Dr. Galen Cole

10/04/2026

POOLSIDE CHRISTIANITY IS LOSING GROUND. PSYCHOLOGY DIDN'T STEAL IT!

People are not leaving church because they stopped wanting God. Many are leaving a religion that stopped teaching correct principles.

I call the substitute "Poolside Christianity." You have a chair, a towel, a testimony, and a verse. You can talk about the pool for an hour. You are not in it. Then you are surprised that evidence-based psychology — unromantic about feelings, ruthless about practice — is doing more for people’s minds than the faith that promised to renew them. Gravity does not grade on sincerity. Neither does a household. Neither does a nervous system.

Pew’s “nones” already said this. About 29 percent of U.S. adults now claim no religion, up from 16 percent in 2007. Most of them still believe in God or a higher power. The largest share is not “atheist.” It is “nothing in particular.” They did not fail a moral test. They declined a label that no longer matched a life.

Jesus did not teach that a profession is the saving event and the doing is optional. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father.” The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. His teachings are the main thing.

New essay:

09/28/2026

The feed cannot calm you. The mind can.
You are not “just thinking.” You are building. Your brain keeps the blueprint you hand it most often — a private insult, a wound you keep replaying, or another hour on a feed that was never designed to soothe you.
Negative thinking is not weather. It is practice. Cells that fire together wire together. Pair a thought with a feeling often enough and you are no longer remembering a wound. You are rehearsing it. The first thought is rarely the truest one. It is the most practiced one.
The scroll works the same way. Every swipe is a repetition. Outrage, comparison, and catastrophe arrive already framed as loss. The algorithm does not care whether you leave soothed. It cares whether you stay activated. Activation is practice.
Peace does not arrive when the timeline improves. It arrives when you catch the loop mid-rehearsal, name the job it is doing, refuse the practice, and replace it with one true thought followed by one honest act.
Read the full essay:

Negative thinking builds what it practices. Getting unstuck takes work, and the work can be learned.Galen E. Cole, PhD, MPH, LPC @ www.galencole.comYou are not "just thinking." You are building. Your brain keeps the blueprint you hand it most often. That blueprint might be a private insult, a wound....

08/02/2026

I’m pleased to share that my latest paper has been published in the Medical Research Archives:
Mindful NeuroTrauma CBT Mitigation Therapy (MNCMT): A Measurement-Driven, Multi-Modal Extension of the Trauma-Informed Model for Mindful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TI-MCBT) for Acute Trauma Resolution
MNCMT is a structured, time-sensitive protocol designed to interrupt the consolidation of chronic PTSD during the critical early window after acute trauma. It extends the TI-MCBT model by integrating trauma reprocessing (EMDR, Brainspotting, Rapid Resolution Therapy), Vielight photobiomodulation, and BrainCore qEEG-guided neurofeedback—guided by the principle “We don’t guess, we measure.”
The full open-access article is available here:
https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/7701
(DOI: https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.2026.0384)
Grateful for the opportunity to contribute to precision, measurement-based care for acute trauma. Feedback and discussion welcome.

07/28/2026

www.circlecwellness.com

Circle C Wellness provides integrated wellness programs, brain health assessments, nutrition optimization, recovery support.

04/23/2026

When my grandkids come to the big city without their horses! 🐴

03/20/2026

AI is shaking up psychotherapy—recent trials show chatbots delivering real relief for depression, anxiety & more. But where does that leave trauma-informed, human-centered approaches?
My new article unpacks "The Trauma-Informed Model for Mindful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" and how it provides a comprehensively based and systematically delivered approach for AI-minded providers.
Read it here →

12/18/2024

Using horses in psychotherapy has been a game changer -- especially with families. A great example of how this works can be seen in Season 6, Episode 6. You can watch it here

There are no little kids left in the Johnston household. Liz and Anna are in college, Alex and Emma are starting high school and Jonah has his first serious girlfriend. The coronavirus, however, has plans up in the air for the whole family.

11/02/2024

https://youtu.be/s1uVOLVHWRU

Chapters:1. **Introduction and Shout-out to Beaver Toyota (00:00)** The show opens with an introduction and thanks to their sponsor, Beaver Toyota of Cum...

08/03/2024

https://www.galencole.com/about

Dr. Galen Cole is a licensed counselor, board-certified psychotherapist, nationally certified clinical hypnotherapist, and an integrated trauma therapist. Therapy, Counseling, and Coaching.

01/02/2023

One of the most common predictors of success or failure in psychotherapy and/or positive psychology coaching is whether or not the client/patient works as hard as their therapist/coach. In my own practice I help my clients set and stick with routines that prime them for success. This workbook has been key…If you are looking for a systematic way to support evidence based practice I recommend that you try it on yourself and then your clients…

The Routine Practice Planner