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

A Conviction to Seek God’s Wisdom:

“Not all Christian Counselors Counsel Biblically.” ~ Jane Perkins

Jane Perkins, a Licensed Professional Counselor, founded Are You Ready Counseling, LLC in 2023 after noticing a significant gap in ‘christian’ mental health care that included proper biblical integration. Her online practice was born out of a desire to offer counseling that stays faithful to Scripture while addressing deep emotional struggles within mental health.

Licensed in Illinois and Missouri, Jane provides virtual online Christian counseling services, making faith-based support accessible to those who prefer or require remote care. Her approach is rooted in the belief that healing must include God’s truth, not just human insight.

Jane understands that struggles like anxiety, depression, addiction, and grief often go beyond what traditional psychology can fully address. Many secular or agency-based counseling models leave God out of the healing process, focusing instead on self-reliance and worldly wisdom. In contrast, Jane combines clinical knowledge with biblical truth to offer clients a path to both psychological and spiritual renewal.

 

My Approach: Biblical Truth and Professional Expertise

As the sole owner of Are You Ready Counseling, I prioritize client care by including the God of the Bible. To ensure the best fit, I offer a free 20-minute consultation, allowing potential clients to ask questions and better understand the counseling process before committing. My services are unique in integrating professional counseling with foundational biblical principles. By providing scriptural insights, I help clients address the root causes of their struggles rather than merely managing symptoms. My specializations include anxiety, panic, compulsions, and complex grief, and I guide individuals toward lasting healing through a renewed and strengthened faith. For many, Remote Christian Counseling provides flexible access to this support.

 See what clients who have worked with Jane are saying.

What’s in a Name?

I named my practice “Are You Ready Counseling” due to a simple yet profound parallel. The benefits of counseling are available to everyone, but not everyone benefits because they are unprepared to engage in the process. Similarly, the Bible teaches that God’s invitation for a genuine relationship with Him has been extended to all people, yet this, too, requires personal readiness to engage in the process. Both require us to acknowledge our limitations, to embrace humility, and to surrender ourselves to a more significant cause. It is only then that one is… READY for change through counseling or to experience knowing God.

Ready to Take the First Step?

For more information or to schedule a session, please visit

Please email me at jane@areyoureadycounseling.com or book a Free 20-minute consultation.

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

by Jane Perkins

My earliest dreams were to be in the spotlight!  I dreamed of being in the theater, hoping to land my spot in the Hollywood sphere of fame later. In the fifth grade, I landed a part in a local community play. The part I received only had a few lines, but I didn’t care because I was front and center. This role, this part, seemed to be the beginning of my “big break.”  A reporter had even appeared one day, asking questions and asking us all to pose for pictures. I was the young, budding actress featured front and center in the local newspaper!  There I stood, posing proudly, embodying the part I played.  I was the “starring” role as the stationary flagpole!

Looking back at that little girl’s dreams, I see now how God was taking what I thought I wanted and needed to mould me for a career of boldness to work right beside God. I am on a stage for all the world to see in a divine duet, but not as the star. I play an important part, but it is the role that points to the powerful lead in the story called life.

As an adult follower of Jesus Christ, I now understand that this life is not about being front and center stage. I am a part of something bigger than myself, but it’s no longer about me. I can still dream big, but it is only because I have a big God who can do all things!

A New Path Guided by Truth

Although I was raised in the church, I didn’t grasp the truth of Jesus until I was 36 years old – ten years after becoming a therapist.  I had counseled without even a thought of God for 10 years!  I genuinely don’t know how I did that.  When I finally realized that I could do nothing truly good without God, I began to look at life through God’s eyes (as best I could). This new understanding was so freeing that I naturally began implementing this truth in counseling sessions.

I am now in my fifties and find it utterly impossible to counsel others without inviting God to take the lead in every session. He knows us all inside and out, so why wouldn’t we want His input? I stay current in traditional psychology therapies, but to use them in a counseling session, they must harmonize with God’s principles.

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 was being judged by this group of Christian women. For some reason, I was giving off… some vibe… or somehow I didn’t look knowledgeable enough, or maybe I didn’t look Christian enough? Something made them all think I wasn’t “good enough” or “a real enough!”

Surprised and perplexed.

Frankly, I was a bit peeved! Why would these women think I was a 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.) 🙂

I was bound and determined 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. 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 mentally 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.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than living in a garage makes you an automobile.

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.