When Your “What if” Won’t let Go
Thoughtful biblical counseling for anxiety, intrusive thoughts, OCD, and the patterns that keep you stuck
IF this sounds like you
“I have thoughts I never wanted but can’t stop thinking.”
“I’m always waiting for the anxiety to hit again.”
“What if the doctors missed something or I get a disease?”
“What if I hurt someone even though I don’t want to?”
You have your own story, but you are not alone.
Resource Hubs
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Understanding What's Going On
Make sense of what you have been living through
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Stuck Thoughts
Learn why some thoughts are hard to get rid of
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Responding Differently
Realize you don’t have to engage like you always do
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Faith & Fear Tangled
Learn about what is sometimes called moral scrupulosity
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Getting Back To Life
Get assistance in returning to daily tasks
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Helping Loved Ones
Learn how to encourage someone healthily
Articles and resources organized around the questions and thought patterns that surround fear, anxiety, OCD, and intrusive thoughts—and can leave you feeling stuck. Choose the area that sounds most familiar and begin there.
THE REALITY
Things may go wrong.
Fear might still be there.
Life may not go as hoped.
THE RESPONSE
I don’t need to have certainty.
I won’t ever feel totally ready.
I can still move forward.
THE RESOLVE
I will trust through the dark.
Fears will shout.
What if → Even If.
“What if?” makes life smaller as you keep searching for one more answer, one more reassurance, one more reason to feel certain. Biblical counseling helps you step out of that cycle by learning to trust God in the uncertainty. Not because you can know the feared thing will never occur—but because fear does not get the final word. You can learn to say, “Even if.”
About
You know intimately what it’s like to believe that if you could just stop thinking about it, everything would be okay.
If the thoughts would just quiet down
If the anxiety and fear would only leave
If the feeling of certainty would finally be there
Then maybe you could begin living again.
Those are often the feelings of individuals who are struggling to make sense of what they are going through.
Over the years, I have devoted a great deal of time to understanding anxiety, intrusive thoughts, OCD—and what causes them to stick and intensify. Much of that work has centered on understanding the responses that quietly reinforce these struggles and what it looks like to respond differently.
That study now informs much of the counseling work that I do with those struggling with intrusive thoughts, anxiety, OCD, and relentless “what if” thinking.
Cody Shores, M.A.B.C., M.Div.
Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling & Master of Divinity
2013 — Gained Certification through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC)
20+ Years of Pastoral Ministry, Training & Teaching
Online Biblical Counseling Available Nationwide · In-Person in Springfield, Missouri
Frequently Asked Questions
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Biblical Counseling engages life’s struggles through a Christian understanding of humans, suffering, change, wisdom and hope. Scripture gives the foundation and framework for how I engage the various issues of life. While sessions also involve careful listening, thoughtful questions, useful instruction, and concrete actions and steps towards change.
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No. Biblical counseling and licensed mental-health treatment are not the same thing. I provide biblical counseling rather than psychotherapy or clinical mental-health treatment.
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My particular area of focus is helping people dealing with intrusive or disturbing thoughts, anxiety, persistent fears, OCD-like patterns, repeated reassurance seeking, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, and related spiritual fears.
Biblical counseling can also address broader questions of suffering, relationships, grief, decision-making, faith, and everyday struggles of life.
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Yes. Sessions are available online, allowing us to meet regardless of where you live, as well as in person in the Springfield, Missouri area.
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A 60-minute biblical counseling session is $75. A free 15-minute consultation is also available if you'd like to ask questions and determine whether biblical counseling with me would be a good fit before scheduling a full session.
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There isn't a predetermined number. Some people come with a fairly focused issue and meet for a shorter period; others benefit from meeting longer.
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I treat what you share as private and confidential within the limits described in the counseling agreement. There are limited situations involving safety, legal duties, or other required disclosures in which information may need to be shared. These circumstances are outlined in the terms.
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That's exactly what the free consultation is for. You don't have to commit to counseling simply to ask questions.
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You don't need to have everything figured out spiritually before meeting with me. You should, however, understand that what is being offered is Biblical Counseling and Scripture shapes what is discussed.
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Yes, I have a long history of counseling a variety of issues: marital counseling, depression, grief, pre-marital counseling, divorce, lust, anger, and many other subjects.
Where do you go
from here?
If you recognize yourself in some of what you’ve read here and would like to talk through it, we can meet together and begin there.