Charity Ritter
Christian Author/Entrepreneur/Therapist/Coach
My Story
Here is more detail. I am a writer after all....
In 2012 I opened Live Wellness Center, a Christian Counseling Center in Columbus, Ohio. During the start up, God started speaking to my heart about writing for public viewing. Although I was busy running that counseling center and starting my family, my 5am dates with Jesus sustained me. To balance my baby phase with something creative, I started with a a blog on the Center's website and published my personal Bible study and journals into my first book "Perspective: How the power of a Biblical Perspective can change your life" in early 2020. I love to write about applying God's Word to every day life.
After publishing that book, I developed the same perspectives into a devotional, a therapeutic model of Christian counseling and a workbook the therapists at my center and I use in our counseling and coaching sessions. As a therapeutic exercise for myself, I also started a children's book series to teach my kids the lessons I wish I had known as a child. The fist two books are now available on Amazon.
During the pandemic, the loss of structure, lack of socialization and prolonged survival mode stressed my brain beyond it's usual capacity. Although I was diagnosed with ADHD in college, it hadn't been much of a thought since then, until I reached total overload. Feeling like my brain was broken and I was falling apart, I started to dig into research. I learned that ADHD has been vastly misrepresented in our culture, especially how it effects adult women. I feel passionately that if women don't get the correct information, so they can correctly balance their lives and take care of themselves, they will start to feel like they are falling apart.
In June 2022, the Lord placed on my heart that it was time to hand over leadership of the counseling practice and start down a new path of learning. As I continue to follow God one step at a time I continued my training in Life Purpose Coaching and ADHD Coaching/Counseling.
Getting myself to a new level of healing and bring my new found insight for the betterment of my family, all of which also have ADHD, I was finally feeling on top of the world.
Then one random day in June 2023 I woke up after having a seizure in my sleep. My husband got me to the hospital and a significant brain tumor was found needing removal. In the waiting not sure of what I was facing the truths that God had brought me through in writing my book "Perspective: How the power of a Biblical Perspective can change your life" was extraordinarily invaluable as I was able to cast anxiety aside and focus on what God was teaching me and those around me.
Facing brain surgery, unsure if I would survive, I realized that if I did survive, I needed to share my book with as many Christians as I could. A Biblical perspective of the purpose of our lives, the purpose of our trials and the depth of God's love allowed me to face something that was once my darkest nightmare with a peace, patience and surrender that I would have never dreamed possible back in 2012. God is so good. Living out Romans 8:28 is undeniable proof of that.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 NIV
Lessons Learned will be my
Next Book
The 18 months of brain tumor recovery which also lead to physical therapy to treat an inability to walk, stand or sit functionally, was harder than I would have ever expected. I lost my brain capacity and my physical wellbeing. It felt like I lost myself.
In full surrender, I didn't know if I would ever be a productive member of society again, but knew I had to find where God was working. Those months stripped me of everything I thought I was and I wondered if I would ever feel normal again. Things I thought I had overcome were coming back with heavy emotion. I did not feel like myself and God showed me a whole new depth of our inner world and a need for surrender, to allow His healing and take care of my nervous system, my adhd brain, and my heart.
God opened my eyes to a depth of His love for us and His character that I didn't learn growing up in church. As God lead me through the rollercoaster of treatments and recovery, He has now called me to ventures so big, only He can put them together.
