Gerald Ford

I joined the Houston Center for Christian Counseling in 1989, coming from a pastoral background which began in 1970. I retired from the pastorate in 2011 and am involved now in supply preaching, writing, consulting with churches in need, and leading conferences in Bible study and Christian discipleship.

My academic preparation includes a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary and a Master of Arts in Psychology from Houston Baptist University. Throughout my years of practice, I have been a participating member (learning and teaching) of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology, and other professional organizations.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). Part of my work includes supervision of LPC and LMFT interns preparing for full licensing.

Most of my experience has been with adults and adolescents dealing with a variety of issues including marriage, family, divorce recovery, sexuality, anxiety, depression, relationships, communication, and assertiveness. My view of people and counseling is that people are much more than a list of symptoms and possible failings. We cannot simply “divide out” a portion of who we are, treat it, and think we have grown as a whole person. My objective is to help individuals become active and assertive in their own growth and wholeness.

I encourage people for a living. In the Christian context, this is what the Bible refers to when it says in Colossians 2, “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf,… 2 that… hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge… 6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

I am married to Billie Ritter Ford, and we have four grown sons. She is a retired independent Historian and also an ordained minister. We are both Certified Couple Communication Instructors, presenting workshops together and individually since 1991.

I present some workshops at HCCC. The Couple Communication Workshop, the Connections Workshop for single adults, and the Seven Principles Workshops are highly practical, enabling participants to understand excellent materials and immediately put them to work. Love is better expressed with growing skills, and less anxiety, as well as a fuller awareness of how we understand and get understood.

In these workshops I have seen scores of individuals and couples come alive and enthused about their life, their marriage, the new connections, and the shared meanings they find with each other. I have found the Couple Communication, Connections, and Gottman Institute materials to be among the most useful and among the most Biblically compatible of all published materials.

I believe that the teaching of scripture has always been relevant to personal life and relationships, that Christ is the creator of life, and that he has made us for relationships with Himself and with each other.