Melissa Plantz, Rowlett Christian Counseling

About Melissa Plantz

Melissa Plantz is a Christian author and freelance writer. She spent twenty years in the pharmacy industry and has specialized in faith, fitness, nutrition, geriatrics, and mental health since 2015. She writes from the beautiful Lake Marion area in South Carolina.

8 Signs of a Toxic Relationship

8 Signs of a Toxic Relationship

Melissa Plantz2024-10-09T20:24:20+00:00September 30th, 2024|Couples Counseling, Featured, Infidelity and Affairs, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Toxic relationships are unhealthy and can undermine your physical, emotional, and mental health. Yet, many of us caught in this type of union have no idea that the relationship is not normal or healthy. We are too close to see the signs of a toxic relationship objectively. If it was your best friend involved with someone who constantly criticized, gaslighted, or betrayed them, you might be the first to speak up. However, it is time to uncover the truth and take a good look at your own relationship. Eight signs of a toxic relationship The signs of a toxic relationship are there, but it is true what they say, “love is blind.” It is as if we walk around with blinders. When we notice a sign, we may second guess our intuition, allowing self-doubt and the fear of overreacting to keep us from distancing ourselves. Instead of settling, consider the following eight signs of a toxic relationship and compare the behaviors to your partner’s actions. If they ring true, you must decide whether to pursue the relationship (possibly with counseling) or find your own path. You cannot trust your partner Betrayal comes in many forms, but the underlying theme is that you cannot trust your partner. It may be that they say they are going to be somewhere but never show repeatedly. Or it could be that they have betrayed you through infidelity or made terrible financial decisions behind your back. Often, people are repeat offenders, trying to behave to stay in your good graces until an opportunity presents itself that is too tempting. Once trust is broken, it is hard to regain. Even after weeks, months, and years, the emotional scars from betrayal may still be there. People can change their behaviors with God’s help if they repent [...]

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Self-Improvement Tips to Get You Started

Self-Improvement Tips to Get You Started

Melissa Plantz2024-09-27T10:56:34+00:00February 8th, 2024|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

To grow as a person, you need to improve. Jim Rohn, an American motivational public speaker used to say, “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” If you want to change your life, you must change yourself. This means self-improvement of thoughts, behaviors, and skills. Self-improvement tips to get you started. Eat better. Eating better has less to do with maintaining a healthy weight (although that is encouraged for physical health) and more about the mental aspects of consuming nutritious foods. Food full of preservatives, dyes, and chemicals can leave you lethargic. You do not think as well when you consume foods that trigger inflammation. Train your body. Physical fitness is the foundation of self-improvement. If you are physically sick, your other work will suffer. Your relationships suffer when you cannot physically do what you want. Stop thinking of exercise as working out. Instead, think of it as training to do God’s work. You must be strong, balanced, and flexible to do many required tasks. Even if you have a desk job, you need your heart and lungs to be in excellent health so that you do not succumb to cardiorespiratory illnesses from less movement. Train your body and consider it a temple for the Holy Spirit. Make rest a priority. Much of our culture values hustle. We are told that if we give 110%, then we will see results. Although this is true, God created us with a need for rest. We can give our best effort, but we need to set aside time to rest. In the Bible, God commanded the people to take the Sabbath as a day of rest. This was not just to spend the day worshipping God and fellowshipping with one another. It was also to force the [...]

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How Turning to God Can Help with Emotional Eating

How Turning to God Can Help with Emotional Eating

Melissa Plantz2024-09-27T10:54:44+00:00September 21st, 2023|Eating Disorders, Featured, Individual Counseling|

We all crave something. For some people, it is fame and acknowledgment. For others, it is money and material possessions. Still, other people find that they crave food to fill them through emotional eating. But at the root of these wants, these cravings are a deep need only God can satisfy. Emotional eating is turning to food for comfort when we feel overwhelming emotions. We desperately want to drown out these feelings and thoughts, so we eat foods that give us temporary pleasure. Our brain recognizes that when we consume specific foods like simple carbs and sugar, we do it to relax. In response, the brain’s reward system floods us with chemicals that do just that – help us relax and feel good. But emotional eating cannot replace God in our hearts, nor can it bury unresolved hurts for long without consequences. The hole in your heart needs to be filled by God, not by food. In the Bible, God warns us about overeating. There are several passages about the sin of gluttony, or uncontrollable eating. The Book of Proverbs also points out how overeating something sweet that God gave us to enjoy can make us ill. “If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it, and you will vomit.” (Proverbs 25:16, NIV). How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psalm 119:103, NIV The writer of Psalm 119 recognizes that honey is a good food as he refers to Scripture as honey, but he also knows that overeating for any reason can make a person sick. What hole in your heart are you trying to fill with food? We often eat to avoid feeling our negative emotions, yet in some cases, we must confront these sensations to begin [...]

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Children and the Grieving Process

Children and the Grieving Process

Melissa Plantz2024-09-27T10:53:10+00:00June 5th, 2023|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Featured, Grief Counseling|

The grieving process for children can look very different from the way adults grieve. For example, a teen who has just lost his father may continue playing video games with his friends as if nothing has happened. This behavior can frustrate and worry his mother. Is his behavior healthy? Should he not be crying and acting depressed? In some ways, coping mechanisms for grief are healthy. Each person responds differently to the loss of a loved one. Children and teens go through the grieving process but can get stuck in one of the five stages of grief or repeatedly cycle back through the stages. Sometimes they need help and support to move through the process and begin healing. How do children react to grief? The grieving process consists of five stages: Denial or shock Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance There is no set time for how long one person may stay in a particular stage. A child may cycle through the stages very quickly or get hung up in a specific stage, such as anger or depression. The depression from grief differs from the type children and teens may experience with clinical depression. Depression from grief centers on the loss and seems to come in waves, while clinical depression is a persistent sadness that centers on the person or their fears for the future. Teens Teens are at an age where they may be curious about death and accepting about the loss of a loved one. This is an age where they begin to question mortality, and the death of a loved one makes it a reality for them. However, this reality is also scary for them. Even if they believe in God and Heaven, they do not feel ready, and thinking about the loss of a loved one (especially [...]

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Melissa Plantz

About Melissa Plantz

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