Our Mission
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. —Frederick Buechner
At New City Counseling, our mission is to bring hope in the struggle—whether this be the internal struggle of depression and self-doubt that rages inside many of us, or the relational struggles that often divide marriages and families, or even larger structural issues that make living with the necessities of life difficult. We seek to bring hope and healing to all of these realities. And through this hope, help our clients live their lives through lenses of beauty and grace—thus becoming more fully human.
New City Counseling is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. IRS forms 1023 and 990 are available upon request. NCC is committed to offering low-cost counseling to underserved communities in Charlottesville. We partner with churches and other organizations, as well as raising money from private individuals, in order to grow this commitment.
Would you support our mission with a monthly or one-time donation?
DONATE HERE
You may also support New City Counseling with a donation of stock, which may provide tax benefits. To donate stock, call Taylor Associates at 434-295-2700. Inform them that you are making a gift of stock to New City Counseling (Account # SF1015003, DTC # 0443). They will handle the transfer of your stock gift. Please consult a tax professional before initiating any transfer of securities.
Our Commitment
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
—Saint Augustine
Love & Dignity
Our first commitment and belief is that every person who we come in contact with is made for love: both to be loved by others and to give love toward others. We also believe that all who walks through our doors are profoundly marked by dignity, having been made in the image of God. But we are all, at the same time, shackled with struggle because of the brokenness that exists both inside and outside of us. And this brokenness has distorted the love we were meant to give and receive into the shapes of abuse and shame. Our goal at NCC is to work with our clients at exposing and honestly facing the brokenness in their lives, in order to then expose and face the beauty that has been marred or covered. We are a group of fellow strugglers, who have been gifted and equipped to serve in the particular calling of meeting people in the midst of their psychological and relational pain. Our hope is that the people we are privileged to work with will experience healing and new degrees of wholeness and freedom, with the ultimate goal of loving God, neighbor, and themselves more deeply.
Our Approach
The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories that it loves and believes in. —Harold Goddard
Relationship & Story
Relationship and Story are the key themes that guide the work that we do with our clients. At the core of our clinical approach is a relational model that understands deep human connection as the vehicle for change to take place. Since interpersonal relationships are the areas in which brokenness is experienced most deeply, they are also the places we believe God most effectively uses to heal and bind up.
It is in the context of the therapuetic relationship that the client’s story is explored, the roots and consequences of problems uncovered, and restoration takes place. In the exploration of our client's stories, beautiful and painful places are discovered, celebrated, and grieved; wholeness and integration becomes possible, and individuals begin to find their story woven into a grand Story of hope and redemption.
The process of counseling can take many different forms and a variety of theories and techniques may be employed. Though we have been trained and influenced by various writers and thinkers, both inside and outside the Christian tradition, we are primarily and ultimately guided by the wisdom and truth found in the Christian Scriptures.