Meet RT Therapist, Chuck Roberts
So thankful for Chuck to lead the charge and be the first to submit his bio and photo. We want to hear from everyone in the RT community. So please send us a bio (500 words or less) sharing with us a bit about who you are; how you came to RT; what you specialize in; and any links you want us to post. And we will share it with the community as well as keeping it posted on the site alongside the other bios
I’m Chuck Roberts and I’ve been a counselor (LPC-S) in Dallas for over 25 years. I have been a part of group practices, but since 2016 have been on my own in my private practice called Life Restoration SOULutions. I work with adult individuals and couples in weekly or bi-weekly sessions. However, I do schedule intensives when clients find that helpful. I have been married for over 36 years to Susanne, who is an RN with Childrens Health Dallas. Our daughter, Linnea, attends Kansas State University.
I am an avid reader, especially in the area of spiritual formation. Like many of you, I’m also often reading psychology and counseling books in an attempt to continually provide the best care to my clients. I first heard Terry Hargrave speak at a continuing education event hosted by Park Cities Presbyterian Church in the Dallas area. Sometime after that I reached out to him by email to ask him about his book The Essential Humility of Marriage and he told me about his more recent work, Restoration Therapy. His idea of how love and trust get damaged and create pain cycles made a lot of sense to me, so in 2015 (I think that’s the right year) I attended a two-day training event with Terry Hargrave and Wib Newton to get the Level One certification in RT.
Much of my work is with men who struggle with sex addiction. The RT framework is so helpful in explaining the pain cycles that lead to addiction and provides a good framework for finding the way out by working towards truth and the peace cycle. Really, it’s the same with clients I see who are struggling with anxiety or depression or who see me for couples counseling. It’s a great framework for understanding emotional reactivity. I’m not an IFS or ACT therapist, but I do like some of the concepts of those approaches, and I find that many of the interventions work well with a Restoration Therapy structure. The same is true of the Enneagram, which I have found to be very helpful for my own growth, along with many clients.
Honestly, my avid reading has gotten in the way of fully learning RT. I’ve been sidetracked by reading all the books about what this counselor and that counselor are doing and this new approach “everyone” is trying. But I came away from the RT Summit in Amarillo more deeply committed to Restoration Therapy, both personally and professionally, and I especially plan to do more work around its usefulness in producing real change for those caught in sex addiction.
Chuck the world needs more people like you in it! I am so thankful for your heart and passion. We need to create the RT reading lists/book club. What's next on your reading list?
Chuck, it was so good to finally meet you in person, especially since we are literally in the same metroplex. Thanks so much for coming up to Amarillo and participating in the Summit, and I look forward to some more RT therapists in the DFW connecting and doing some work together.