About The Joy of Encouragement

A Refreshing Change Of Perspective…

Having been in the counseling field professionally for over a quarter of a century, Mr. Harbin has seen first hand the effect of negativity and pessimism in people’s lives.

He created “The Joy of Encouragement” to counter that effect. All products and speaking presentations are based on this one concept, “As a man thinks in his heart….so is he”. It seems to Mr. Harbin that most of our “issues” (that we can do something about) originate in our minds. The battle is for the mind as thoughts lead to feeling, feelings lead to actions, actions lead to habits, and habits lead to lifestyle. Thus if we want to change we must change the way we think about things. Often we can not change our circumstances but we can change the way we deal with our stressors.

His books, Heart Talks for Couples and Heart Talks for Youth both attempt to help people encourage and enrich other’s lives thereby enriching our own.

His “Wow (Words of Wisdom) Cards” have been used throughout the Upstate of South Carolina. They continue to evolve each year with practical pearls of wisdom that have helped his clients for over a decade. “Simple yet profound” is his approach to both therapy and life.

Aside from therapy, his interactional books, and the WOW cards, he has been a presenter on a variety to topics including marriage, relationships, personality types, grief resolution, handing anger and conflict, understanding and coping with depression and anxiety, the differences in men and women, and learning to deal with stress before it deals with you.

In my quarter of a century in professional counseling…

…I have seen much pain and suffering. My wife, who has also been a licensed counselor, worked with Hospice for many years and we often discussed the psychological effects of death on the living. As most people would suspect sadness is the most common emotion associated with the death of a loved one but our experience surprisingly indicated that guilt is the second most common. I pondered why that would be and finally I realized what I think is the answer. Most of us have no idea how much we take for granted in our relationships. Therefore I think the guilt comes after a loved one dies because we wish we had said or done something but now the reality sets in that we will never be able to say or do whatever it was.

This coupled with growing up in a family of alcoholism in which we did not talk about feelings has left me more sensitive and aware of the importance of encouragement and expressing caring for others.  Joy, and she is well named, my wife for over forty years has been a great encourager to me.

Finally after many years of doing marital therapy I came to believe, like in most other relationships ranging from family to coworkers, people just don’t feel appreciated. However, as indicated above from the “guilt issue” they probably are, more than we tell them. Thus, having become much more of an encourager, I also developed other simple ways for people to be more encouraging to each other. From exercises, to presentations, to interactional books, to my “WOW” (Words of Wisdom) cards I have devoted the last several years of my life to becoming an encourager.

I choose to believe that it has not only helped me but many of those who have crossed paths with me and I hope they are still paying it forward too! I also hope you find something on this website that will help you become more of an encourager.