WHEN YOUR “WHAT IF”
WON’T LET GO
Thoughtful biblical counseling for individuals and couples facing life's challenges, with a particular focus on anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and OCD.
FREE 15-MINUTE CONSULTATIONSERVING SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI & THE SURROUNDING OZARKS
Biblical Counseling in Springfield, Missouri
Ozarks Biblical Counseling offers thoughtful, Scripture-driven counseling for individuals navigating life's challenges, including personal struggles, difficult circumstances, and questions of faith.
Whether meeting in person in Springfield or online, my aim is to listen carefully, understand your struggle, and help you consider how God's Word speaks to the circumstances you're facing.
Anxiety, OCD, and Intrusive Thoughts
Biblical counseling speaks to many of life's challenges. One area of particular focus in my work is helping individuals navigate anxiety, intrusive thoughts, persistent fears, and OCD-like patterns of fear and uncertainty.
These struggles can take different forms, but they often share something in common: the exhausting effort to find certainty, quiet an unwanted thought, or feel safe from what might occur next.
“I have thoughts I never wanted but can’t stop thinking.”
“I’m always waiting for the anxiety to hit again.”
“I keep asking ‘what if,’ but I never seem to feel sure.”
Your circumstances may look different, but the struggle sounds remarkably familiar.
BEGIN WITH UNDERSTANDING
Two Ways to Live
The path you've been on feels familiar. There's another way.
A cycle that never ends.
for Certainty
Learning to respond differently without resolving every fear.
THE QUESTION MAY REMAIN. YOUR RESPONSE DOESN'T HAVE TO STAY THE SAME.
The Reality
We cannot know or control every outcome. Some fears may remain unresolved.
The Response
The demand for certainty doesn't have to govern every decision we make.
The Resolve
We can entrust the unknown to God and give attention to what faithfulness requires today.
"What if?" can make life smaller. One more answer, one more reassurance, one more attempt to feel certain. Biblical counseling helps us learn a different response: trusting God amid uncertainty, attending to what He has placed before us today, and remembering that fear does not have to have the final word.
We can learn to say, "Even if."
Resource Hubs
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Understanding Anxiety, OCD, & Intrusive Thoughts
Read to discover if this is what life has been like lately for you or if this sounds familiar
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Why Anxious Thoughts Get Stuck
Learn why unwanted thoughts keep returning and what can make them harder to let go
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Responding Differently to Fear
Learn different ways to respond to unwanted thoughts, anxiety, and uncertainty
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Faith, Fear & Religious Scrupulosity
Understand how anxiety & OCD-related fears can become entangled with faith
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Getting Back To Life Beyond Anxiety
Find ways to reconnect with daily responsibilities, relationships, and meaningful activities
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Helping Someone with Anxiety or OCD
Learn to assist a loved one with compassion, wisdom, and healthy boundaries
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.
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
Fully Insured
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.