Crosspoint Counseling Center

Crosspoint Church’s first counseling center has offered services in Niceville for 10 years. When the church asked the congregations of its four campuses where to launch the next one, they heard a resounding answer: Crestview.

Alyssa Gavulic, the Crosspoint Counseling Center director, said it made sense because the church has two campuses in Crestview.

“We’re plugged into the community,” Gavulic said. “We’re trying to make an impact in those areas and we’re seeing a need for skilled clinical counseling for people not just in the church, but in the community. For us, it was very natural to lead toward Crestview where we already have people on the ground seeing that need face to face and wanting to provide those services.”

The Crosspoint Counseling Center Crestview location opened July 15 at 6268 Old Bethel Road on the Church's North Crestview campus. It offers various types of counseling types for individuals, couples, children and families, and accepts various insurance providers.

For more information, visit Crosspoint.Church/counseling or call 850-279-4576.

It makes sense for Crosspoint Church to offer a counseling center, Gavulic said.

“We are working in the community to connect people to Christ — but not just connect people to Christ, walk through life with people,” Gavulic said. “Life is complicated. It comes with myriad transitions, issues and relational dynamics that sometimes we need skilled help to navigate. It was a natural extension of walking through life with people to offer skilled clinical help in the form of a counseling center.”

The center offers sessions from licensed Christian counselors and sessions from interns at a discounted rate.

“We have some practicum students who are in the final stages of their master’s level education. Then we have some that are registered with the state and are accruing hours for licensure,” Gavulic said. “We have two tiers of interns, and they’re under regular supervision.”

What separates them from some other counseling centers is how the clinicians can combine faith- and evidence-based counseling. It's the best of both worlds, Gavulic said.

“It’s a huge desire for people to find counselors that share similar faith-based backgrounds because we’re going to be able to help them with the nuances of not just using spiritual intervention, but exploring some deeper existential issues that people sometimes need help walking through and looking at,” Gavulic said.

The counselors aim for a balanced approach that’s tailored to honor the needs and desires of the individual, Gavulic said. They accept clients who don’t seek faith-based counseling.

“We would never offer them something they weren’t open to or wouldn’t align with their personal belief system, but we have those tools accessible if they’re open to it,” Gavulic said. “The beautiful thing is we are open to everyone in the community, so we’re not limited by a faith, but it’s something we offer to integrate.”

Most clients don’t come in with one issue; they come in with several, Gavulic said.

“We try to look at it biopsychosocially,” Gavulic said. “We want to look at what is contributing to this issue — maybe biologically, maybe psychologically, maybe socially or maybe spiritually. We try to offer a comprehensive approach to whatever their problem is.”

Gavulic believes the spiritual component is an important offering.

“I think anyone who has found an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ understands the resource that it can be in working through existential issues, encouraging through difficult times or giving us a way of viewing the world," Gavulic said. "We realize how beneficial that can be to others, what a powerful tool that can be in someone’s healing.”

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Crosspoint Counseling Center