LPC, 30 years of experience
New to Grow
My name is Jeffrey, and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Michigan, and a Licensed Social Worker and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Ohio. I have also been an ordained Lutheran pastor since 1989. My professional career began as an Associate Pastor in a Lutheran church in northwest Ohio, where I focused on youth ministry, Christian Education, and pastoral counseling. I entered Social Work in 1995 when I began work as a Family Worker in a residential facility for hard to place juvenile offenders, and then worked in a few outpatient counseling agencies providing mental health and substance use disorder services. I have experience working with people of all ages on general mental health issues, such as managing depression and anxiety, and have specialized in the areas of PTSD recovery and domestic violence and sexual abuse victims and offenders. Throughout my counseling career, I have maintained activity in ministry. I was trained in Clinical Pastoral Counseling and also have had training as a Spiritual Director. My counseling approach is generally non-directive, using a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing in a Solution Focused, Client Centered frame work. I can incorporate spirituality as much or as little as the client desires, from not referencing spirituality at all to fully engaging the spiritual dimension of life. As a caring, empathetic listener, people find it easy to talk with me and be open about what needs attention in their lives. I look forward to working with you!
The first session is a time to focus on getting to know one another. I will spend time getting to know you and hearing your story so that I can begin to discern how best to help you. In this process, you will have the opportunity to become comfortable in the setting, ask any questions you have, voice your concerns, and share your hopes.
My approach tends to be person centered, solution focused, and goal oriented. You are the driver for your therapy. You know best about the concerns that have brought you to therapy, and it is my job to help you further define those concerns so that together we can begin to work toward finding the best ways to address those concerns.
With 30 years of experience, I have worked with a wide array of people of various ages, backgrounds and challenges. As long as someone is willing and ready to work toward positive change, I am confident that I can be a helper along the way.
CBT explores the associations between feelings, thoughts and behaviors and makes adjustments in how these are managed in order to improve mood and mood stability.
Christian theology enters into the counseling conversation in order to apply Christian principles to the client's perception of problems and planning to address problems
The therapist talks with clients in such a way as to facilitate goal identification and planning to meet goals effectively
The therapist facilitates identification of strengths and planning to apply those strengths to effectively address problems
The effects of traumatic experiences on the interaction of feelings, thoughts and behaviors is explored in order to identify and address problematic patterns of thinking and behaving brought about by the trauma