Cabot counselor brings insight into practice

Glenda Eversole, founder of Growing Hope Counseling in Cabot, worked as a social worker in Jacksonville before founding her own business, which helps individuals, families and couples.
Glenda Eversole, founder of Growing Hope Counseling in Cabot, worked as a social worker in Jacksonville before founding her own business, which helps individuals, families and couples.

There’s a reason a number of flower-filled watering tins — in drawn or actual form — butterfly decorations and a screened-in porch door have found a home on the walls of Glenda Eversole’s office: They signify the growth she hopes her clients will achieve.

Eversole, a licensed certified social worker, is the founder of Cabot’s Growing Hope Counseling, which offers therapy for individuals and families. Eversole’s office includes Winter Yielding, a play therapist who focuses on young children, and Brandon Rogers, who works with teens and adults. Eversole mainly advises women and those who have endured abuse.

“The idea of coming to therapy is growing as a person, growing emotionally,” said Eversole, who worked with youth as a social worker in Jacksonville prior to founding her business in 2015.

“I knew years ago that I wanted to have my own place,” she said. “That was going to be important to me.”

Because she had to reach a certain level of licensure before she could independently practice, she continued working in Jacksonville for experience. After she opened Growing Hope Counseling in March 2015, she was able to quit her former job that July.

As a mother of four daughters who has been divorced and since remarried, Eversole said she switched from working with youths to adults because she recognized parents’ growth can be the key to changing a household. During her divorce, Eversole went through therapy, which she said led her to her current work, so she knows what it’s like to be in the client’s chair.

“If there’s chaos in the home or if there are things going on, say, the mother has a history of trauma, and it’s affecting the way she reacts to things or the way that she feels or the relationships she chooses, then all that affects the children,” she said.

While a social worker in Jacksonville, Eversole’s own family experiences from childhood began to make more sense to her.

“I think that it really clenched when I worked with the kids,” she said. “It helped me have more insight to the impact to the environment on the kid because I know how my environment affected me as a child.”

She enjoys working with women because if you heal the mother, it has a great impact on the kids, she said.

“I think for women, a lot of times, they’re kind of the center of the family,” she said. “That doesn’t mean the dads aren’t important — they are, obviously, very important. But the woman is always kind of the center. My husband told me I’m the sun, and they’re the planets around me.”

However, she was surprised at how much she enjoys working with men, seeing as she grew up with all sisters and raised four daughters.

“I love working with [men]. I think that’s been something that really was good for me to see that I’m good at that,” she said.

An Army veteran, Eversole also was a military spouse and as a therapist works with military families, too. She said she has good insight into issues that military families deal with.

“Deployments are rough on families,” she said. “Though you may think it’s the absence, and for the kids, it is the absence a lot, but a lot of times, it’s when they come back that is the hardest because the person left behind has gotten used to doing things on their own and being in charge and making all the decisions.”

Eversole said couples often don’t realize the basis of a healthy relationship is friendship and that couples can become complacent. Counseling can help them realize the root of their issues.

“It helps to identify what each partner is bringing into the relationship because you take all that stuff from when you’re a kid and a teen and things that happen to you before or former relationships and you bring all that baggage with you into your current relationship,” she said. “So sometimes, there’s stuff that hasn’t been resolved. Once you can resolve it, and recognize it and work on it, then it can go a long way toward healing, and it helps them understand each other.”

A common mistake couples make in their relationship is waiting too long to seek the help of a professional, Eversole said.

“When they come in here, it’s like that Hail Mary, last-ditch effort to heal the relationship when, sometimes, it’s too far gone,” she said. “If they would just come in sooner when things start to be a problem instead of waiting until they’re ready for a divorce, then I think it would make a big difference.”

At Growing Hope Counseling, the first session with Eversole, an assessment session, can be anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours long. During an assessment session, Eversole gathers information on a client’s medical history, family history and history with trauma. She also explores the client’s current household and family dynamic.

“I always go in looking for their strengths because you want to work with them using those strengths because it can help them heal faster,” she said. “One of the things that I always ask them is what do they think their strengths are. It’s important to see if they can even identify some. Because I can sit there and talk to somebody for an hour, and I can already see strengths, but if they can’t identify any to me, that tells me a lot about their sense of self and self-worth, how depressed they are.”

Eversole said she also always asks, “What do you need the most from me?” She said she wants to treat clients for the issues they believe are their biggest problems. She also said she tells clients to let her know when a method that she is using isn’t helpful to their growth.

“They know themselves better than I do,” she said.

An open-minded attitude and complete honesty are important to healthy sessions.

“They need to want to be here,” she said. “It’s not going to be effective if they don’t want the help because they won’t use what they learn in therapy. It is important to come in with a feeling that they really want to do something here because it’s work. Therapy is work.”

Eversole said clients do not have to be embarrassed or ashamed during sessions.

“There’s usually not a lot that we haven’t heard already,” she said. “My job is not to judge anybody for anything. My job is to help them, and that’s always my goal.”

Eversole said the relationship between therapist and client is 95 percent of the healing process because of the no-judgment zone.

There is no set number of sessions needed for a client to be healed of their trauma or underlying issue, and clients can dictate how often they attend sessions. Some may resolve their concerns within six sessions, but others might need more time.

“You’re always assessing to make sure what’s their mental status. Are they regressing? Are they improving exceptionally quickly?” she said.

Eversole said that therapy can often disrupt a problematic cycle in one’s life or family dynamic, and that those who would like to seek help shouldn’t be ashamed to do so.

“It’s such a power move to get help when you need it. They think of it as weakness, some people do. It’s not. It’s a strength move because you’re taking control of the situation, and you’re doing something about it.”

Within the next year, Eversole hopes to buy a house so that her practice can have a more homey environment and possibly even grow to locations outside of Cabot. As someone who has clients who come from as far as Batesville, she recognizes the need for strong counseling closer to home.

“But I want to grow it here first and bring in more therapists specializing in certain things,” she said. “That way, when someone calls in needing help, then I’ll have the perfect person that can help them the best.”

Even though therapy can get tough, Eversole advises those who are currently in it to stick with it.

“Everybody has a story,” she said. “It’s an honor that people trust me with their most intense pain. It’s a big deal, and I respect them a lot for it, and it means a lot to me.”

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

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