When Wisdom Transforms: Why Ekaterina Fakhrutdinova Doesn’t ‘Treat’ but Helps Restore

Author: Amanda Gram Published: 28th August 2025

When a crisis is not a sentence but a turning point. And how God speaks through honest conversations.

In today’s world, we often encounter two opposing camps: some say “only faith heals,” while others insist that “only scientific psychology works.”

Ekaterina Fakhrutdinova – a Christian family counselor, soul-care practitioner, certified BMHC Mental Health Coach, member of the Association for Cognitive Behavioral Therapists, leader of a family ministry, and member of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) – breaks this myth. She shows that there is no conflict between soul care and science if the focus remains on the person, their pain, and their hope.

Not fearing pain – that is maturity.
When families come to Ekaterina after betrayal, when women bring wounds, teenagers bring anxiety, or pastors come with burnout, she does not look for someone to blame. She listens. She hears. And she gently walks alongside. Not from the position of “I know what’s right,” but as someone who has walked the path, who knows how to be present, and who helps people hear themselves.

Her method – the fruit of 14 years of practice, numerous supervisions, scientific research, and prayer – is built on Aaron Beck’s cognitive-behavioral therapy, Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, and Jay Adams’ biblical counseling. The method does more than work – it reveals.

“Faith is not a form. It’s when you, even in tears, are not afraid to be real before God. And psychology is not control, but a tool that makes the journey clearer.”

What Ekaterina offers is a unique kind of spiritual care for mental health, where a person receives support in difficult life circumstances. The method helps navigate complex situations when one cannot understand what is happening inside.

It transforms loneliness into the valuable resource of solitude, and chaos into awareness.

Family pain is not the end. It is an invitation to healing.
Many couples come to Ekaterina at their hardest moment: after betrayal, abortion, frozen intimacy, or decades of silence. And it is precisely in these situations that her mission becomes clear: to create space for restoration.

The project “From Heart to Heart” has become not just the title of her book, but a true method of accompaniment, where psychological help is grounded in spiritual foundations. Here, words like “prayer,” “sin,” “forgiveness,” and “trauma” are not feared – because it is honesty that restores relationships.

“If a family has at least one living link – faith, empathy, principles, values, or the desire to understand – then there is something to work with.”

Who is this path for?
Ekaterina Fakhrutdinova helps:

  • Christian families who don’t want to destroy, but don’t know how to preserve;
  • Young people afraid of repeating their parents’ mistakes;
  • Parents of children with special needs who are exhausted from holding on;
  • Pastors, ministry leaders, and missionaries who have no safe place to be weak;
  • Those who have left, lost, grown old, “given up,” despaired – yet still want to believe again.

Not a psychologist for everyone. But a guide for those who want to keep moving forward.
Ekaterina is a true companion for those ready not only to be heard, but also to listen – to themselves, to God, to others.

Her style is not about imposing, but supporting. Not about diagnosis, but dialogue. Not about quoting a book, but about living through a story.

The result?
Faith becomes alive.
Family becomes possible.
And pain is not the end – but the entry point to healing.

DEVOTION SEES NO RELIGION

“Ahe Nila saila Prabala Mata barana mo Arata Nalini banaku Kala dalana Ahe Nila saila”. Nestled on the eastern coast of India neighboring West Bengal lies Odisha the home to Sri Lord Jagannath. Notable for being one of the Char Dham or four abodes, the grandiose Jagannath temple of Puri for ages has heard the devotional songs sung by many great poets and priests. Drawn by the alluring aura of the Great Lord saints like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and poets like Salabega have also been mesmerized by it. Just like the sweetness of Kanika bhog which is offered to the lord as Mahaprasad, there is an immense sweetness in this story of love and devotion of Salabega. Salabega was the son of the Mughal subedar, Lalbeg, and a young Hindu Brahmin widow who was a devotee of Lord Jagannath, who lived in the first half of the 17th century. As soon as he was sufficiently old, SalaBega took up fighting in his father’s campaigns. It so happened that, in the war where Lalbeg died, SalaBega got badly injured and was battling for life. His mother prayed to her beloved Lord Jagannath for her dear son’s life and her prayers were answered. SalaBega was cured miraculously. His mother told him then that Lord Jagannath was an incarnation of Vishnu, the creator of the universe. This incident made SalaBega convinced about the healing essence of the Lord, thus he ended up becoming Lord Jagannath’s devotee. Feeling greatly indebted to Lord Jagannath, he went to Puri to see Lord Jagannath. However, due to the custom of not allowing non-Hindus to enter the temple, the priests didn’t allow SalaBega to enter the temple. SalaBega didn’t fight or opposed them. He waited for the annual Chariot festival, the Rath Yatra where Lord Jagannath, Goddess Subhadra, and Lord Balabhadra are brought out onto the Bada Danda and travel to the Shri Gundicha Temple, to their maternal aunt’s temple, in huge chariots allowing the public to have darsana. They stay there for nine days and travel back to the Shree Mandira. So every year he kept a watch for the chariot, he built a small hut on that road which is the Mazar now. During the rest of the year, he kept visiting religious places. On a particular year, he got delayed in coming back to his hut from Vrindavana, as on the way he suddenly fell ill. Feeling helpless and realizing that he would not reach Puri in time to see the Ratha yatra festival, he offered prayers to Lord Jagannath pleading him to wait until he arrived at the Rath Yatra. An anxious SalaBega cried out to Lord Jagannath and had a dream in which the Lord promised him that He would wait for him. So when the Nandighosha or the chariot of Lord Jagannath reached near the hut of SalaBega, it refused to move even an inch. People tried to pull it hard but nothing happened. They even got elephants to push the Nandighosha but SalaBega’s utter devotion to the Lord kept the Chariot glued to that exact spot for seven days. By then, the King of Puri and all priests were worried. The head priest got a dream telling him not to worry as the Lord was waiting for his favorite kid. So for 7 days, all rituals of Lord Jagannath, all pujas were done on the Chariot itself. SalaBega came at last. This time, nobody stopped him from going closer to the Lord. He went and had his darshan, and worshipped the Lords. Now it is ritualistic for the Lord’s chariot to stop near his Samadhi every year during Rath Yatra. The Lord’s benevolence is not restricted to just one religion, he sees everyone as his children.
Recently before the commencement of the rath yatra this year, the Supreme court of India passed an order canceling the Rath Yatra citing the growing concern of the pandemic as the reason for which 21 persons moved the court seeking recall of its order staying the historic Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra. Among them was Aftab Hossan, a 19-year-old Muslim student from Odisha’s Nayagarh district. Hossen has said his grandfather had constructed a Trinath (Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwar) temple at Itamati in 1960. He said that he has also read several books on Lord Jagannath and developed devotion towards the ‘Lord of the Universe’. This instance shows that faith breaks all the boundaries created by religion uniting people. Continue reading “DEVOTION SEES NO RELIGION”