The Dr. Jeff Show Ep. 8 – Trent Langhofer

Episode 8: Summary & Transcript

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an automatically generated transcript. Although the transcription is largely accurate, it may be incomplete or inaccurate in some cases due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Episode Summary

This episode features Dr. Trent Langhofer, who discusses the severe mental health crisis of anxiety, depression, and suicide in modern culture, particularly among young people. He attributes this crisis to a culture of overstimulation, superficial connections via social media, and a misguided search for satisfaction in the material world.

Dr. Langhofer shares his personal story of overcoming severe addiction and homelessness through a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ. He outlines a three-part framework for healing: a spiritual awakening, courageously addressing underlying personal trauma, and showing compassion by helping others. He also explains the role of professional counseling in this process, emphasizing the importance of taking personal responsibility for one’s healing journey.

Episode Transcript

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:02):
One third of Americans due to complications of the pandemic are experiencing either clinical depression or clinical anxiety. Suicide levels are at an all time high and somebody has got to speak to this. Hello everyone. This is Dr. Jeff from the Dr. Jeff Show and on this show I interview major thought leaders from many fields showing how worldview changes everything.

With me on this episode is Dr. Trent Langhofer. He is the clinical director of counseling at Colorado Christian University, but his life story is amazing. A story of addiction and of homelessness and hopelessness and finding rescue in Jesus Christ. He even has great advice for people who are struggling with addictions of all kinds who can’t seem to find victory. This is going to be an incredible 40 minutes and I can’t wait for you to hear how Dr. Trent Langhofer’s life and your life will never be the same. Dr. Trent Langhofer, welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (01:15):
So thankful to be here, man.

Dr. Jeff Myers (01:18):
Well, this is going to be a great show because we’re going to dig into things that we know our culture is grappling with, really hard things right now, but with a message of hope that runs through the entire show. But we’ve got to start with the bad news first.

We have a generation that is anxious, depressed, suicidal, 40% of young people according to one study that was done early in COVID and we all know that this got worse, that 40% of them are dealing with things that could be called mental health issues and that 25% of 20 somethings had seriously considered suicide within the month of the study. Now this is incredibly alarming. I think the World Health Organization said this is the worst mental health crisis since the Vietnam War. What’s going on?

Dr. Trent Langhofer (02:17):
Dr. Jeff, you’re exactly right. And those statistics probably are under-reported. There’s still such a stigma attached to mental health struggle that people do find it really difficult to come out and disclose, “Hey, I’m struggling and I need some help.” And we can talk some about what my day-to-day routine is, but I work as a counselor and day in and day out, I’m working with young men and women who are representatives of those statistics.

And this is what’s ironic, Dr. Jeff. We live in a culture that offers a more accessible instantaneous means of pleasure than maybe any culture in history. From what I can access on my phone to having food delivered to my doorstep to being able to use certain substances to sort of enhance at least superficially my sense of wellbeing. And despite the fact that there are so many easy to access means of superficial enhancement or superficial pleasure, so many people are struggling.

(03:32):
There’s a couple of factors that I think are involved. Number one, while social media and technology have allowed us the illusion of connecting with greater ease, nobody’s putting their true authentic self and this is true for me also, nobody’s putting their true authentic self out there for all the public to see it’s an edited version of self, it’s a highlight real version of self. And so it gives the illusion of connection without the risk of rejection and we get to sort of operate under this pretense of pretending we are who we say we are through social media.

And so paradoxically, rather than more deeply connecting us as a culture, people feel more isolated, more disconnected and are struggling with the side effects of that isolation and disconnect. I think the second thing that’s going on, Dr. Jeff, is we really are an overstimulated population. When we’re watching TV, we also want to be scrolling through social media.

(04:37):
We want to be drinking coffee and it’s like our brains are just kind of chronically flooded with neurotransmitters that then when we’re not so flooded or we’re in a season where we can’t access such a level of overstimulation, we feel those withdrawal effects, which really feel like depression and anxiety. And I think all of that, we can talk more about this too, is that people are looking for satisfaction and connection in the places that just simply cannot be found. There’s just no satisfaction in the natural material world until I’m satisfied spiritually and my life has a sense of meaning and purpose.

And unfortunately, I sense our younger generations are grappling with that and buying into the social narrative that the natural world, the material world, the technological world maybe more specifically offers what we’re all seeking for and that’s just simply not true. So you combine those things and you really get a generation, a whole culture of people that are just struggling and it’s unfortunate, but that’s where we’re at.

Dr. Jeff Myers (05:50):
Trent, as I’m listening to this, I’m thinking of my own life, how I came in here this morning and I’m just on my phone and doing things and it’s just overstimulated is a good word and it’s fueled by my good cup of coffee. But Trent, it seems so hard to believe that the things that we do to bring ourselves pleasure may actually be leading us to pain. I mean, how is that?

Dr. Trent Langhofer (06:23):
Yeah, great question. So our brains are designed to repeat what feels good. When we do something that releases some of those chemicals in our brain like serotonin and dopamine, for instance, climbing a 14,000 foot stomach here in the state of Colorado, right?

I get to the top and the sweat equity and the investment of time I’ve put in that journey when I’m standing at the summit, I get a really natural release of endorphins, release of dopamine, release of serotonin and it gives me a really appropriate, healthy feeling of satisfaction. And so the next time I see a 14,000 foot mountain, instead of going, “I’m never doing that again.” I think to myself, “Man, it feels good to stand at the top of that thing.”

(07:09):
And so when we’re doing good things in life, that reinforcing effect that our brain’s reward circuitry has on our behavior, it can act to our advantage, but when we’re engaged in activities, Dr. Jeff, that provide us with a super physiological amount of brain reward chemical release combined with a really low level of effort to get that superphysiological release, it puts us in this compulsive sort of pleasure seeking state and that compulsive pleasure seeking state when it’s sort of left unchecked leads to all of the above: impulsivity, irrationality, irritability, difficulty in making decisions, self-centeredness, chronic dissatisfaction, feelings of anxiety, feelings of depression.

And so again, because our culture really offers us some low effort for seemingly high rewards, superphysiological levels of brain chemical release types of options, we kind of begin this compulsive seeking of pleasure that again, just when that’s left unchecked, it becomes a runaway system and it’s going to happen to us before we even realize it.

(08:32):
And this is not Dr. T saying, “I’m the guy on the planet that’s not struggling with this as much as I’m saying.” Fortunately, I’ve had some training that allows me to be a little informed and I can maybe mitigate it differently than people who just wouldn’t know what I might know, but it’s still coffee and news and checking email and network and first thing in the morning. And man, my brain’s just going and that sets my brain at a level of stimulation that’s not healthy.

But if not maintained, even in the middle of my workday, I just might feel like I’m not satisfied or I’m bored or this isn’t fun and I might mislabel what’s otherwise a really meaningful lifestyle and a meaningful career as something that’s just boring and tedious and monotonous and not spontaneous and not adventurous. And my career might not be any of those things, but my brain chemistry might be telling me it is because my brain’s seeking more of that pleasure.

(09:29):
And it’s not just my career, it might be my relationships. Any number of things can be kind of sabotaged by that brain reward circuitry, kind of brain chemistry programming.

Dr. Jeff Myers (09:45):
Our theme for this show is that worldview changes everything. And what I’m hearing you say, and again, everybody who’s watching this or listening to this right now, this is not just coming from just another guy we’re hanging out with here. I mean, this is coming from a guy with a doctorate in counseling and you’re going to hear a little of his story that this is hard on knowledge for Dr. Trent Langhofer, but what you’re telling us is that easy path that we think is going to bring us where we want to go is not going to bring us where we want to go.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (10:23):
On the contrary, so much of those low effort, high reward kinds of behaviors, which is how anybody would define the easy path, the comfortable life, actually end at higher levels of anxiety and depression and some of the things I’ve mentioned, indecisiveness, irrationality, impulsivity, irritability, chronic frustration, under performance and any kind of activity that requires a little effort and stick to intuitiveness and self-discipline. And then the human condition, Dr. Jeff, is to blame that on everybody else.

And so I end up manufacturing this view of my world that it’s everybody else’s fault, that if people would just listen or give me an opportunity or if things would just for once fall my way, everything would be okay. And it really requires a worldview sort of paradigm shift to begin to, and this is really important, what I’m about to say, to begin to think and then act my way out of those levels of dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression.

Dr. Jeff Myers (11:21):
Okay. I want to get into what that looks like from a clinical perspective, because you are the clinical director for Colorado Christian University. You’re not only counseling people, you are training a generation of counselors. So you’re counseling the counselors, you’re doing this at multiple levels and I know we’re going to get some great insights, not free counseling here, but just this is not a counseling session.

We’re not pretending that it is, but I know you’re going to have some great things to say, but I want to point out that a lot of what you are going to share with us is hard one knowledge that comes from an incredible life story of pain and dysfunction. And I’d love for you to just tell us a little bit of your life experience that led you to where you are.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (12:21):
Yeah, for sure. And a lot of my life experience aligns with what the current literature in my field has to say about how to promote healing and transformation in people’s lives. And so what I kind of tell my counselors in training, the young men and women that I have the opportunity to mentor in their career field is that there are some self-evident truths that can guide our approach to working with clients that will prove themselves true.

That’s the nature of a self-evident truth, have proved themselves true in my life and do prove themselves true in the current literature in the field. Yeah, let me just share a little bit about my journey. By all accounts, my early life should have just been wonderful. My birth father was a chiropractic student. My mom was a music major, both came from Christian homes, both had a vision of doing, kind of, traveling music ministry.

(13:15):
One night my mom gets a call from a man that says he was having an affair with my dad. So my dad, my birth father, was having a same sex affair behind my mom’s back and it just caused a nuclear explosion in my family of origin. My mom, I’m the oldest of three boys. My mom grabbed my brothers and I kind of fled to safety at her parents’ house and we lived the rest of my childhood out at her mom and dad’s, mine and pops, wonderful salt of the earth people, but they were poor. My mom’s dad retired early and was a disabled vet. My mom’s mom was a paraeducator and my mom taught school in a rural community.

(14:00):
So growing up poor and growing up in kind of a rural, rougher area, there were some challenges and those challenges combined with the trauma of a high conflict divorce sort of made me vulnerable to seek relief for those challenges and the pain of that high conflict divorce through whatever means was available. I was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the fourth grade. By the ninth grade, I was using hard, hardcore substances to try to medicate that underlying pain, dropped out of high school as a junior, ended up being in eight different inpatient treatment centers or psychiatric units over the course of the next two and a half years.

And in one of those psych units, which was right outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, just for instance, and to not try to get too deeply into some of the misery and agony of my story, I was in an adult trauma unit for individuals who had experienced childhood trauma and I was sent there to try to work through some of my other childhood issues.

(15:03):
And there was a young lady that was there who told me that her family was selling her to men to support their drug habit. So I decided we’re going to break out of the psych unit and so we wait for the nursing shift change. I’m 17, she’s 17, at the time when the shift changes we sneak out the door and live homeless in the French quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. I stayed on Rampart Street at the Covenant House, a homeless shelter for teens and runaways. So I don’t know if this is a good precedent to have set Dr. Jeff, but you’ve got an escaped mental patient on your show today.

Dr. Jeff Myers (15:40):
I think you’re my first. Yeah. We’ve had a KGB spy. We’ve had all kinds of people.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (15:47):
But no escaped mental patients. Yeah. So on the streets in New Orleans, I start using IV drugs and sharing needles and just get as deep and as dark into the drug culture as a person can possibly get for about the next three and a half years, end up in various locations and just going through a hard to imagine level of misery and nothing Dr. Jeff worked to transform my life until I had what I would consider a really radical encounter with Jesus that didn’t happen in some radical setting or with some radical.

I was attending a Baptist church shortly after I OD’d and this guy was preaching on being a contender or a contender for Jesus from the book of Jude and that just spoke to my soul, man. I had always felt like this just, scumbag, pretender. Just if my lips were moving, I was lying to you.

(16:49):
I was constantly trying to manipulate situations so that I could get drugs and just was a miserable, just bad person. And this guy said, “In Jesus Christ, you can be a contender. You don’t have to pretend anymore.” And I was at my rock bottom, I weigh about 240 pounds right now. I was 127 pounds at the time, totally strung out, just near death. And in the moment of my rock bottom, I felt the hand of Jesus just reached down and offered me the chance to become a contender. And by the grace of God, Dr. Jeff, I’ve never looked back.

Dr. Jeff Myers (17:32):
Wow. So you came to a relationship with Jesus Christ through that and that literally changed the entire trajectory of your life.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (17:45):
Totally changed my life’s trajectory. There’s no question that I would’ve been dead in the next six months to a year. Unfortunately, some of my closest friends did pass shortly after I surrendered my life to Jesus, just because that’s the trajectory we were on, man. Just totally carelessly living, seeking pleasure, seeking pain relief, prioritizing myself and what I wanted and when I wanted it and how I wanted it above anyone and anything else in my life. I could not have lived that way on those terms according to that worldview for much longer. And I’m talking months longer, not years. That’s right.

Dr. Jeff Myers (18:32):
Yeah. I believe that. I have family members who are involved in counseling addicts and I see that. I mean, we don’t realize how many people in their addiction are literally teetering on the brink of life and death.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (18:49):
You’re right. Yeah. It is a life and death situation, Dr. Jeff. And I think one of the things we’re realizing about mental health, and I’m going to kind of circle back to something we talked about just a second ago. One of the things we’re realizing about mental health is for some mental health issues, it can be a life or death situation.

And the journey that I kind of went through for my healing, and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, but it’s not as though all of a sudden everybody wanted to give me a job and everybody trusted everything I said and people wanted to be my best friend. I had an identity that had to be rebranded and was going to take some time to set in. But the first step in facilitating healing and transformation in any individual’s life is a spiritual awakening.

(19:37):
It’s non-negotiable, it’s irrefutable, it’s a self-evident truth. And that really for me was the sticking point all along. I had excellent treatment, I had coping skills, I knew what my underlying issues were, but until I had a spiritual awakening, an authentic encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing worked.

It was Murphy’s Law and Groundhog Day all wrapped up in one. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong and that tape was just on repeat every day of my life it felt like. And so the spiritual awakening component is a first component and I’m going to abbreviate some of this just to give you a chance maybe to talk through some of what maybe we want to talk through specifically about.

Dr. Jeff Myers (20:19):
Yeah, that’s right. Let me just say, there’s a whole teaching here that I’m hoping that you will be able to offer to our students at Summit Ministries in this coming year because I really want them to hear this. But yeah, sorry to interrupt there. I just, this is really.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (20:38):
No, you’re right. Well, and I’m a preacher from Louisiana, preacher by way of Louisiana, which is where we were at before we moved here. And so I can preach a sermon at the drop of a hat, drop the hat and then pass it and I’ll spare your listeners from the sermon today. But you’re right, I could talk for an hour and not even get started about the requirement of spiritual awakening as the first step of any genuine healing or transformational journey.

The second piece and what was huge for me, there was a difference for me in knowing that I had some unresolved underlying pain that influenced my pain relief seeking behavior, which is what my drug use really was about at its core. There’s a difference in knowing I’ve got some underlying unresolved issues versus tackling those issues and doing the hard work to heal those hurts.

(21:34):
And so the first part of my journey was a really just authentic spiritual awakening. The second part was digging in and really doing the work on Trent that I knew I needed to be done, that I had people trying to help me do for years, that I finally took the courage to take the responsibility for and dig in and do that work. And one of the truths, living life this side of heaven, is that everybody, Dr. Jeff, has hurts, and everybody’s got underlying issues that need to be healed.

Dr. Jeff Myers (22:12):
I just want to jump in here real quick, Trent, because I’m also thinking of the people who might be watching this or listening to this right now whose experience is one of addiction. It could be sexual addiction, it could be a drug addiction. There are all kinds of things like that.

I can imagine, Trent, that some of them have said, “But I love Jesus. I have had an experience with Jesus like the one you’re describing, but I still struggle. I cannot stop using that drug or I cannot stop looking at porn or whatever it happens to be.” I’d like for you to speak to that for a minute because I really can see a lot of people just giving up hope saying, “I’m just going to have to try to manage this addiction for the rest of my life. I can’t get over it.”

Dr. Trent Langhofer (23:09):
That’s an excellent question. I’m going to reference the Nancy Reagan, Say No to Drugs campaign, wonderful campaign, right? But let me paint a picture for you and I took this from a guy who trained me, Dr. Adrian Hickman. So this is not my original idea. Most of my ideas are not original, but I really can represent my ideas in the literature or from my background.

So in the Nancy Reagan Say No to Drugs campaign, that’s a great idea in theory. But let’s say on a park bench, I got a kid that comes from kind of a suburban middle class family, his parents’ marriage is intact, he was raised in a good social setting, has been given some opportunities to be around quality mentors, quality teachers, quality coaches, gets a good education and just doesn’t have a ton of really significant painful experiences in his life.

(24:01):
So let’s call that person person A, right? And let’s say person A attends church and says he loves Jesus and let’s say he’s just after adolescents, maybe 13 or 14, right? And let’s say person B is another young man about the same age. He comes from a divorced family, he has early childhood sexual abuse, he’s had behavioral issues chronically all through elementary and middle school and early in high school because of the disharmony in his family of origin, because of his childhood sexual abuse and because of his living situation.

And so person A and person B are sitting on a park bench and somebody walks by and says, “Hey guys, you want to smoke a joint?” The say no to drugs campaign just says, “Well, each of those kids should have the same capacity to just say no.” And when I paint the picture the way I’ve painted it, there’s no question that the capacity to resist that temptation and you’re saying it could be drugs, could be sex, could be whatever, they’re at two totally different levels of advantage in terms of just saying no.

(25:08):
And so what I’m kind of trying to paint the picture of is that those underlying unresolved hurts have a lot to do with why good people who love Jesus can sit in church day after week after month after year and just feel like they cannot kick whatever the vice is. And it’s not because God is not enough or the grace and love of Jesus Christ is not enough or the spirit that resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead isn’t powerful enough.

It’s because those underlying forces have a huge influence. Those underlying painful experiences have a huge influence and until we acknowledge those and have the courage to take responsibility for ourselves and do the work, we’re not giving ourselves the best opportunity to really experience freedom.

And so that was a big piece for me. God gave me a brand new start and equipped me with the power of the Holy Spirit to really live a different life, but I had to really go and look at the underlying issues that made Trent the screwed up messed up guy that Trip was to really get the opportunity to be set free from all of the vices that I used in my life.

Dr. Jeff Myers (26:34):
Yeah. So one of the things I’m hearing is going to church and staying strong with the Lord, reading your Bible, all of those things are important, but there’s really a role here for asking somebody who understands how to take you through this process to walk alongside of you to help that transformation become real to the point where it brings health to you rather than just the avoidance of, I’m a church because I need to be here otherwise I might go to hell when I die, right? But you’re talking about, there’s a chance for health here. There really is hope.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (27:17):
Absolutely. I’m talking about radical healing and radical transformation, not just good enough healing and not just good enough transformation. And I believe that’s what the scriptures teach and I believe that’s what the literature in my field bears out. When people have a spiritual awakening, when they really dig in and do the work of healing the underlying issues that influence the unwanted symptomatic behavior to kind of use the language from my sort of career field, I’m talking about radical.

If Dr. T can heal, Dr. Jeff, then anybody can experience radical transformation, but it’s just not, show up to church, read your Bible, and pray. It’s having the Holy Spirit infused courage to really dig in and do the work. And you mentioned the last piece that’s kind of the third iteration, it’s communion with God, it’s spiritual awakening, it’s courage. And then the third part really might be called compassion and there’s some other things involved, but these are really the big three.

(28:22):
I had to find the next trend that I could encourage, to dig in and really do the work. And as I’m walking through young men that I’ve mentored in that process, it has helped me stay the course on dealing with my own stuff. And by the grace of God, I’ve done a lot of healing and changing and growing and doing well, but I still got a lot of work to do and it’s staying involved, compassionately helping others, celebrating their wins, celebrating what God’s doing in their life, celebrating what God’s doing in mine that really becomes like that sense of purpose, sense of meaning, sense of satisfaction that’s inherent in our design.

And it doesn’t matter if somebody’s a plumber or a music teacher or an electrician or a medical doctor or a government official, those are kind of those three things, man, spiritual awakening, courage to dig in and do the work and compassion to help others and celebrate them on their journey and celebrate where I’m at online.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:26):
Yeah. Those three points are so huge. I’d love to talk a little bit about your trajectory because from your state of addiction and homelessness and being an escaped mental facility patient, which is great. And at some point along the way, you are cage fighting as well, I think.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (29:52):
Yeah.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:52):
You know, I would never want to be in a cage with you.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (29:57):
You know what, full disclosure, Dr. Jeff, I had one professional cage fight. I beat my opponent’s fists up with my chin and my nose and my wife was sitting ringside and she’s like, “It’s either going to be this or me. ” And you could tell by my choice of profession that I got real wise real quick in the moment after I got beat up pretty good in a cage. And I decided I was a helper, not a fighter.

Dr. Jeff Myers (30:23):
So, yeah. Better to go into counseling or pastoring or something like that.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (30:27):
Yeah, that’s right.

Dr. Jeff Myers (30:28):
But you did become a pastor along the way there. You’re actually a pastor at a church in Louisiana where a lot of people go who everybody who’s watching or listening to this are familiar with.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (30:41):
That’s exactly right. The kind of short testimony. Met my wife six months after I got sober, was engaged a year after I got sober, married 18 months after. I decided I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in life. I just wanted to become the best me I could be, which for me meant becoming the best follower of Jesus I could. I got an undergraduate degree in ministry. My wife and I moved to Sercy, Arkansas. I got a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.

Moved down to Northeast Louisiana in Monroe, Louisiana, finished my PhD. And while in Monroe, got connected with, as you’re saying, just an awesome, wonderful, frontlines oriented Jesus loving church, which made it a perfect fit for my family and I. Those are our values. And while I was there pastoring and co-pastoring the church, A&E picked up a television show that involved a family there that ended up becoming a national and worldwide phenomenon.

(31:41):
It was called Duck Dynasty and the Robertson family of West Miro, Louisiana, attended my church. And those guys are wonderful friends. They’re wonderful followers of God and wonderful people. And I will tell you something about that, Dr. Jeff, that was so helpful for me to see guys that weren’t changed by the limelight, that weren’t changed by fame and fortune, that stayed humble.

And God has shown me a lot of favor. I’ve got a PhD. I’ve opened a couple of businesses, married, have three wonderful kids working my dream job right now here in Colorado Springs, teaching in CCU’s grad counseling program, running CCU’s outpatient clinic here in the Springs. And watching those guys has just really helped me stay humbled and recall that when Trent’s doing at Trent’s way, Trent crashes and burns. But when I stick with those core values of staying connected with Jesus, really doing my own work and really trying to show compassion to others, man.

(32:44):
I cannot tell you what an incredible journey this has been and how fortunate I am. Yeah, I’ve taken some bumps and dings. My wife would certainly tell you I’m not perfect, but Dr. Jeff, I found in Jesus what I’ve always been looking for and I just hope that some of your listeners might be made a little bit curious given some of what I’ve shared as far as what maybe the difference Jesus could make in their lives might be.

Dr. Jeff Myers (33:11):
Yeah. Well, Trent, help us understand. And again, this is not a counseling session. Nothing here should be taken as counseling advice. We’re just having a conversation. But the CCU outpatient clinic that you mentioned and a lot of cities have something like that, I think, I hope. So if somebody were to say, “Okay, I really do need help and I want to talk to these people,” what does that look like and what do the counselors do to help them?

Dr. Trent Langhofer (33:45):
Yeah. So sometimes I’ll talk about that in terms of scrubbing the old wounds. And I have used, and I have read this a number of times, the way a burn is healed is kind of the approach to counseling, that to go back and look at those hurts and embarrassing moments or humiliating moments, kind of work with the counselor to talk through it. And here are, kind of, the three things I think counselors are interested in.

How did your painful experiences influence what you believe to be true about you? How did your painful experiences influence what you believe to be true about others and how did your painful experiences influence what you believe to be true about life? And often we sort of develop these ways of seeing ourselves or others or the world that end up just kind of keeping us in our pain and in our pattern and in our misery.

(34:38):
So I would encourage your audience, you’re right, there’s a lot of wonderful counselors across the United States and world who are doing excellent work and I would encourage your audience to reach out to one of those professionals. They’re not perfect. They don’t have all the answers, but they can help. And I would begin to talk through those hurts and embarrassing moments and humiliating moments about how they influence the way you think about you, the way you think about others and the way you think about life.

And I believe if we can see the truth of God in each of those three areas and we can live by that truth and our worldview changes in those areas, that it just empowers us to begin to do something different to change our life’s trajectory. That’s how we operate in a really abridged sort of abbreviated kind of summary here at the community counseling center at CCU.

(35:34):
And I think that’s at least a component of all quality counseling regardless of where a counselor is located. So hopefully too, in kind of sharing that it maybe demystifies or clarifies to your audience some of what counselors are trying to help with and hopefully it inspires some of your audience to maybe seek some help. People are not alone. Everybody’s got stuff and there are ways of healing some of that that are well established in the literature. And I’m just hoping that some will be inspired to take advantage of that healing opportunity.

Dr. Jeff Myers (36:08):
Yeah. I hadn’t planned to ask this question, but I know you’re going to have a great response to this because I think there’s some people who because of the popular culture or because of people they’ve known, they think that if somebody goes to counseling, what they’re doing is exploring their childhood in a way that allows them to blame everybody else for their problems and they actually come out more bitter. And I know a lot of Christians are concerned that if they’re involved in the counseling process, that might happen. How do you relieve that concern?

Dr. Trent Langhofer (36:42):
Yeah, that’s really great. So while certain people may have been sort of the source of some of my pain, as long as I’m blaming them, I am not empowered to change because what I don’t own, I can’t change. And so I have to take ownership. Sure, I might acknowledge my parents’ divorce or other experiences in my childhood were painful and influenced me to seek pain relief, but the operative phrase there is me seeking pain relief.

And so I do think you’re right. I think unfortunately sometimes we can be locked in this sort of view that it’s everybody’s fault and people would just do different or give me an opportunity. And as long as it’s everybody’s fault and someone else has to do different, I can’t grow or change or heal. But once I have the courage to take responsibility for that myself, it becomes my journey and that’s the only way I can really change my trajectory and heal.

(37:42):
And so I would just encourage people, it’s not about blaming or me being out of the locus of control of my own journey as much as it’s acknowledging hurts, forgiving those who have hurt me, and taking ownership for my own healing journey from that point forward.

Dr. Jeff Myers (38:01):
Well, I’m really grateful, and Dr. Trent Langhofer and the Colorado Christian University clinics, but there are other clinics and other places that have the same mindset that can really help you and help your loved ones find the healing that you need. And I hope, Trent, that as we go on, as we do more episodes of this show, that if mental health issues come up, that you’d be willing to help us address those because I think it doesn’t get addressed a lot in the Christian world and it’s time.

Dr. Trent Langhofer (38:35):
Yeah. And just the two minute or one minute blurb on that, Dr. Jeff, as I would love to speak into it and I’m so thankful you’ve taken the initiative to begin to speak into this issue. You’re right. It doesn’t often get talked about or when it does maybe get stigmatized and we’re in a situation where according to the statistics you read or acknowledged people need help, man, people are hurting and I want people to feel affirmed that it’s okay to be hurting and it’s okay to need help and there are really tried and true means of helping, hurting people absolutely. I would love the opportunity so thankful for you and so thankful for your audience that are tuning in today.

Dr. Jeff Myers (39:19):
I’m really grateful for that, Trent. We’ve got about a minute or so left and I’d love for you to just speak a word to this rising generation. What would you say in summary that they could take away and say, “Okay, if you remember nothing else from this show, remember this, that will give you a sense of hope.”

Dr. Trent Langhofer (39:43):
Yeah, I want to say two things. The first thing I want to say is exactly what you just said. Don’t give up on yourself or your situation. There always is hope. And I think in our culture, hope is a precious commodity and I’ll spare all the statistics and the dialogue I could go into as far as that’s concerned. Don’t give up on yourself, don’t give up on your situation and be willing to seek for what you’re really looking for in the supernatural, not in the natural.

That was the big paradigm shift that revolutionized my life and I think our younger generation are so saturated with what’s available in the natural world that at their core they know what I’m saying is true. It’s just not always popular or comfortable to seek satisfaction and meaning and purpose in the supernatural. I would just challenge our young people to consider it and be willing to take the first step into pursuing satisfaction, purpose and meaning in the supernatural. I’m giving them my word. If they genuinely seek it there, they’ll find it.

Dr. Jeff Myers (40:56):
Dr. Trent Langhofer, Dr. T. So grateful for the time that we’ve had today and thank you for being on the Dr. Jeff Show. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Dr. Jeff Show. This time with Dr. Trent Langhofer has been so incredibly inspiring. It shows us that there is hope in Jesus Christ and we can, having other people walk alongside of us, find victory.

Ryan Dobson (41:27):
Hi everyone. I’m Ryan Dobson from the Rebel Parenting Podcast. When my parents, Jim and Shirley Dobson sent me to the Summit Ministries Worldview Conference when I was 17, we had no idea the impact it would have on my life. It changed me so much in two short weeks, I’ve returned every summer for 34 years. This summer, your student can attend an in- person conference. That’s right, in person.

Summit Ministry’s Worldview Conference challenges students ages 16 to 24 to think deeper about their convictions and their faith by engaging with today’s top worldview thinkers and apologists. Can you imagine in person with other students learning about the Christian worldview? If not, they can attend Summit’s virtual experience and it’s amazing. Change your students’ life forever by partnering with Summit Ministries Worldview Conference today. Find out more by clicking the link in the show notes.