Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 284: Healing Relationships: Inside Marriage & Family Therapy

• Sophia Yvette

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What Makes Sara Shelton with Hope Renewed Marriage and Family Therapy a Good Neighbor?

What happens when a special education teacher's personal marriage struggles transform into a calling to help others heal their relationships? Sara Shelton, founder of Hope Renewed Marriage and Family Therapy, shares her remarkable journey on the Good Neighbor Podcast.

After experiencing difficulties early in her own marriage, Sara attended a transformative retreat that planted the seed for her future calling. Eighteen years into her teaching career, she made the bold decision to pursue a second master's degree in marriage and family therapy. Now, she specializes in working with neurodiverse couples—a focus born from her personal experience diagnosing and navigating neurodiversity in her own marriage of nearly three decades.

Sara's practice stands out with its comprehensive approach. From counseling children as young as four to facilitating retreats for betrayed partners and neurodiverse couples in Colorado, she creates safe spaces for healing. Her innovative use of animal-assisted therapy, featuring her 84-pound Giant Schnauzer, provides clients with calming support during sessions. Throughout the conversation, Sara emphasizes that effective communication—specifically, learning to notice and appreciate your partner rather than focusing on frustrations—is the cornerstone of relationship repair.

The discussion tackles persistent therapy stigmas, particularly around issues like sexual betrayal, addiction, and neurodiversity. Sara passionately advocates for normalizing therapy for all struggles, not just commonly accepted ones like anxiety or depression. For those navigating faith and therapy, she offers thoughtful perspective on how both can work together rather than in opposition.

Don't miss Sara's most powerful advice: don't wait until you've reached complete hopelessness before seeking help. The sooner you reach out, the sooner healing can begin. Ready to renew hope in your relationship? Connect with Sara at livehoperenewed.com or call 682-774-3881 to take that first step toward healing.

To learn more about Hope Renewed Marriage and Family Therapy go to: https://www.livehoperenewed.com/

Hope Renewed Marriage and Family Therapy

682-774-3881

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a family and marriage counselor? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Sarah Shelton, with Hope Renewed Marriage and Family Therapy. Sarah, how are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you for having me, Of course, and it's a pleasure to have you on. We're so excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you start by telling our listeners just a little bit about your company?

Speaker 3:

Sure, so I am independently owned. Sure, so I am independently owned LLC and I work with families kids as young as four, their families all the way up to couples. I specialize in working with neurodiverse couples that are struggling with understanding the differences and how the brain works and sees the world, and that's really fun for me. I offer animal assisted therapy as well and I run retreats with a partner for therapists right now for a renewal for therapists, and then we're going to also branch out into working for partners of betrayed betrayed partners and retreats for couples and retreats for those neurodiverse couples and just providing a safe space for them to grow closer and do some work at the same time in Colorado.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's really amazing. Now, how did you originally get into this business? So?

Speaker 3:

many years ago, my husband and I were struggling very, very early in our marriage. We had little bitty young ones my kids are all out of the house now and I went to a retreat that really impacted me in a meaningful way, and I wanted to do that for other women that were feeling the same pain and struggle that I was, and so that's when I first started thinking about because I was a teacher. I was a special ed teacher for 18 years and so I was teaching, and that's when it was planted. But I decided to leave teaching after 18 years and go into marriage and family therapy and I love it.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. Now, sarah, what is the most common myth or misconception you come across in the unique industry you're in Well?

Speaker 3:

there seems to still be a stigma associated with therapy. It's better than it used to be. It's embraced more and understood more for individuals struggling with anxiety or grief or depression, or grief, or depression. But when you're working with individuals that have sexual betrayal, sexual addiction, maybe neurodiverse some individuals don't like to have a label or let that be known that that's a struggle and a demographic that I really enjoy working with, and so just that idea that it's still okay, even though it's what it isn't one of the accepted needs for therapy, it's definitely necessary and helpful and something people should embrace.

Speaker 2:

Now, Sarah, we know marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target clients and how do you currently attract them?

Speaker 3:

So I have I network a lot. I go to a lot of networking things with other therapists, counselors and psychologists. I network with psychiatrists so I have a referral system and that also provides me with referrals from individuals. I am on Psychology Today. I have a Facebook page, I have a website, I have a page on Christian therapists and through Monarch on simple practice as well, and so I have multiple ways that I'm advertising what I can do. But the best way is through word of mouth. Clients that I've helped that refer me to their friends and family. That's the most significant way that I gain clients.

Speaker 2:

Well, that is beautiful and with all the information that you have, have you ever thought of having your own podcast?

Speaker 3:

I have considered it. I would, I would love to. There's a lot of information that I have that I want to get out there, so it's definitely something I've thought about. I've thought about, I have some book ideas as well, and considering working on a doctorate. I have two masters, one in special education and one in marriage and family therapy, and I really like working with the neurodiverse population and that's part of my story. So a lot of times therapists tend to gravitate to helping other people that have struggled with some of the same things they have. And so my husband. I diagnosed him and we have worked through a lot of difficult things and we'll be married 29 years in December and I want to help other couples find that hope and be able to create their normal, even though it doesn't maybe look like what they thought it would their normal, even though it doesn't maybe look like what they thought it would.

Speaker 2:

So, sarah, since you've worked with so many different couples and in so many different situations, what is that most important key that many people miss when it comes to solving problems within their relationship and growing stronger in the long term?

Speaker 3:

Communication. That is the biggest conflict conflict resolution communication, learning to notice and appreciate each other. So you have an environment in your home that is positive, rather than noticing and focusing on all the things you don't like about them. Right, and if there's something you don't like about your partner, it's really good to take a look and see do I see those traits in myself? And if there's something you really like about yourself, then thinking about your partner, hey, do I see those traits in them? And having that environment really helps that people tend to get caught up in the things that they're frustrated with instead of the things that they're grateful and thankful for, and it makes a huge difference in the home.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's awesome. Now, outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3:

So I have a giant schnauzer who is my therapy dog. She's my animal assisted therapy dog, so when clients want to have her present, she's a great tool for them to stay calm. So I work on training her, having fun with her, and then I have a little bitty Maltese mix, and so the dynamic of them so 84 pound giant Schnauzer and a little bitty Maltese 12 pound dog is fun. I love my family. I do a lot with my family. We love to play games and spend time together. I love baking and anything to do with water.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like we have some similarities and I was going to ask you as well. So if you didn't have the testimony that you do with your own husband, do you think you would still be in the same industry today?

Speaker 3:

I do, and the reason why I think so is because I'm a Christian and I seek to honor God in whatever I do, and I believe that he placed it on my heart to do therapy and before I was even trained and got my second master's, I was helping people all the time and through, like Celebrate, recovery and other ways in the church, and I just really felt that pull and I think, even if my husband and I hadn't struggled and overcome so much, I would still be helping people this way because I love it, absolutely love it.

Speaker 2:

Most definitely. God has a purpose for all of us in our lives, so I am with you 100%. Now, please tell our listeners one thing you would like them to take away from this podcast today about hope, renewed marriage and family therapy.

Speaker 3:

Um, even if you don't wait until you're at the no hope or hopeless state in your relationship or in your life to reach out for help, the sooner you reach out, the sooner you can process and reconcile or renew or gain hope. Um, so I would just suggest they don't wait and that I'm here and I have lots of therapist networks if I'm not the right fit that I can refer to and walk alongside in any struggle that you're having, but just don't wait until you're just completely hopeless to reach out.

Speaker 2:

And as somebody who has faith yourself, would you say it's better to go to God first before a counselor when it comes to seeking counseling?

Speaker 3:

I think that's an individual preference and individual person's faith and where they're at. I did and do depend on God a lot and his word and his counsel and when clients want that brought into our sessions, I definitely bring the Lord and the Bible and the word into our sessions. But I think that's an individual preference. It's not. I don't think it's like God or counseling. It can be God with counseling, God working through counseling to help the individual or the family or the couple with whatever life has thrown at them. That is giving them a hard time.

Speaker 2:

And where can our listeners go to learn more about Hope, renewed Marriage and Family Therapy?

Speaker 3:

So my website is livehoperenewedcom. My work number is 682-774-3881.

Speaker 2:

And my email is hoperenewed at protonmailcom. Well, Sarah, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you asking me to join you and for the time to see you and get to know you and be a part of this. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfriscocom. That's gnpfriscocom, or call 469-221-9345. Thank you.