Focus your attention on yourself, in a loving way. Know that you are strong and capable of achieving any goal you set for yourself and your children. All powers and noble qualities are within you-only waiting to be awakened. Know that you are a part of this great and wonderful universe. You and your children are loved! Know that you have a kinship with everything that is good. Your life is divine, though at times you are tested to your deepest core of being. You are never alone. Recognize that truth and know that you and your children will flourish and survive. Feel a part of everything that is good and once you are safe and healed: send out thoughts of love to all beings so that only good may be received by others and returned back to you.

How we live in relationship to ourselves and the world around us is a key component of health and healing. Relationship is about how we encounter the world, both inner and outer, how we respond to our struggles or celebrate our successes. More conventionally, relationship is about how we bring our attention and caring to other people and to our physical surroundings. Each moment of contact is an opportunity to bring the practice of compassionate and nonjudgmental witnessing into our lifes. Although sometimes it is difficult to recognize, we are constantly being invited to participate in life with our whole being; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. At Mother's Place we concentrate on bringing the spirit into balance with our emotions. Daily we are challenged with difficulties. We have seen transformation unfold itself after a crisis; with time, counseling, prayer, work, creating, re-creating, retreat, ceremony, contemplation, healing, love and nature; a new being takes "seed".

For assistance or information (call: 1 800 764-4111).

Mother's Place, continues to have a passion for the safety and well being of women and children in transition. In 1990 there was not a shelter in Allegan County for women and children in transition; therefore Mother's Place was active in crisis, networking, and transporting. Today, Women in Transition in Holland( 616 392-2829) and Sylvia's Place in Allegan(616 673-8700) are working together in a cooperative and successful coalition. We continue to be a suppotive networking and educational team, facilitating in schools and the local community. We are a referral organization, helping women, men, families, children and teens, in child care services, civil/legal action, crisis/ abuse/ neglect, family assistance, family planning, health care and nutrition, parent education, support, counseling, pregnancy & prenatal, special needs, substance abuse, youth development, and spiritual counseling.

With crisis response, transportation, food, shelter and clothing made available by successful organizations, Mother's Place transitioned from being a crisis response organization, into a "spiritual healing place". Some people would tend to think of us as a "green house." A sacred, fertile, safe space, to cultivate seeds ready to awaken. For people in all faiths, cultures, and spiritual traditions, the spirit plays a large part in the delicate process of creating and re-creating one into wholeness. Through our educational programs, workshops, seminars and networking, individuals learn new skills to be independent and whole.

At other times, there are the challenges of growth and the world of nature. Many times it is difficult to value the lessons one has before them. Feelings of restlessness or dissatisfaction, or a vague sense of longing for something unnamed, perhaps unnameable, are subtle indicators that are often easy to ignore: yet may eventually escalate into a crisis. In its more dramatic embodiments, it is possible! to see change as an invitation for transformation. Experiencing change as an opportunity makes the transition quieter, and perhaps more prevalent. With the support of a counselor, friend, family or community; change becomes a gentle encouragement to be still and listen.

Hearing the "Call" to change and saying yes

Allowing ourselves to hear the call means doing what we can to be open to the transformation within. It means a willingness to be with the unknown, though we live in a culture that values action and results. It is no surprise that at times, the temptation may be overpowering to do something the moment we sense that change is afoot. Yet what we may be needing, is instead to allow these faint whisperings to emerge more fully, giving our intellectual, emotional, and intuitive faculties the space and time to attend fully to the opportunity before us. Positioning ourselves so that we may truly hear, demands more of us than a passive silence. It requires a willingness "to act" when the time is ripe. It may mean tempering a burning need to know, with patience and surrenderance.

During these shifts and transformations, some look within themselves, others talk to friends, to family and many times a counselor. To find a counselor best suited to you might require you to shop around. The most important thing in the counseling interview is not what the therapist says. Instead, what matters most, is how congruent and present the therapist is and how she or he experiences the other person. Being non-judgmental, as well as having "unconditional positive regard" and non-possessive warmth, are essential to a counselor's effectiveness in facilitating the other person's integration and wholeness. If counselor's only diagnose and formulate techniques, they are unable to bring about the kind of healing that research has shown occurs when counselors focus on being as fully present as possible. The formal relationship between counselor and client is only one way in which our innate capacities for relatedness, bring change into our lives. All relations depend on how we relate to that within ourselves.