Lance Clark

Here's a interesting man who had me take his head shots last month.

LANCE CLARK
Counseling Intern, M.A. in Professional Counseling

Lance was born and raised in Pennsylvania, attended undergraduate school in Boston, lived ten years in Maine, and now gladly calls North Carolina home! He has been married for twelve years and has three children, two girls and a boy.

Lance’s journey into counseling professionally began as a lay counselor for state-wide retreats at which he served as a men’s group leader for 5 years, beginning while still in his mid-20’s. His impact at these retreats was noted and led to an invitation to serve as a group leader inside the Thomaston State Prison in Maine, which he did for 3 years. Concurrent to his time as a lay counselor, Lance nurtured a 5-year relationship through the Big Brothers of Maine program with a foster child diagnosed with Aspergers.

Seeking a more servile and personally satisfying career, Lance left a high-profile career in the music industry to move with his family into a residential home and be a House Dad to 9 boys, ages 6-16. With his third child on the way, Lance resigned after a year, but was soon after offered an administrative position within the organization. Lance served in this position for 2 years, training staff and overseeing therapeutic program implementation in all homes and the on-campus academy.

Impressed by the impact of competent therapeutic intervention, Lance chose to enroll in Liberty University’s Master of Arts in Professional Counseling degree program, attending full-time and maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

Lance’s experience and professional interests converge in serving men and male children and adolescents. Adult issues may include, but are not limited to, father-wounds, anger, pornography and sexual addiction issues, depression, career dissatisfaction and transition, and general life concerns.  Adolescent and pre-adolescent issues may include, but are not limited to, anger, pornography use, loneliness and isolation, school/peer/sibling/parental relationship concerns, transition adjustments, and life-choice challenges.


Lance writes:

“Victims, perpetrators, all of us who have ever experienced confusion, hopelessness, conflict, anxiety, addiction ... we all have in common that we have experienced in body, mind, emotion, and/or spirit, individually or in relationships, something contrary to the Truth of Christ and His loving and hopeful intention for us. Truth created us (John 1:1-4), desires to lovingly govern us (Colossians 3:15), and will, if we cooperate, lead us into ultimate health and freedom (John 8:32).

I perceive the overarching work of therapy to be the identification of Discrepancy (the gap between our current being and Christ-likeness) in our life and circumstance, and then discovering together how Truth (a construct comprised of the Triune God and Scripture) meets our need and desire for justice, healing, vision, and hope for our personal future.”


ALPHA CARE / Executive Director: Marilyn Harding / 1613 Walnut Street, Cary, NC 27511 / 465 1422 Office

CONTACT: Lance Clark / 919 816 2524 Confidential Voice Mail / HYPERLINK "mailto:alphacare@embarqmail.com" alphacare@embarqmail.com

A snapshot of Rockport

Here's a little piece of beauty from my wonderful vacation. I try never to miss this place when I go up north.

Family Portrait

Here are some dear friends of ours with their really cool car....

Homage to our furry friends

Here are a few of my favorite furry friends. The black one is mine "Angel" we call her altho yesterday when we left our precious New Jersey Bagels in the car at the rest area - we knew her name was certainly not appropriate.
Misty, the white dog is our little love. We purchased her in NH, kept her for 2-3 years and then gave her to some friends there so that she could stay in the snow, with a side bonus of nipping some ugly asthma in the bud for me.
My vacation was full of furry friends...just glad I didn't meet up with a bear, mountain lion or moose:)...

Studio on the fourth of July

Here's a sneak peak at the studio. This picture was taken on the Fourth of July during the festival in downtown Apex.

Cassidy

Here are a few images I took right before I left on vacation...Great job Cassidy!

On vacation

So here I am in Boston on vacation. Went to Cape Cod today for a day of sun and fun. My brother in law and the children all went clamming and tonight we will have a great meal of clams casino - yum - and home made clam chowda. For lunch we had fried clams, scallops and fish and chips - there's nothing like Cape Cod - or the New England coast for that matter. Such fun!!!

I brought my camera on vacation and wanted to document Amish country and the Cape and my camera sat in the car while I sat on the beach with a good book....guess that's what vacation is for!

Guess I'll mosey down to the kitchen and see if I can help split clam shells....

Funeral for a Friend continued

It's now Saturday evening and I've lived many life experiences since my last entry on Wednesday. I got in the car and headed up to New England. in order to avoid the DC traffic area, we took a long, long detour thru Pennsylvania. It killed our ETA but we had a great spontaneous moment. As we were traveling on my birthday, and because I still this many years later hold high expectations for my birthday, I thought it would be a great idea to stop in amish country and get a nice amish meal. Only problem was that we were 5 minutes away from multiple towns and restaurants closing. We struck out and ended up catching a "Five Guys" at 9:45.

Because we were still only in York at 10 PM we chose to abort our plan to go directly to Massachusetts and stop in Lancaster for the evening. We ended up at Willow Valley Resort and enjoyed a great time in the country while my husband worked....

in the evening of the next night we headed up to NJ to pay our respects at the calling hours to our friends. Calling hours are a mixed bag of complete grief and sadness and sympathy for those that you love standing in long lines receiving condolences from others and joy at seeing others that you may not have seen for 10 or 20 years. I saw many people, highly loved and cherished friends that I've lost track of for many years.

At the calling hours they displayed images of my friend. The value of professional images was not lost on me at that moment. It seems morbid to say that we want to document our images every few years in case someone dies, but when someone does go, how nice it is to have those images. I have a renewed passion for what I do.

Today was the memorial service. Tears were shed, laughter was shared and some very special memories were recounted.

So, I'm up in Massachusetts now, looking forward to going to the Cape tomorrow for some fun in the sun and R and R.

Passing of a friend

This morning at 4:30 my friend Ron died.

Ron contracted a blood disease a few years ago and after a long bout of suffering has gone on to be with the Lord.

I'm grieving today for a life cut short. A husband and father of two taken out of this world before what we would all consider to be his time.

Ron is part of a family that I grew up with. The Martin's came to my father's church when I was in late elementary school. They were a "huge" family to me with their 5 children. We soon became fast friends and spent many vacations together, camping trips, church, swam in their pool, hung out at their cottage on the lake. I worked and vacationed with Ron's sister, went to the junior/senior banquet with Ron's brother. Our lives were intertwined. Ron tried to teach me how to water ski - a hopeless cause for sure. Boy, could he ski - I loved riding in the boat watching. He could whip the snot out of the volleyball and was not to be tangled with. A great athlete and a great person.

I've been gone from NJ for many years, and in many ways have lost touch with the family - although my folks have kept in very close contact and relationship with the Martins. Time and distance change many things, but they don't change our hearts towards those we love.

Ron is with the Lord now. His long suffering is over, but his loss will be felt for many years in the hearts of his loved ones.

Here's a small piece of irony...tomorrow is my birthday. The day that I'm going to celebrate another year of life, health and love. On the day that I celebrate my life, I will be grieving the loss of another. in fact, there is not a July 4 that goes by that I don't remember the great times with the Martin's on the lake, boating, swimming, shooting off fireworks... Life is so fleeting...

I am a photographer because I value people. I document a moment of their lives and preserve it for generations. We are all made in the image of God and we are intertwined with each other in life and in death. When our loved ones are taken from us (and it's ALWAYS too soon), our memories begin to fade. It's the photographs that keep their image before us, trigger our memories and keep them alive in our hearts.

So today my wish is that you give your child that extra hug, extra kiss and tell them how much you love them. Call a friend you haven't spoken to in years. Don't let the busy-ness of life, the economic situation or the daily stresses take you away from what really matters.

anne

dog sitting

Here's a cute little face that I've been enjoying the past few days. I took her over to the studio today to get a few shots.