About
Tamara Diane Menzies
MSW RSW
The Backstory
Having been raised in a Christian home, and deciding to follow Jesus at the age of 14, Tamara participated in two Youth With A Mission schools after graduating High School. She was determined to be a missionary of some sort. The Lord faithfully led her season by season, and after a very important process of inner-healing in 2004-5 (largely supported by a prayer counsellor), Tamara left her Okanagan home and returned to her city of origin, Edmonton, AB. She followed the Lord’s leading into Social Work, and graduated with her Bachelor of Social Work in 2010. After 7 years of working in various counselling capacities, she felt a distinct prompting to seek out Elijah House Ministries prayer counselling training. She was surprised and skeptical at first, as she wasn’t the gray haired sage she thought she would need to be to be ready for such a ministry! The Lord quickly adjusted this small-mindedness, and she signed up for the training.
Starting in 2015, she began meeting with individuals for prayer counselling in her cozy home office. Alongside her full-time job as a school counsellor, this work soon became the highlight of her week. Tamara left her role as a school counsellor in September of 2019, and began her Masters in Social Work which she completed in June of 2022. She continued prayer counselling throughout, finding it a consistent joy to be able to partner with the Lord in His ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-21), watching people meet with their Healer in profound ways. She has been privileged to walk alongside a wide diversity of people with just as diverse stories, seeing time and time again the most Wonderful Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6) reveal Himself, gently bringing things to light, healing trauma, replacing damaging core beliefs with truth, empowering forgiveness, and drawing them closer and closer to His heart, where true value and identity is naturally imparted.
Mission
To offer a unique, faith-oriented counselling experience which invites the Healer, Counsellor, Deliverer, and Lover of our souls into the personal and sacred journey towards whole-heartedness, mental wellness, and relational health.
Vision
To be an organization that equips the Body of Christ in soul care through knowing personally and practically the Holy Spirit and His ways, that every believer would be empowered to live lives free from the dictates of trauma, generational baggage, mental illness and heart sickness, free to both receive and share the love, mercy, power and wisdom of God to the world around us.
About Beyond the River
The name, Beyond the River, speaks to the metaphor of the Jordan River in the life of every believer. The Israelites needed to cross through the Jordan to enter the Promised Land (Joshua 3). This took great courage and trust in their God, as they were well aware of the giants that would need to be defeated in the land. This counselling practice seeks to walk alongside people who are facing giants. They may be giants of the past - lingering trauma, insidious unforgiveness and bitterness, shame that clings to the shadows. They may be giants of today - unbelief and confusion, wrestles with anxiety, depression or addictions, grief and loss, or relationship problems. There are all kinds of giants that can stand between us and the wholeness - the fullness - of what Christ invites us into. While facing giants can be scary, painful, and is generally a lot of work, the land is beautiful. The riches of God's grace and mercy are abundant. The presence of the Holy Spirit is sweet and so tender. And Jesus is so worthy (Deut 4:20), as we walk into the fullness of what He died for us to receive.
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