Bring Your Whole Life to Christian Counseling in Greenville, SC
Licensed clinicians who are also people of faith. The clinical standard is exactly what it would be anywhere else — what changes is that you never have to translate the part of your life that matters most, or leave it in the car.
Neither Half of You Has to Wait Outside
Most people who come here have already tried one of two things, and found both of them lopsided.
The first is a counsellor for whom faith is, at best, a cultural detail and at worst a symptom to be worked around. You spend the first ten minutes of every session explaining context, and the parts of your life organised around belief get quietly filed as resistance.
The second is well-meaning care inside the church, where a genuine clinical problem gets met with a spiritual answer. Depression treated as a discipline failure. A marriage in real trouble handed a study rather than a treatment plan.
Cornerstone & Cedar exists in the space between. Every clinician here is licensed — LPC or LMFT, no interns carrying a caseload — and every clinician here is a person of faith. You get the standard of care you would get at any good secular practice, from someone who does not need the spiritual half of your life explained to them.
And if you would rather faith stayed out of the room entirely, say so. Plenty of people here do.
- ✓Six licensed clinicians — LPC and LMFT, no interns on the caseload
- ✓Evidence-based treatment first; Scripture at your invitation, not ours
- ✓You set how much faith is in the room, and you can change it
- ✓We will refer out honestly when someone else is a better fit
How We Help
Six kinds of work. The clinical approach is the same one you would get anywhere good; what differs is who is sitting opposite you.
Christian Counseling
Individual work for anxiety, depression, life transitions and the ordinary weight of a hard season — with a clinician who does not need your church, your calling or your convictions explained from scratch.
Marriage & Premarital Counseling
Gottman and EFT-trained clinicians. Premarital work covers money, family, sex, work and children — the five subjects couples reliably assume they agree on. Marriage work goes at the actual mechanics, not at whose theology is better.
Anxiety & Depression
Structured CBT and behavioural work, the same treatment you would receive at any competent practice. Depression is not a discipline problem and anxiety is not a faith deficit — treating them as such is how a decade gets lost.
Ministry Leaders & Church Staff
Pastors, worship staff, missionaries and their spouses. There is nowhere inside your own congregation to be a mess. We are twenty minutes away, entirely outside your church's orbit, and we understand the job.
Faith, Doubt & Spiritual Struggle
For deconstruction, church hurt, prayers that went unanswered, and the particular loneliness of doubting inside a community built on certainty. We hold this rather than fix it, and nobody here will report back to anyone.
Teen & Family Counseling
From age thirteen. Anxiety, school pressure, and the very common case of a teenager quietly working out what they believe inside a family with settled convictions. Parents are involved at a level the young person agrees to.
If you would rather see someone with no faith commitment at all, that is a completely reasonable preference and we will point you to good clinicians in Greenville who fit it.
Six Things Worth Saying Plainly
Faith-based counseling means very different things at different practices. Here is exactly what it means at this one.
Therapy first, always
The treatment plan is built on the same evidence base as any good secular practice. Faith shapes the room, the language and the shared assumptions — it does not replace the clinical work.
Scripture at your invitation
Some clients want to open with prayer and work through passages. Some never mention it once. Both are ordinary here, and you can change your mind about it in either direction without explaining why.
We are not your pastor
We do not offer spiritual direction, adjudicate doctrine, or tell you what your church should have done. If what you need is pastoral care rather than therapy, we will say so — that is a real distinction, not a hedge.
Nothing goes back to your church
Not to your elders, not to your denomination, not to the person who referred you. This matters most for ministry staff, and it is absolute rather than a courtesy.
Doubt is not a presenting problem to solve
People arrive braced to be argued back into certainty. We do not do that. Doubt is often the most honest thing in the room, and it deserves better than a counter-argument.
We will refer out honestly
If you need medication, an eating-disorder specialist, or a level of care we do not provide, we will say so on the first call rather than taking you on and hoping.
Nowhere in Your Own Church Is Safe to Fall Apart
Roughly a third of the people we see are pastors, worship staff, missionaries, church employees, or their spouses. That proportion is not an accident — it is a structural problem with the job.
A pastor cannot be a client in their own congregation. They frequently cannot be one in the neighbouring congregation either, because the pastors know each other, the denomination is smaller than it looks, and the cost of the wrong person knowing is measured in a career. So the burnout compounds quietly, the marriage strains quietly, and the person whose job is holding everyone else has nowhere to put any of it.
We are deliberately unaffiliated. No denominational tie, no elder board, no shared network, and no relationship with your church that could ever create an obligation to disclose. Twenty minutes from most churches in the Upstate and entirely outside their orbit.
We also know the job well enough that you will not spend the first three sessions explaining what a session with a board is like, or why a Sunday is not a day off.
- ✓Unaffiliated by design — no denomination, no elder board, no shared network
- ✓Confidentiality that is absolute, not a professional courtesy
- ✓Early-morning and late-evening slots, because Sundays are not days off
- ✓Spouses seen individually, as clients in their own right
Four Steps, and You Set the Terms
The first call is with a clinician, and it includes the conversation about how much faith you want in the room.
A free 20-minute call
With a licensed clinician. We will ask what is going on and — explicitly — how much you want faith to be part of the work. There is no wrong answer, including "none at all for now".
A first session, unhurried
Seventy-five minutes. We map the clinical picture properly and agree the ground rules: prayer or not, Scripture or not, and what happens if you want that to change later.
A plan you can see
By session two you get the approach in writing and a rough number of sessions. If we think you need something we do not offer, this is where we say so rather than three months in.
The work, then an ending
Most people are with us three to eight months. We plan to finish, and coming back for a few sessions during a hard season later is a normal way to use this.
Four Questions People Ask Quietly
Each of these gets asked in a lowered voice on the first call. None of them needs to be.
Will you tell me my depression is a spiritual problem?
No. Depression and anxiety are clinical conditions with well-established treatments, and treating them as a discipline failure is how people lose years. Faith can be an enormous resource inside recovery. It is not a substitute for the treatment, and anyone who tells you otherwise is doing you harm with good intentions.
What if I'm not sure what I believe any more?
Then you are in good company here, and you will not be argued with. Deconstruction, church hurt and unanswered prayer are among the most common things we sit with. Our job is to hold that honestly, not to steer you back to a position you have outgrown or to talk you out of one you still hold.
Will anything get back to my church?
Nothing. Not to your elders, your denomination, or whoever referred you. We are deliberately unaffiliated so that there is no structure through which it could. For ministry staff this is the single most important thing about the practice, and we treat it that way.
Do I have to be a Christian to come here?
No. Some of our clients are not, and simply wanted a practice where faith would not be treated as strange if it came up. We will not evangelise you, and the work looks the same. If a clinician with no faith commitment would suit you better, we will name good ones in Greenville.
Shared With Permission, Names Shortened
I had been to a counsellor who treated my faith as a symptom and, before that, to someone at church who treated my depression as a discipline problem. This was the first place that took both seriously at once. Nobody asked me to choose which half of my life to bring in.
As a pastor there is nowhere in your own congregation you can be a mess. Driving twenty minutes to somebody who understands the job but has no stake in my church was the only version of this that was ever going to work.
I went in half expecting to be told to pray more. Instead we spent four months on the actual mechanics of a fifteen-year marriage, and Scripture came up when I raised it and not otherwise. That restraint is the reason I trusted the rest of it.
Third Floor, North Main Street
Downtown Greenville, a separate street entrance, and no waiting room where you sit in front of anyone you might know.
What It Costs, Before You Have to Ask
Counselling practices are famously vague about money, which mostly serves the practice. Here it is plainly.
Individual sessions are $155 for 50 minutes. The first session runs 75 minutes at $215. Marriage and premarital sessions are $185 for 60 minutes.
We are in network with BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Aetna and Cigna. For most people on those plans this is a copay rather than the full fee, and we verify your specific benefits before the first appointment rather than after it.
Ten reduced-fee places are held at any time, starting at $60. Four of them are reserved specifically for ministry staff and their spouses, because church salaries are what they are and we would rather that never be the reason a pastor does not call. There is no form and no means test — you say the fee is a problem and we lower it.
- ✓$155 individual · $215 for the 75-minute first session · $185 couples
- ✓In network with BCBS of South Carolina, Aetna and Cigna
- ✓Ten reduced-fee places from $60, no form and no means test
- ✓Four of those are held specifically for ministry staff and spouses
Twenty Minutes, and You Decide How Much Faith Is in the Room
A call with a licensed clinician, not an intake form. We will ask what is going on and how you want this to work — including if the answer is that you would rather leave faith out of it for now. You can also write to hello@cornerstoneandcedar.com.
Things People Ask on the First Call
Is this counseling or is it discipleship?
Counseling. Every clinician here holds a state licence — LPC or LMFT — and the treatment plans are built on the same evidence base as any good secular practice. Discipleship and spiritual direction are genuinely valuable and genuinely different things, and if that is what you are looking for we will say so rather than blur the line.
Do you use Scripture in sessions?
Only if you want us to, and we ask explicitly on the first call rather than assuming. Some clients open in prayer and work through passages regularly; others never raise it once in two years. You can also change your mind in either direction at any point without explaining yourself.
My spouse isn't a believer. Can we still come?
Yes, and this is common. Mixed-faith marriages are one of the things we see most in couples work. The sessions are run so that neither of you is the one being corrected, and faith comes in as a real factor in the marriage rather than as a position to be settled.
I'm on staff at a church. How confidential is this really?
Absolutely. We hold no denominational affiliation, sit on no boards, and have no formal relationship with any church in the Upstate — deliberately, so there is no structure through which anything could travel. Around a third of our caseload is ministry staff and their families, and that only works because this is true.
Do you take insurance?
We are in network with BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Aetna and Cigna. For other plans we provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement. We verify your specific benefits before the first appointment and tell you the expected cost in writing rather than leaving you to find out.
What if I'm angry at God right now?
Then say that in the first session — it is one of the most useful things you can bring. Anger at God is not a failure of faith and it is not something we will hurry you out of. A great deal of the work here happens in exactly that territory, and it does not get met with a counter-argument.
Book a Free 20-Minute Call
Tell us a little about what is going on. A licensed clinician replies personally, usually within one business day. Nothing you write here is shared with anyone outside this practice.