Why Did I Start Life & Relationship Coaching?
Hi, I am Ricky D. Sluder, Life & Relationship Coach and Published Author of Accepting Truth, Finding Hope! I offer people a faith-based alternative to the traditional mental health counseling model, designed to coach people sidelined by life, back into the game!
Due to extreme childhood trauma, and complex PTSD from serving the great State of Texas as a Police Detective for 10 years, I was severely wounded by the countless lies I had been told about me. These lies, once received and believed, led me to form improper belief systems about myself, and life in general. These lies were a frontal attack on my identity, which led me to negative behaviors and actions, like the soothing salves of addiction that ranged from alcohol abuse, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, constant negative self-talk, and secret sexual acts, to name a few.
The storms of my life, and the proverbial sandcastles I built on the secret beaches no one knew about, led to feelings of sadness, depression, hopelessness, and even thoughts of suicide. Once my primary focus became fixated on my feelings, whatever little security I had, began to erode. As those storms of life continued to rage year after year, I began to question if I even had a purpose for living beyond my struggles.
After four decades of feeling this way, I finally sought help through the traditional mental health model. I attended individual and intensive outpatient group therapy. I tried several different medications and none of it helped me. In fact, it just made me feel worse. Psychotherapy did little more than leave me searching for the answers to the questions of “how did that make you feel?” and the medication they gave me had horrible side effects that made me hate myself and my life more than I did before taking them. Not one thing was done to help me overcome the wounds and the challenges that I had faced in this life.
So, I walked away from that model, and I began studying and researching for a better way to help myself through my faith and practical wisdom. Seven years later, I had discovered the secret to breaking free!
Today, I coach people sidelined by life, just like I once was, back into the game! My faith-based approach is designed to be an alternative to the traditional mental health model. I help people identify, overcome, and grow from life circumstances that are negatively impacting them in their relationships, and/or their personal life.