A new counseling center, The Father’s Chair, has opened its doors in DeRidder to provide Christian counseling and mental health services to the local community. The center is staffed by Dr. Anderson Stricklin who specializes in a wide range of mental health issues including marriage, addiction, recovery and children’s counseling.

“I believe in God,” Stricklin said, when asked to explain his faith. “I’m not a denominational minister or preacher. I believe in an eternal God who is interested in healing his creation.”

He told about the experience that began this path of healing, describing it as a Damascus Road conversion in Okinawa, Japan.

“I was 25 years old, an alcoholic and God had to get me out of the United States to save me. It was radical. I stopped smoking, cussing and drinking. I can tell you what time and the date. It was 8:26 a.m. on January 1, 1979.”

The night before he had gotten drunk and landed in a ditch, part of Japan’s sewer system. When he woke up, he realized he wanted something different for his life.

“I’ve been delivered. I’m free,” he said.

He explained temperament therapy, which is based on the five temperaments – melancholy, choleric, sanguine, supine and phlegmatic – and 4,000 blends of those temperaments that represent the range of human diversity.

“If you understand your emotions, you can control them better, and do not control you,” he said. “If parents understand their child’s temperament, they can better help that child.”

Children eight and over can be tested. He offered the following example about the difference in how a melancholy child and a sanguine child might respond to a parent calling him or her stupid.

“Sanguines are full of life, impulsive. They don’t need help. Call them stupid and their response might be, ‘What’s that? I’m going out to play.’ Call a melancholy child stupid and you could run the risk of killing them on the vine.”