About: Jane Perkins, MS, LCPC, LPC-S

Before You Tell Me Your Story, I Want You to Know a Little of Mine

If you’re reading this page, there’s a good chance you’re trying to figure out whether I’m someone you could actually sit down and talk to. Maybe anxiety has worn you down to nothing, or you’re grieving something you never expected to lose. Just maybe you’re someone who is wrestling with intrusive thoughts, people pleasing, trauma, boundaries, or a relationship that keeps leaving you hurt and confused and wondering what you did wrong.

As a Christian, you love the Lord with everything in you, but you still feel stuck, and you keep wondering why your faith doesn’t seem to be changing what you’re actually experiencing day to day.

I’ve spent nearly thirty years now sitting across from people asking questions just like these. And if we ever meet for counseling, here’s something I want you to know before we even start our first session.

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you walk through my virtual door.

I encourage you to come confused, exhausted, or with a hundred questions that seem to have no answers at all. That’s not a problem because this is actually where counseling begins.

I’m Jane

I’m Jane Perkins, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and the founder of Are You Ready Counseling, LLC.

I earned my master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Illinois back in 1996 and became fully licensed as a clinical professional counselor in 1998. That’s almost thirty years now, if you’re counting, and I promise I feel every one of them some days.

Over that time, I’ve worked in addiction treatment, school counseling, private practice, and even taught Intro to Psychology and Childhood Development at the community college level, which honestly shaped a lot of how I think about people today. I’m licensed in both Illinois and Missouri and hold supervisor status in both states, which means I get to help other counselors work toward their own licensure too.

But credentials only tell you part of my story, and honestly the smaller part. What matters most to a lot of the clients who find me is that I am both a trained professional counselor and a woman who believes the Bible is true, sufficient, and necessary for understanding who we are and how God calls us to live. I don’t believe we have to pick one or the other. I don’t believe we have to choose between understanding the mind and listening to the One who made it.

Beyond my counseling practice, I also founded Anchored Woman, a Christian coaching ministry that provides Bible studies, workshops, and resources to help women deepen their relationship with Christ and live anchored in His truth.

Why I Counsel Differently Today

I grew up going to church, but I didn’t truly understand the gospel until I was 36 years old. By that point, I had already been counseling for about ten years, working with people without seriously bringing God into the room at all.

Once I surrendered my own life to Christ and started reading Scripture for myself, honestly diving into it, everything changed. And I mean everything, not just my personal life. My counseling changed too, right down to its roots.

I started realizing I couldn’t understand human behavior, thoughts, emotions, relationships, trauma, coping patterns, all of it, through psychology. It was because I could never fully understand a person while leaving out the God who created that person in the first place. That felt like trying to explain a painting without ever mentioning the painter.

These days I still use sound counseling practices. I’m not throwing out everything I learned in graduate school. But I run every one of those practices through Scripture first. And if a counseling approach ever contradicts God’s Word, God’s Word wins, every single time. That’s not something I hide once we get into session because it is the foundation my whole practice is built upon.

 See what clients who have worked with Jane are saying.

What It’s Like to Work With Me

People are usually nervous before their first appointment, and I understand that completely. You might wonder if I’m going to judge you or worry I’ll just tell you to pray more and call it a day. Maybe you think Christian counseling means every struggle gets slapped with a spiritual label and nothing else gets addressed.

That’s not how I work.

I listen and ask a lot of questions. Probably more than you’re used to. I want to understand not just what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it, because those are two very different things.

One of the things I hear most from clients, and it’s one of my favorite things to hear, is some version of, “No one has ever explained why I do that before.”

That right there is one of my favorite parts of this whole job. I don’t just want to help you stop feeling anxious for a week, or teach you one more coping skill to add to the pile you’ve already collected. I want us to dig into what’s actually happening underneath the surface.

• What are you believing that isn’t true?
• Looking at what you are afraid of.
• What are you trying to control that was never yours to control?
• Are you carrying that God never asked you to carry?
• Where has trauma shaped the way you see yourself, other people, or even God Himself?
• Where have habits that once helped you survive turned into patterns that are now keeping you stuck?
• And most important of all, what does God actually say is true?

I’ll encourage you and pray with you. But I’ll also be challenging you when I believe you need it, because I care too much about you to just let you sit comfortably in something that’s hurting you. You’ll probably leave with homework too. I believe real change happens throughout the week, not just in the fifty minutes we spend together.

Biblical Counseling That Also Takes Mental Health Seriously

I started Are You Ready Counseling because I kept seeing a gap. There are counselors out there who understand psychology inside and out but leave God completely outside the door. And there are Christian counselors who mention faith in passing but rarely actually open Scripture and dig into it together with a client.

I wanted to offer something in between, or honestly, something that brings both of those fully together.

When we work together, your faith isn’t an extra topic we squeeze in if there’s time left. It’s part of how we understand the whole person from the start. That might mean we’re talking about anxiety and your nervous system one moment and opening up to Philippians or Romans the next. We might talk through trauma responses and then turn around and ask what that suffering has caused you to believe about who God is. We might work on setting a boundary while also looking at what Scripture actually means when it tells us to love others well.

Body. Mind. Relationships. Heart. Faith. All of it matters, because God created all of you, not just the parts that feel presentable.

Who I Work With

I counsel adults working through anxiety, panic, intrusive thoughts, OCD and scrupulosity, grief, trauma, people pleasing, boundaries, relationship struggles, depression, spiritual discouragement, or that feeling of being emotionally and spiritually stuck.

A lot of the clients who come to me already know a good deal about God. Their problem usually isn’t a lack of information. Sometimes the problem is that what they know about God doesn’t always seem to change what happens the moment fear hits, someone rejects them, life falls apart, or old patterns take right back over like they never left.

That’s the exact space where I love to work. Helping you move from simply knowing truth to actually living from it, which, let me tell you, is a much bigger step than most people expect.

Why the Name “Are You Ready Counseling“?

I named my practice “Are You Ready Counseling” because counseling requires something of you. Readiness.

Not perfection. Not having every answer lined up before you walk in. Just readiness.

You have to be willing to look honestly at what isn’t working in your life and willing to consider that some of what you’ve believed for years might not actually be true. Are you willing to practice something different, even when it feels awkward and unnatural at first? And sometimes you have to become willing to surrender the very thing you’ve been white knuckling and desperately trying to control.

I see this same pattern in our relationship with God. His Word calls us to humility, repentance, faith, surrender, and obedience. Real change starts the moment we’re willing to stop defending the old way of doing things and become ready for something different. That readiness is the whole heart behind the name.

 

 

​Jane’s Personal Story and Calling: From Center Stage to Serving God

Before counseling became my calling, I dreamed of being on stage. As a little girl, I imagined theater, acting, maybe even Hollywood one day. I was in theater from about age twelve all the way through college, and I even went on to be a declamation coach and a state judge for competitions. That love of performing and speaking never really left me.

I did eventually experience some fame when I was not only mentioned but also pictured in the local newspaper for a community play. My starring role, unfortunately, was a flagpole. God apparently had other plans for the spotlight.

These days I’m perfectly content not being center stage. My whole desire now is to point people toward the One who actually deserves it.

Outside of counseling, I live in the Branson, Missouri area and can usually be found in muck boots taking care of our backyard chickens. I’m also the founder of Anchored Woman, a Christian coaching ministry where I offer Bible studies, workshops, groups, and resources for women who want to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and learn to actually live anchored in His truth, not just know it.

What Matters Most to Me

I believe Scripture gives us something no psychological theory ever could. Truth about God, ourselves, sin, suffering, and hope. Ultimately, it offers truth about Jesus Christ Himself.

I am deeply grateful for everything I’ve learned through decades of professional counseling. It’s shaped how I listen, how I ask questions, how I understand patterns and behavior. Psychology cannot be my highest authority. God is.

My goal has never been to make you dependent on me. My goal is to help you learn to recognize what’s true, understand the patterns that keep you stuck, practice new ways of responding, and, day by day, increasingly depend on Christ instead.

Ready to See If We’re a Good Fit?

If you’ve been carrying something that just feels too heavy to keep carrying alone, I’d be honored to talk with you.

Maybe you’re dealing with anxiety that won’t let up, worn out from years of people-pleasing, or intrusive thoughts keep stealing your peace before you even realize it’s happening. Grief, trauma, and relationships carry a pain that may have changed you into someone you don’t fully recognize anymore. Or maybe you just know deep down that something isn’t right, and you can’t quite figure out why you keep ending up in the same place over and over.

You don’t have to have the answer before you reach out. That’s exactly what our first conversation is for.

Schedule a free 20-minute consultation. We’ll talk about what you’re experiencing, what you hope will change, and whether I’m the right counselor to walk you through the next step.

You don’t have to pretend with me. You don’t have to figure everything out alone. And you certainly don’t have to leave God outside the counseling room.

My Testimony: A Bit More Detail

Born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, IL, I never envisioned leaving city life, but God had a different plan! I married a wonderful country boy I met in college, a decision that came with an unexpected relocation three hours south to the Peoria area and a new life in the countryside.

In a new town, building connections is essential…

One of the women I met invited me to a church Bible study, so I gladly went. What better place to meet new friends?

No one knew me or my background, and I saw this as an opportunity to get to know other women in the area. I thought everything was going well when, about halfway through the study, one of the women pulled me aside and privately asked,

“If you were to die today and Jesus met you at the gates of Heaven and said, ‘Jane, why should I let you enter my heavenly home?’ How would you answer?”

That question didn’t go away.

As I had attended church all my life, I gave her the “correct” Christian answer. She seemed satisfied with my response to her questions, giving me a small nod. I didn’t think much more about her strange, private question, and she didn’t explain further why she asked it.

When a second woman approached me with the same question, I should have been suspicious, but it wasn’t until I was approached a third time privately by another woman who asked the same question – AGAIN! I felt like I was being judged by this group of Christian women. Was giving off some vibe… or somehow I did not look knowledgeable enough, or maybe I didn’t look Christian enough? Something made them all think I wasn’t “good enough” or “real enough!”

Surprised and perplexed.

Frankly, I was a bit peeved! Why would these women think I wasn’t Christian? I was attending this Bible study, wasn’t I? I was dutifully hauling my three small children to church every Sunday! (Their father/my husband refused to attend church with me back then, but that’s another miracle of a story.) 🙂

Bound and determined, I planned to prove to these ladies that I was a REAL CHRISTIAN! So, I grabbed my Bible – the one I received as a gift from my eighth-grade confirmation – and stared at it. And then I stared some more…

Where should I look?

Where should I start?

Truthfully, I had never really read the Bible on my own.

I’d followed along at church but never opened the Bible for myself. So, I took a deep breath, randomly opened the Good Book, and started reading. God knew I didn’t know what I was doing, and He knew I didn’t even know what I was looking for. But He knew what I needed to see. I opened my Bible to the Book of Matthew and started reading chapter seven. Jesus spoke about the difference between a false and a true believer.

Jackpot! Or so I thought.

I came to verses 13-14 and paused as Jesus pointed out that there are two paths: one wide and one narrow; one is the truth, and the other is a lie; one is easy, and one is difficult. Few even find it, let alone walk on it. These verses were thought-provoking and scary, but not as scary as the ones next, verses 21-23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Here’s what I realized…

It’s not enough to believe in Jesus intellectually to earn a ticket to heaven.

Calling Him “My God” or “Lord” doesn’t earn me points in heaven.

And it’s not enough to attend church and take communion once a week.

What?!?!? Yeah, I learned that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than living in a garage makes you an automobile.

After some more time in God’s word, and surrounding myself with some wonderful Christian ladies who were willing to answer the difficult questions I had… I now know.

As a fifty-something-year-old woman, I know this with all my heart…

I am a Christian.

An adopted child of God who has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I value the time I am allowed to worship God inside and outside the church, reading from his word and maintaining a relationship with my Lord, Savior, and King through daily prayer.

My priorities, plans, hopes, dreams, and fears must be submitted and surrendered to God.