IR Spotlight: Zakk Gammon

Creation Therapy & Mental Health “ And The Church... The Truth”

William Zakkary Gammon of Owensboro, KY is a Member of the Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling and has been an International Representative since March of 2019.

One of the things I’m most often amazed by is how God takes the broken and shattered pieces of our lives and turns them into beautiful examples of His love, grace, and mercy.

I encountered the power and wisdom of temperament, and the love of a Christian Counselor, at one of the darkest points in my life. My marriage was on the brink of divorce. I was about to lose my family. My life of hidden sin had come to light. I was in a place where I could no longer lean on myself, and I could no longer run from God. I’d been a Christian for most of my life, but never truly understood how I am fearfully and wonderfully made until I reached my lowest point, and my only option was to look to Him.

With nowhere else to turn, my wife and I began meeting with a friend and fellow SACC International Representative, Dr. David Ralston. Dr. Ralston introduced us to temperament and helped us to learn about how God created us as unique individuals made in His image. Learning and understanding the APS allowed us to appreciate both our similarities and our differences, as well as learn to communicate in a healthy, productive way. The APS taught us how to rebuild our marriage. It also taught me that the addictions I struggled with were a result of my own unmet needs and that by truly turning to God, He could fill the voids in my life. The results were simply astonishing. He took a relationship on the verge of falling apart and turned it into one solely focused on Him.

The amazing thing about the Lord’s work in our lives is that the journey doesn’t end in our own healing. Instead, He calls us to take the work of our transformation and share it with others so that they may experience that healing as well. Following my own transformative work, God began working in me and showing me His calling on my life -- to serve others and show them their unique identity in Him, just as someone had shown me. I enrolled in the Creation Therapy course and later completed my degree and licensure as an NCCA Pastoral Counselor. In learning the Arno Profile System in greater detail, I was struck by how intricately He creates each of us, and how we can use that wisdom to learn to meet our needs in healthy, godly ways.

Through those studies, God gave me a vision and mission to launch a ministry dedicated to helping people find spiritual, emotional and physical wellness, and through Him, my wife and I launched Revive Christian Counseling in 2016.

When the opportunity arose to become an International Representative, I jumped at the chance, because it provided the ability to share and educate our community on the power, wisdom, and understanding of temperament in an even greater way. Since becoming an I.R., our ministry has also launched CrossPointe College, a Certified Academic Institution offering the Creation Therapy course, as well as the NCCA degree programs.

Our organization of humble beginnings has grown steadily over the last three years, and along the way, God has brought people into our lives who share our heart, mission, vision, and values. Revive Christian Counseling has grown to a staff of eight SACC/NCCA-trained counselors and two administrative staff members, where we have the opportunity to share the Lord’s love, grace, and mercy to countless individuals each week. As inquiries for our counseling services continue to grow, we anticipate hiring additional staff members within the next few months. Additionally, we recently opened a second location in nearby Hartford, Kentucky, and the response has been so great, that we are already looking for opportunities to expand in that area by bringing on an additional counselor there as well. We continue to stand in awe of how He is working through us to reach others for His glory.

It is truly an honor and a blessing to be able to share temperament with our local community. Through our work, we’ve had the opportunity to share this wisdom in several local ministries, including a sizeable local recovery program, an outreach ministry for at-risk youth, and some local marriage and family groups. In fact, the leadership in some of those ministries are presently enrolled in the Creation Therapy course themselves, so they may then teach ways of meeting needs that are honoring and pleasing to God, as well as how to communicate effectively in marriages, families, churches, and workplaces to the individuals in their care.

The heart of our mission is simple. In everything we do, we want to live out Romans 15:13: May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with confident hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am so grateful to our family at the Sarasota Academy, not only for what I’ve been able to learn but also for the chance to share it with others. Through this process, God constantly reminds me of a simple fact: although He creates us as unique individuals, we’re also all the same -- lost and broken, needing grace, and needing a Savior. Thanks to the SACC, we’re able to reach the lost and broken with a powerful tool that we see changing lives every day in our community.

Presently, the Lord is calling us to a new mission: to have temperament integrated into every local church and ministry in our area within the next five years. This God-sized task may seem daunting, but I am confident with His leading and the prayer support from our SACC family, we’ll be able to accomplish this noble goal and grow His kingdom.

Onward!