I am James Peter Gitonga, an ordained minister with the Methodist church in Kenya and also accredited member of Kenya Counseling Association. I am married to Dr. Mercy Gitonga and together, we are blessed with two sons. I am also a graduate of Biblical Studies and Counseling Psychology from Pan Africa Christian University and alumnus of Kenya Institute of Management.
Throughout my pastoral and counseling career, i have had numerous privileges to undertake courses offered both by local and international institutions in the areas of Narrative Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Social-Recovery Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, Strength- Based Therapy, Relational –Culture Therapy and Group Therapy and many more.
“Having spent most of my time in active pastoral ministries at Methodist & CITAM and marriage and family counseling for a number of years now, I have drawn a wealth of experience from working with different clients, and different age groups dealing with a variety of issues affecting families and individual lives. This has enabled me take a deliberate focus in helping marriages, changing lives and guiding them to restore family stems as God’s original plan. I believe that Family Matters no matter at what age the couples are or the marriage is, the solution can always be found to make the relationship or marriage work when both parties work in agreement to find a lasting solution towards harmony.
This is what drove me to write this book; to empower couples and families to lay a strong foundation that can hold the family institution together in the 21st century dynamics and in return, have a strong stable families that create stable churches and a stable nation. Throughout my ministerial journey, in churches and other institutions, hosting conferences, workshops, seminars, as a radio and TV speaker, high school and colleges speaker, to address different issues on family matters and personalities, I have at the same time developed cutting –edge materials for different forums to guide and to provide mentorship programs to both couples and individuals. As I continue to provide psycho-education in various forums and conducting families and couples training, I have made strides in influencing our generation about healthy marriage relationships.
This experience gave me both opportunity and data to compile together a work that I would later use to birth this book that we today call Harmony. Any effective therapy is about a number of things: experience, expertise, a clear diagnosis, concise goals, the knowledge and the tools to effectively empower and to navigate difficult life issues and above all to incorporate client’s spiritual beliefs. It’s also about possessing a genuine concern for the patient/client and their pain as a therapist. This is what opened the door to compiling my findings during counseling therapies.
While sharing my findings and experiences with my clients during sessions of psycho-education, I realized my clients were able to identify with others and find help for their own needs and this empowered them to make those needed positive changes in their lives. I got to understand that making the life decision to seek help can be a difficult choice to many people, so I found sharing some of this informative material useful as it had suitability and provided for a non-judgmental environment. It also helped create an environment where the emotional client felt dearly supported in their counseling journey. These experiences gained during my active ministry in pastoral, marriage and family counseling over the years gave me a wealth of experience working with different clients of different age groups, dealing with a variety of issues including but not limited to anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship/family concerns, pre- marital and post – marital issues including finances, communication and conflict resolution , divorce, grief depression, life changing even ( losses of loved ones and resource opportunities), as well as issues related to attachment between parents and their children.
I realized that by developing self-care assessment tools, this would play a very important part in helping many couples, families and individuals to make lasting changes in their relationship journeys. This book was conceived out of these experiences to assist and help people towards harmony in their relationships. It is written in very simple language and with a self-teaching approach so as to gain that needed knowledge and understanding in self-care, that will have longer lasting effects. This book has a lot of self- assessment tools where an individual or a couple can empower themselves with the right knowledge and wisdom to manage crisis in their relationship.
Therefore the book addresses the following areas towards harmony;
1. The foundations of a Godly Marriage
2. Weighty Areas that Marriage must Negotiate
3. Temperaments Biases 1and 2
4. Temperaments and Emotional Intelligence
5. Harmony and Happiness in Marriage
6. Appendix
a. Summary on Temperaments Traits
b. Personality Temperament Test
c. Harmony Assessment Toolkit for Couples
• Marriage
• Romance and Sex
• Health and Children
• Finances and Lifestyle
• Spiritual Beliefs
• Extended Family and Community
• Overall
It has taken over 4 years to finish my publication. This time became necessary to gather both the resources and materials needed to complete the work. I believe it was a journey worth taking even as I turned challenges into positive experiences, which positively impacted my personal overall wellbeing.
You can reach me via the following contacts;
Mobile address: +254722780928
Email address: jpgtosh@gmail.com
