The 12 Steps for Everyone (Episode 87)

Brent and Janis look at the 12 steps that originated almost 100 years ago. While they are most known in the Alcoholics Anonymous tradition, Brent and Janis share how these very principles can inspire us to grow in all of our daily lives and relationships. 

Ian Cron, “The Fix” How the Twelve Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down-and-Out, and Everyone In Between

John Ortberg, Steps:  A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn’t Enough

Transcript:

Welcome to Life and Love Nuggets, where licensed therapists Brent and Janice Sharpe share how you can thrive in your life, your love, and your relationships. Hello, friends. Welcome back to Life and Love Nuggets. Kind of impressed you're still watching this or listening to this. The title of this is The 12 Steps for Everyone. Some of you are going, what?

12 Steps, everyone? Isn't that kind of addicts and stuff? I mean, I'm not an addict. Did I get the wrong podcast? I think it's the wrong podcast here. Most of you probably heard of The 12 Steps. It originated with Alcoholics Anonymous, actually back in the 1930s.

This meeting between a guy by the name of Bill Debbia, he was a New York stockbroker, and a Dr. Bob, an Akron, Ohio surgeon. Back in 1935, they had this initial meeting, and they both struggled with alcohol. And so it started there. Now, it's grown now. It actually has a presence in, I think, 180 nations around the world. And it's certainly helped more alcoholics and find sobriety than any other program or process out there.

And so we have, I want to talk a little bit about what if this process of healing that happens in these steps, what if it does something for everyone? What if it could be helpful for all of us? Now, alcohol's never been my struggle. But as a pastor and counselor of the last 40 years, I've worked with many recovering addicts, and I found something really interesting when I find someone that's truly in the process of recovery. Now, a lot of times we'll see people that aren't really started yet. They got in trouble. They got found out.

Their spouse is upset at them, or they got a DUI or something, and so they've come in. They're really not started yet. They're just in trouble. But when somebody really gets into the process of recovery and really begins to work the steps, as we would say, I found that these people are the kind of people that I would rather hang out with than almost anybody else on the planet. It's amazing to me. I've said to my pastoral colleagues over the years that I found myself wanting to hang out in the basement of the church with those that are struggling with these kinds of issues going through recovery than most of the people upstairs. And we were pastors.

And so we and all those we were leading, most of them were upstairs, okay? But I found something happening in these lives that was like, wait a second here. There was an honesty, there was an openness, a humility, no pretense, absolute dependence on God that was so attractive to me. That was like, oh my gosh. And as I heard their stories, I often found myself thinking, this is what the life of Christ in Christ is supposed to look like. In these meetings where people are sitting, sharing their stories, honest and open, and being received and loved, isn't this what the church is supposed to look like? And yet oftentimes that's not what the churches look like.

So why did the church not look like this? And is that one of the reasons the church has been less impacting in the world? Now I'm a big fan of church, okay? Pastored, and we think this is what God called us to do.

Calls us to community. To gather together like this. But could we learn something from these desperate souls? And I realized that might be the key, desperate. These people are desperate. They are desperate for the power of God in their life. And the average churchgoer, not that desperate.

They generally think they're really a pretty good person. And they've got things pretty well together. Yeah, you know, if we actually look at our lives, we realize that we all have things that keep us from fully being present to God, and maybe even fully being present in our lives. God wants us to have something different. And we tend to, as humans, live pretty independently from Him. I mean, we say we're dependent on God, and yet- Say the words. Yes, if you just say the words.

I mean, we talked in our last podcast about we're prone to wander. We're humans, and we're prone to wander to get our perceived needs met. Yeah. I need this, I'm uncomfortable, and so I'm gonna do this, and that's gonna help me feel better. And oftentimes, that's not turning to God. It's turning to something else or some other habit. We all have substitutes that we use to help us feel better that really are stealing life from us.

They're not beneficial. We may momentarily feel better, but in the long run, they don't necessarily or probably don't make us feel better, especially things like porn or overspending or maybe playing on video games too long, those things that we think, I really need this. I need that latest Netflix series. I just need to watch all of it so that I will feel better, or a lot of other things. But we try to find those things to meet the deeper needs in us that God is supposed to meet. Yeah. Those two people that I really highly respect that just happened to both come out with a new book just this year.

Well, the same month. The same month in January. Which is amazing, yeah. On the same topic. Yeah, without talking to each other. Now they've talked to each other, but yeah. So Ian Cron, who many of you know, he's an author, speaker, he's an Episcopal priest, counselor, many know him from his work on the Enneagram, co-authored the book, The Road Back to You.

It's a personality profile. He has this thriving podcast called Typology. And he himself openly, I mean, you hear it constantly. I've listened to all of his podcasts. It talks about his own addiction from drugs and alcohol, came from such a difficult background, and yet is so thriving in his life. Wrote a book called The Fix, How the 12 Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down and Out, and Everyone in Between. It's a great read.

I think that covers all of us. I think that's all of us. And so out of his own experience, now he, even to this day, I mean, again, he just, one of those thriving, productive people and that's doing so much good work in the world. Yet, he'll tell you, he goes to meetings every week, usually more than one. And there's something about, which you can see this dependency that he has on God that is just so profound. And then another, many of you know John Ortberg, speaker, author, pastor, has a new book. He's written, he's prolific.

He's written, both these guys, written all kinds of stuff. But a book called Steps, A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough. And we all try willpower. And so this podcast is not particularly ours here. What we're talking about today is not particularly about addictions. Now, it could be. It's not about addictions primarily.

So, I mean, our whole podcast is not about that. Okay, but why do we talk about this? Why are we talking about the 12 steps? Why are we talking about, Janice? Why are we talking about this? Why are we, wanna go get coffee? Well, and I ask myself, why would these guys who have written so many books and are so well-known, why would they be focusing on the 12 steps?

I mean, I think that's interesting. Both of them and many others throughout recent history have seen that the 12 steps really are a godly way of living. They've gotten a bad name. You know, some people go, oh, they're just talking about the higher power. But really, it is seeking God. And for us, it is seeking Jesus. So the 12 steps are really the teaching of Jesus about surrendering, surrendering to God and what He wants for our lives instead of all those counterfeits that we put in our lives, all those things that we're seeking to fill that need, we surrender instead to God and what He wants for us.

I think there's something so important here for us and for the church. I remember the very first time I heard about the steps, you know, because I'd heard about the idea for a long time. And again, my thought was, oh yeah, that's AA, that's the alcoholics, you know. And when I really heard the steps, the first one being that we admitted that we were powerless over whatever. For the alcoholic, it's over alcohol, but whatever. And I think we could all fill in something there that we are powerless to change this. And I would add anything that is not productive in our life, that is not life-giving in our life, that we can't seem to change.

So we admitted that. I remember years ago when we were first introduced to the 12 steps. And that first step was really hard. It's like, I don't wanna say I'm powerless over anything. I just have strong enough will, I'm not powerless. But boy, when I had to come and really surrender to the fact of, yeah, there are some things that I'm powerless over. And then I do need God's help to really deal with life in a healthy way.

Yeah, we've seen this in counseling that many people, even we see, aren't at step one yet. They're still trying to manage it, thinking I can do this, I just need to be better, work better, not do this, not do that. And so we're like, okay, we'll see here. We're not gonna get very far, but there's something when you find somebody that's really acknowledged that, owned it. I got nothing, I can't do this myself, this particular thing. Then I would say that's the giant step for mankind. It's like 90% of the healing is in that first step.

And so it's just that admission, which again, we don't like to admit that we're powerless over anything. So it's very counter to our sense of human because we'd like to be in control as much as we possibly can. The second step is that I believe there's a God in the world that can put my life in order. The third step is I'm going to release control of my life into his hands and allow him to do his work in me. And it's allow him to do his work in me, not I'm gonna do the work to make this happen. Our job is surrender. Yes. And so I realized when I first heard that, I thought, oh my goodness, this should be our focus every time we get out of bed in the morning.

Wouldn't that be the healthiest way to live? It's okay, there's some things in my life that I can't do. I'm gonna release them into God's hand. I know he can put my life in order. It would just be one of the healthiest places for us to live. And so I also realized that all of us have things that we've not been able to change and we need God's help. And as Janice said, it could be too much work.

And I'll talk about that here in a minute, because that was my nemesis. Was, yeah, like it was in the past. Now you're semi-retired and working full-time. I mean, it could be addicted to social media. It could be food. It could be too much exercise. It could be anger, codependency, spending, and we could just keep listing them. And so- And some of those it's extra hard because like over-exercising or overworking, you can get approval from people for that.

So you're just setting up my own story here, aren't you? I am setting up your story. I didn't mean to, but I guess I am. I may know your story. So let me put my story in the midst of this for a second. So many years ago, early in my work in ministry, I didn't know it at the time. I was just trying to be a hard worker.

I was raised, parents were both kind of worker bees, and we just, this is what we do is we work hard. And I didn't realize that I got my sense of value and significance necessarily from that. But I was working for a large ministry, we were working for a big mega church many years ago. And I say many, I mean, this is like 40- 30 something, yeah. 43 years ago was when I first started there. That's when you first started. And so, and our pastor at the time had a TV ministry and traveled and, you know, he's kind of a TV star.

And we had 50 staff members and, you know, I know there's other churches now that are even bigger than that, you know, but it was huge 40 some years ago. And so I was responsible basically to manage the church and all the things when he was not there. And yet I was still at a counseling ministry there. There's, you know, we had all kinds of all kinds of support groups. We had, I was doing individual counseling as well as overseeing all the staff and everything. We had babies and toddlers and we're having babies. Had babies come along.

I think we had two at this particular time. And I was a mess. I mean, I was just working crazy, crazy hours. I just thought again, that was the good, right thing to do, you know? And I know there were times where you'd call and go, uh, babies are missing you. Are you coming home tonight? And I found myself at a place, I was just kind of mad at everybody. I was, I remember standing in the window of our offices, watching everybody leave at about five 30, which is when everybody was supposed to leave and thinking this place wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for me and kind of upset at them.

There were times I think I was upset at you when you called and said, are you coming home? And I was thinking, I'm working, I'm running this whole ministry or whatever, you know, and thinking you should understand that, you know, and be more gracious. And I was mad at, just mad at life, I think. And so as a counselor, since I did counseling a lot during the day, you know, by the end of the day, we had secretaries at that time, administrative assistants would come to me with a stack of unreturned phone messages, you know, that little nail thing. You put the little pink phone message copies, just kind of put it on my desk. So I'd have 40 some, you know, phone calls from the day, feeling like I've got to stay here and call these people back. And if I don't call them back, then they're going to think Pastor Brent didn't get back to me.

And the word might even get out that Pastor Brent didn't call people back or, you know. You don't care about people. Yeah, exactly. And so whatever, I don't even think I was consciously aware of any of that. And, but I was always mad at all 40 of those people. Don't you understand that I've got things to do here, they're important. And so it was, I was a mess.

Now, again, I didn't know what was going on at that time internally. I was just trying to keep all the plates spinning, you know. And so I remember going to a seminar in Dallas and there was, I think it was partly continuing education for our licensure. And, but the, it was an author, a current author of, you know, 40 some years ago, he was one of the guys, okay. Everybody wanted him, everybody wanted his books, everybody wanted him to speak at their conference. And so there's 500, I think of us in the room and he's standing up there. And I'm telling everybody that he'd become an alcoholic.

And I was like, what, you know, I said, yeah, I just got depressed and became an alcoholic. And I just, I couldn't say no when people wanted me to come. And I was, my publisher was pressuring me, people were pressuring me. And he said, I, he said, I was still somewhat functioning. But then he said, I just went through a time where I had to kind of step out of everything for six months. So he's telling the story. He had just written a book called Sin, The Ultimate Deadly Addiction, which his definition for sin is anything we put in the center of our life, other than God.

So I'm sitting there listening to him going, oh my gosh, the way he's talking, his life and his experience, that is me. Now it wasn't my drug of choice, which I've come to understand that my workaholism was my drug of choice. To your point, it was much more socially acceptable because I had people applauding me for it. Pastor Brent, how do you do everything that you're doing? You just amaze us and I'm like just, I'd say some stupid, humble little thing, but inside I'm like, oh, more, more, more, more, that feels so good, you know, it's like I was snorting, you know, there's people's accolades and I realized I'm a mess. And so I was able to put my issue in the midst of that, even though I was getting applauded for everything that I was doing and it's stroking my ego and all that stuff, you know. So I came back.

Now again, I thought, I think I even came to you and said, I think I've realized I'm out of balance here and I'm gonna really get ahold of this, okay. And you were so amazing, I tell people that I think six months went by and you came to me and said, honey, I don't think much has changed. I heard what you said, but I don't see anything changing. And the way you said it, you were talking about the thing instead of pointing the finger at me. I think if you said, you call yourself a pastor and you said you were this, I think I was spun out and, you know, wouldn't receive that. Do you remember when I wrote things down on a calendar, I started writing down when you're coming home from work because it was always, well, because we have this going on in the church, but once we get beyond that, things will slow down. And I do think that was one of the things that as I just said, okay, I've just been keeping track and every week has something, every month has something.

So that allowed the Holy Spirit attached to that, started tapping me on the shoulder and going, dude, you are not able to do this yourself. And I remember that moment, first up, I give up.

I can't fix this. And I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me. We had at the church at that time, we had like 30 support groups and we had all these people leading these support groups, you know, everything from codependency to alcohol, you know, overcoming recovery to just anger, all kinds of stuff. It was pretty amazing the freedom the church had given us there. And so, but I remember I had, I met with all the leaders of those groups every Wednesday night and did kind of training, ongoing training. And I found out what's going on in the groups and I felt the Holy Spirit said, you need to go confess this to them. And I was like, oh, what?

But I'm the leader. I'm their pastor. They're going to think badly of me, you know? No. And I, you know how the Holy Spirit kind of takes your arm and twists it behind your back until you kind of- In a very nice way. Cry uncle. Yes. And I remember that night I was like, oh gosh, because I was like, come on, isn't there like a place like in Arizona I can go to talk to somebody, you know, where it's all private and everything.

And I remember the night just saying, guys, I just need to confess to you that I am, you know, I need to be in some of your groups, you know, I'm out of whack here, I'm not aligned well and I can't seem to fix it on my own. I'm so addicted to needing to perform at such a high level, everybody to think I'm wonderful, people's applause of me and I can't, I can't attend to my higher priorities. I'm neglecting Janice, I'm neglecting the kids, I'm neglecting myself. And I remember the couple that led our alcohol recovery group, they came up with the biggest grins on their face, smiling ear to ear. And they were like, Pastor Brent, we've been waiting for this moment. We've seen this for years, but we've just been praying for you. It's like, oh my gosh, everybody else sees this.

And it was the beginning. It was humbling, but it was a great beginning.

So that began a journey. And so I began to kind of pull together some people, accountability kind of people. We started walking through some of these processes together. And I mean, there was no such thing as a recovery group for, you know, workaholism at the time. There was Celebrate Recovery, which, you know, a lot of people have that in their churches. That wasn't a thing, you know, back then. And so, but it began a journey.

And it's interesting, because I remember, gosh, probably 10 years after that, and we were in another church, and you were using this in a sermon or something. And I remember some guys going, overwork, Brent, you need some real problems.

But you know what? Overwork was a real problem. It was a real problem in our lives, and it was impacting us. You know, you've always been a good guy. But just that need, you just had to get a hold of that need for approval and for doing things to the best, to really be present in your life.

And you have. You've made an incredible change over the years. You'll always be busier than most people, just because you're a busy guy and you have a lot of energy. But it was a significant issue. So I think sometimes people think, well, I'm not an alcoholic, or I don't pop a lot of gummies all the time, I don't do those things. But I think we do all have things in our lives that are unmanageable for us, that we need the grace of God to really help us. I always tell people, I stayed longer in my addiction because it was so socially acceptable.

I mean, if you could get arrested for workaholism, if the police would have broken in my office and handcuffed me and drug me down someplace for working 80 hours or something, I would have probably gotten a hold of this a little faster. I don't know. But anyway, and so that kept me in it because I was just unaware. And it was, again, it was actually socially applauded, and you don't get arrested for workaholism. But it can mess your life up, and everybody else's around you. And so I started in that journey, and step number four is making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. And I had to begin that journey.

I had to recognize, that night I had to begin to recognize that, no, this was, when I do this, when I make an excuse for this, when I stay too late, I remember even in the beginning of my recovery, I just knew, I've got to leave by 5.30. And I left a whole stack of un-returned phone messages. And wrestling with God on the way home. I know I'm supposed to do this, but what about all those people that are going to think I didn't get back to them? You know? I had to live in that for a while and realize the world didn't come to an end. And I remember at the time, eventually went to the leadership and said, I just can't do everything that I'm doing.

Now, again, my fear was that they were going to think, well, we need somebody that can do all that, so we don't need you anymore. Little did I know, then they were like, well, we wondered how you were doing everything. You know, hired a couple more people to take stuff. I didn't know that could happen, okay? But it took a while. But it really took that, I've got to own this, I've got to acknowledge this, and all the ways that I was able to even spiritually manipulate, well, this is God's work, and this is important, and all that kind of stuff. I had to really get honest, I'm reminded of David's prayer here, search my heart, Lord, see if there's anything not right in me.

Always say that, because we can be smoking our own dope, you know, be telling ourselves our own lies, and just stuck in it. So open that up to me. See where this is, where I've confused myself here. And again, we can do that better if we know that we can trust him because of his goodness. Step five was I admitted, we admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. And so my life began to experience James, confess your sins one to another that you will be healed. As I began to be more open with a small group of people around me, and just be honest, I would have, I gave some of them permission to just ask me about my schedule.

How are you doing? What does Janice think about your schedule? And then it was like, busted. Because I had to just, I had to detox, you know. But there was something about their acceptance, non-judgment, embrace, but yet challenge still.

That was amazing. It was life-giving. It was nothing like it. I found the Holy Spirit in these people, you know. And little by little, every time I would own it and talk about it, and little by little, healing begins to happen. And, you know, people are so hesitant to confess their sins or their faults with other people. And again, as we always say, make sure they're safe people.

But I know you and I both have had the privilege, not only in counseling when people admit things, but also in hearing somebody's fifth step. Confession, yeah. Yeah. Hearing that confession of, these are the things that I have done wrong, that I'm asking for God to help me in. We don't ever look down on them like, oh my gosh, you sleazy person. It's, oh, what a privilege and honor to be able to sit here with you and to hear as you become open to God and what He wants to do in your life. And as you repent. Yeah. Of such respect for people that are willing to live open, honest lives. Yes. Because we've been around enough as pastors and counselors, everybody's got stuff. Yeah. Either you're going to hide it and you're going to pretend and wear a mask and pretend like you're all right and never going to change or you're going to own it. Yeah. And so we have such high respect for people that own it and know that it is the process of healing and strength.

Step six is that we're entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects. And so sometimes we're not really want to change. We want to do a little bit to kind of, you know, I could have easily just tried to placate you and try to get you happy somehow. But I think if it hadn't been an internal work, it would have just slipped back again. And so people kind of start going down a certain path and then they just kind of pick up the whole thing again. You know, even with alcohol, I have a lot of people that, you know, have really probably are alcoholics are struggling with it, but they just, they'll almost go to their death. Convinced that they can become a social drinker, right?

That they can manage. It's just like, so, so, so if I gave up alcohol completely, does that mean I could have like two drinks a month? And I'm like, well, completely means like completely. And then they'll go forever. Well, yeah.

Probably for that. Yeah. So again, we have to be entirely ready for God to remove those things. Step seven is we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings. We recognize that this is, it really is by his strength and by his, that's the whole point of this. It is not willpower. It is not our own efforting here.

It is letting go. It is Paul. I've learned to boast in my weakness because it's in my weakness that I am made strong. And so it's recognizing that, no, this is my weakness, you know, and I, and I've recognized that even as I tell my story to people, you know, it's, I'm not boasting in a proud way necessarily, but I, every time I speak it and I'm reminded of, no, this is my story. This is my weakness. And that's not a, it's not in a defeated way. That's where I actually walk in victory is that recognizing that, that any moment I could go back to the same old pattern again.

And so, and there's another, the next step is that make a list of all persons we've harmed and be willing to make amends to them all. Something very powerful about the, I'm sorry, the recognition of how we've caused harm to other people when it comes to our heart, that is life-giving to us. Now, it's certainly life-giving to them as well, but it's very life-giving to us that we own it and we walk humbly that. And then step nine is we make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. So there may be people in our life that we have hurt, but to go to them and to try to talk about it would actually, they're not ready for that. It would not be helpful to them. And that's where we need safe people, wise people.

We need wise counsel. To sort that out. Because sometimes when we're repenting of things, we want to rush and go, okay, I want to talk this through, but it may actually be harmful for them. And so you need not only the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but wise people to talk those things through with. And then step 10 is that we continue on with this, continue to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admit it. So this is not a, okay, work on this and fix it all, you know.

One and done. One and done, you know. Yeah, I'll go do this for a few months and get in, open my life up and take this to God and then it'll all be done and fixed. And I know that that is still my vulnerability. I know if I get out of whack in my life, it's doing too much. It's saying yes to too many things. It's putting too much stuff on the calendar.

I just know that that's a weakness. And I don't consider that a negative confession or a bad, you know, that's how I am strong, is that ongoing recognition of that. And every time I have a tendency to want to do more or to prove something more to people or to do something more perfectly, you know, and make it better, then to be able to just keep owning that.

Which is really part of life. You keep cleaning up. We would like that the house would never get dirty again, but we have to do daily maintenance. That's just part of life. So it's ongoing life of self-awareness and releasing our lives into His hands. Step 11, sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. So it really is an experience of the inside out change, that we keep our heart dependent on Him, committed to Him, and trust the outcome of that.

You know, that's why it's called the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We don't go just willpower our way into those. Those are fruit that comes from a life that is dependent on God. That we allow Him to daily change our hearts. And then we will produce those kinds of fruit. And then step 12, having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

So there's something about giving what God is giving to us away to others. This is how we see people really thrive in their life, is that they begin to share their story, they help others that are in similar situations. So they become safe people for other people, and they have grace and understanding that we're all broken, and people are acting out of their brokenness, and so we have much more grace and empathy for others. And that's how we hold on to this recovery, how we hold on to this newfound strength that we have. So, you know, as we look at this, all of this is like, I always tell people, it's one of the best discipleship. programs on the planet. That's for sure.

And if whatever that might look like, you know, in your life, for some of you, there, you know, there's many kind of 12 step kind of groups for just all kind of things. You know, there's some for codependency and for, for, you know, all different kind of expressions, celebrate recovery as a program that many years ago was developed and kind of brought this into the church. And I think they have, they recognize that the 12 steps came out of the Beatitudes and Matthew. And so it's kind of the same thing. It's just using different language. It's, you know, certainly throughout the country, there's these groups in all cities, you know, and churches sponsor them. And there's a program that's developed.

It might be getting into something like that. It might just be finding two or three people that I remember the very first time I needed to develop kind of a small group to begin to open up with. I went to three guys at the time and said, this is what I'm needing in my life. Would you be open to it? And it, the Lord just led me to those because every one of us, like, I need this too, you know, and I, I don't think we even knew what we were doing. It probably took us six months before we even got honest with each other. Okay. But eventually as we stepped out and took the risk and found these brothers to be safe, I think we all need that in our life.

So it might be an informal kind of a thing. And it might be an informal group that goes through a 12 step workbook. Yes. Just so that you have some kind of structure to go, what are we doing here? But it helps you become more real and honest while following through the 12 steps. Ian Cron has a workbook actually that goes with the fix. So that could be a, yeah, that could be a fix.

That could be a fix. But that could be a place to start. Whether you just got the workbook and started working through it yourself or whether you got a small group and said, let's work through this. And so, so wherever you find yourself in this story, I believe all of us are in the story. And if it resonates with you, then we trust that God will guide you to the next step.

He loves you. He deeply wants to bless you and be involved in your daily walk. So for today, go in peace, blessings as you go. Donate. This podcast is produced by Clayton Creative in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The content should not be considered or used for counseling, but for educational purposes only.