Dr Anne Lewis

Call Directions Website Contact the practice

Dr Anne Lewis Christian psychologist
Helping heal eating disorders, addiction, & developmental trauma
Faith-rooted. Science-backed. Recovery Guide. Speaker.

NASM® Certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Specialist

10/22/2026

Courage is not something you either have or do not have.
It can be practiced.
Your brain learns from repeated experience.
So bravery might begin much smaller than we imagine.
Make the phone call.
Say no.
Ask for help.
Say:
“That hurt me.”
Admit:
“I was wrong.”
Set the boundary.
Tell the truth.
The lesson is not:
“Nothing bad will happen.”
The lesson becomes:
“I can tolerate the discomfort without running.”
We remember David and Goliath.
But before Goliath came ordinary days, a lion and a bear.
Maybe courage is often built when nobody is watching—
and simply revealed when everybody is.

10/22/2026

Pain can start giving us permission.
“They hurt me.”
“So I can hurt them.”
“They humiliated me.”
“So I can humiliate them.”
“They lied.”
“So anything I do next is justified.”
And slowly we become more like what we are fighting.
Christian courage requires something much harder:
Stand firm without surrendering love.
Tell the truth without becoming cruel.
Hold boundaries without becoming contemptuous.
Truth without love can become brutality.
Love without truth can become cowardice.
Courage requires both.

10/21/2026

Aggression can feel powerful.
The adrenaline.
The certainty.
The righteous anger.
The comment you are dying to post.
But activation itself is not proof of courage.
Fight is also a threat response.
Christian courage asks something harder:
Tell the truth without needing to humiliate.
Refuse to participate without needing to hate.
Disagree without turning the other person into an enemy.
Jesus before Pilate was not frantic.
He was not performing toughness.
He was grounded.
That is the kind of courage I want:
Strong enough to stand.
Regulated enough not to destroy.

10/20/2026

Sometimes the hardest part of speaking up is not saying the words.
It is tolerating what might happen afterward.
Will they be angry?
Will they misunderstand me?
Will they talk about me?
Will they leave?
Humans are deeply wired for connection, so disapproval can feel much bigger than:
“Someone doesn’t agree with me.”
And that can make people-pleasing feel incredibly compelling.
But people-pleasing and love are not the same thing.
Love says:
“I choose this.”
Fear says:
“I have to do this or something bad will happen.”
Christian maturity is not getting everyone to approve of you.
Sometimes it is learning that their disapproval will not destroy you.

10/19/2026

Peacekeeping and peacemaking are not always the same thing.
Sometimes “keeping the peace” means nobody is upset in the moment.
But the problem is never actually addressed.
So we swallow it.
Again.
And again.
And eventually resentment grows toward someone who may not even know there is a problem.
Avoidance often works beautifully in the short term because anxiety drops.
But short-term relief can cost us long-term honesty.
Biblical peacemaking can require courage.
Sometimes the most loving sentence in the room is:
“No.”
Or:
“This isn’t okay.”
Or:
“We need to talk.”

10/18/2026

I used to think avoiding conflict meant I was being loving.
Sometimes I was being compassionate.
And sometimes?
I was scared.
Scared they would be upset.
Scared they would misunderstand me.
Scared they would leave.
Scared someone would decide I wasn’t “nice.”
The problem is that avoidance often brings immediate relief.
And when our nervous system experiences relief after avoiding something uncomfortable, avoidance can become easier to repeat.
So sometimes what I called:
“keeping the peace”
was actually fear getting stronger.
Christian courage does not require the absence of fear.
It requires learning to say:
Fear can speak. It just doesn’t get a vote.

10/17/2026

Mentalization isn’t simply empathy.

It’s the ability to reflect on our own and other people’s possible thoughts, emotions, beliefs, intentions and needs—while remembering that another person’s internal world is never completely available to us.

When relational threat is high, flexible thinking can become more difficult and our interpretations can become faster and more automatic.

So practice:

FACT — What happened?

STORY — What did I make it mean?

SELF — What am I feeling?

NEED — What do I need?

CURIOSITY — What don’t I know?

ACTION — What is mine to do?

Healthy mentalization does NOT mean ignoring patterns or explaining away harmful behavior.

It means:

I don’t have to know your heart to respond wisely to your behavior.

God knows another person’s heart completely.

I don’t.

So I can be:

Curious without being naïve.

Compassionate without abandoning myself.

Discerning without mind-reading.

Loving without controlling.

10/16/2026

Understanding someone’s pain does not require explaining away a pattern of harmful behavior.

I can say:

“I don’t know exactly why you’re doing this. But I know what it’s doing to me.”

Then I can identify:

What am I feeling?

What do I need?

What boundary does this require?

Compassion and discernment can coexist.

Understanding someone’s wound doesn’t require volunteering to be wounded by it.

10/15/2026

You can love Jesus and still dread being alone with your thoughts. 💔

You can be the dependable one—and secretly wish someone would notice how tired you are.

You hold it together at work, then lose your patience at home.
You replay conversations, wondering if you said too much.
You say “it’s fine” because explaining feels exhausting.
You feel guilty resting, asking for help, or saying no.

Maybe you turn to food when everyone finally goes to bed.
Maybe you go quiet during conflict—or get louder than you intended.
Then comes the shame: “Why am I like this? I should know better.”

And underneath it all:
“If my faith is strong, why am I still struggling?”

Struggling does not make you a failed Christian. You deserve a place where you can be honest about what hurts—and where your faith is welcome. 🤍

At our Christian counseling practice in Fishers, Indiana, you don’t have to be the one who has it all together. You can come as the person who needs support, too.

📍 In-person counseling in Fishers
💻 Telehealth throughout Indiana
🗓️ Some evening and weekend appointments available

If this felt a little too familiar, you don’t need a perfect explanation to reach out. “I’m tired, and I need help” is enough to begin.

Visit the link in our bio to explore our team and request an appointment. 🌿

10/15/2026

There’s a difference between loving someone and needing to control their emotional experience so WE can feel safe.

Healthy connection allows two minds to exist.

You can be disappointed with me—and I can remain grounded.

You can disagree—and I don’t have to convince you.

You can dislike my boundary—and your reaction alone doesn’t determine whether that boundary was appropriate.

Jesus loved people profoundly without making their approval the condition for His love or obedience.

Address

10142 Brooks School Road Ste 200
Fishers, IN
46037

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5pm
Tuesday 7am - 5pm
Wednesday 7am - 5pm
Thursday 7am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13172634150

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dr Anne Lewis posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Dr Anne Lewis:

Shortcuts

Share