Maurice Harker is the third of the nine sons of Ferrin and Wanda Harker. After having been raised primarily in South East Idaho, his family moved to Farmington, Utah, where he graduated from high school at Davis High in 1987. In high school, he excelled academically, athletically and musically. He served an LDS mission to Detroit, Michigan. He completed his Bachelor's program at the University of Utah majoring in Psychology and minoring in Mathematics.
He married his wife, Nanette, shortly after graduation. At that time he became the adoptive father of his then 3 year old son, Nikolas, who had been born to his wife in a previous marriage.
Maurice spent three years working at Decker Lake Youth Center, Salt Lake City's maximum security facility for teen-agers. He went on to work for the State of Utah as an Independent Living Specialist helping youth who had been in foster care to transition into adult living. Maurice teamed up with his wife to run a group home for girls with Utah Youth Village for a year, followed by a few years working in treatment foster care.
As he was finishing his Professional Counseling Master's Degree program at the University of Utah, he took an internship counseling position at Davis Counseling Center in Farmington, Utah. Upon graduation he also started working as a counselor at LDS Family Services in Farmington, Utah. His daughter, Syrena, was adopted during graduate school.
In May of 2005, Maurice opened the private counseling agency Life Changing Services, while still working part time at LDS Family Services, primarily as the Pre-Mission Evaluation Specialist for northern Utah.
In September of 2005, Sons of Helaman was created due to the influx of young men struggling with sexual addiction issues. The development and expansion of this program has been a major focus since then. In his ongoing private practice at Life Changing Services, Maurice specializes in marriage therapy (especially if sexual misbehaviors are part of the problem). He trains adult men to overcome sexual addictions. He works to help heal the wives of sexual addicts. He works with individuals fighting anxiety and depression issues.
Life Changing Services also offers: W-O-R-T-H Group: Women of Rebirth, Therapeutic Healing: designed to help women work through difficult issues relating to any form of abuse in their marriages, Men of Moroni, Sons of Mosiah, Daughters of Light, and Eternal Warriors.
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This book bravely bridges the gap between the Spiritual and the Temporal (physical) factors of addiction and addiction recovery. It pulls the essential elements of many psychological theories and fits them into an eternal paradigm as can only be seen through the eyes of those who are inspired by God. The reader will be taken on a journey from seeing the battle from high in the heavens down to the gritty and sweaty clashing of swords a warrior must experience day to day.
We live in a time when many are in bondage before they are aware that there is a war. As with many examples in world history, one cannot get out of bondage with just will power and thought control. Warriors must be trained, and then trained some more, in the classroom and on the field. They must learn, that in order to escape the bondage they find themselves in, as did warriors thousands of years before: Like Dragons Did They Fight!
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To Warrior Mothers: The Mothers of the Sons of Helaman,
As your young men come of age, their innocence is threatened by a skilled and intelligent enemy. This Agent of Darkness is willing to use devious stratagem in an effort to remove your sons from the list of The Noble and Great Ones. One mother sent me the following recently:
"Hello, I came across your email address tonight and I have been praying for help for our young son, age 13 1/2 who has just had his first experiences with pornography. We as parents have been quite open with him for several years, as we have felt it appropriate, in guiding and warning him of the dangers of pornography. He has three older brothers who are all married, but who all have had great trials in overcoming pornography addictions and who still go to recovery sessions each week to stay clean from their addictions. One of his beloved brothers lost his temple marriage because of pornography and it affected our whole family as he went through his consequences. We are probably more "paranoid" with our youngest son because of their experiences and trials with this problem.
What do you have for our son?"
Unfortunately, this is a story (and many like unto it) that we at Sons of Helaman Headquarters hear on a regular basis. For over 8 years we have been working with your sons; successfully training them in skills of self-mastery that empower them to go on to serve missions and then start Eternal families. This year a surge of effort is being made to empower, refuel, and comfort the mothers (and fathers to!). As has been said before, knowledge is power. Look here for answers to such questions as:
What role am I to play as a mother of a young man who is entering this war?
How do I know whether or not I am doing my part right?
My son is so amazing in so many ways, why is he losing battles in this war anyway?
How do I "make sure" he comes back from the war alive?
How am I to respond when he comes back wounded?
What attitude am I supposed to have through out this war for the soul of my son?
The posts you will find on this blog are primarily written by mothers who have watched their sons go through the Sons of Helaman training program. They have learned a great deal and want to share with you to help lighten your load and increase your sense of competence. I will contribute from time to time, but you can read my writings at the Life Changing Services blog. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.
Your Servant and Trainer for your sons,
Maurice W. Harker, LPC
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Why do smart people do stupid things?
Maurice has figured out the scientific side of addiction. Satan, with all of his experience, knows how to attack us at a bio-chemical level.
