorate, I worked full-time and counseled people at the ministry after my regular work hours. Finally graduating in May 2015, I was able to devote more time to the ministry at TCMMF. From 2011 until 2018, I was a bi-vocational pastor at TCMMF as its offices moved five times, settling in its current location near downtown Conroe, Texas.
Finally, in September 2018, from the day I was fired from my main job as a hospice chaplain for standing up to the owner’s wrong actions, God opened up the floodgates of blessings, and I was able to work at TCMMF full-time. The ministry grew as I brought on counseling interns, associates, and more administrative staff.
While counseling has always been the primary focus of the ministry, in 2021 and following the world turning upside down in 2020, COVID lockdowns and panic, God began leading me also to focus more specifically on helping people helpers, specifically pastors, other Christian non-profit leaders, and Christian counselors. Thus began the “Helping the Helpers” initiative, which we call our “Aaron and Hur to Moses” initiative.
In 2023, I felt that the name The Center for Mighty Marriages & Families may not best explain who we are and what we do. After much prayer and discussion with family, friends, and the ministry Board, in 2025, we decided that the name focused too much on a place instead of on what we do and who we are. In April 2025, after prayer and consultation, we adopted the name Restoration Counseling Ministries, and the “rebranding” process started.
Our calling remains the same!
Although our name has changed over the years, our calling has not.
God has called Restoration Counseling Ministries to “Help people and people helpers restore their mental, emotional, and spiritual health and relational health with God, themselves, and others.”
What is our mission?
Our goal is to point clients in the right direction.
We work hard from the very first time that clients contact us to work ourselves out of a job. This means that we strive to get every client to the point that they say, “I just don’t need you anymore. I’ll take it from here!”
That won’t be when everything is perfect because that will only happen in Heaven. It will be when the following occurs:
- Enough of the problems that brought you in to see us have been resolved to the point that they are all resolvable.
- You have been a part of reaching those solutions. (We didn’t just solve them for you and create a dependence on us so that you’ll always need to come back to have us solve your problems.).
- You have the motivation, tools, and know-how to tackle the rest of the current problems and future problems.
The whole experience with us was so positive that when, not if, you get stuck in the future, you’ll reach out to us quickly and get back on your way.
Here’s a little about me.
I’m an ordained minister, a Texas Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor, a Missouri and Colorado Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Board Certified in both Professional Christian and Pastoral Counseling, and an AAMFT Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor. I have a Master of Arts in Theological Studies, a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Counseling, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Marriage and Family Counseling, as well as numerous certifications and trainings.
I have more than thirty years of experience in ministry, with fifteen years in military chaplaincy, in both Active Duty and Reserves, including a combat tour of duty in Iraq. I was blessed to share my story of my fight against PTSD from my service and be featured in several newspapers, the US Air Force website, and the Department of Defense’s Real Warriors program for work in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Suicide Intervention.
My wife, Terri, and I have been married for 30 years and have five children: two married daughters and two sons-in-law, Danielle & Kendall, and Lydia and Bland, and three sons, Timothy, Stephen, and Nate.
Helping couples is my mission.
I help committed couples facing the aftermath of infidelity, sex addiction, and other traumas reclaim their love and rebuild their connection. With a blend of transformative therapies such as EMDR, EFT, IFS, Gottman, and G2R, I empower couples to heal from past pain, rebuild trust, and rediscover the intimacy that once brought them together.
My approach goes beyond simply resolving conflict; it’s about creating a thriving, deeply connected partnership where communication flows, emotional bonds strengthen, and both partners feel seen, valued, and heard. Together, we move from the brink of despair to a renewed sense of love, understanding, and lasting joy.
I have served in combat as a military chaplain and understand the cost of war. Although it is usually a misspelling, many couples believe martial and marital are the same. But it’s not supposed to be that way. Couples aren’t supposed to be enemies in war. I bring my training and experience to bear to help couples win in marriage.
I am available for both in-person and videoconferencing appointments. My standard rate is $200 for a 50-minute session.