James Robert Ross, Ph. D, Executive Director

Anchor Counseling offers marriage and family counseling based on Biblical principles. James Robert (Bob) Ross, Ph.D., is a licensed marriage and family therapist. He has over thirty years experience helping couples strenghten their marriages.

His counseling is based on the words of Abba Amonas, who lived sixteen hundred years ago. People with various personal, marriage and family problems often came to Father Amonas to hear his wise counsel.

Father Amonas had four simple words of advice that he gave everyone, no matter the problem. “Pay attention to yourself.” The only person that a person can change is himself or herself. Thus marriage counseling encourages and supports each spouse to look at and try to change himself or herself.

Furthermore, Dr. Ross believes that although these communication and conflict resolution skills are desirable, they cannot be taught in the same way a person can be taught to drive a car or to play golf. He says, “These skills are not merely something that a person learns to do. Instead, they grow out of and reflect the person’s character. They are more like a virtue than a skill.”

He goes on to say, “If people bring different levels of maturity to their couple relationships, if some of them possess more highly developed virtues of empathy, patience, and self control, then the way we help couples must be adjusted. This means both helping couples prepare for marriage, and helping unhappy couples learn to have a more successful marriage. The only way this can happen is for them to grow up, to become fundamentally better human beings.”

That is the goal of Dr. Ross’ marriage counseling: to help people become better human beings.