New to Grow
I am a Clinical Mental Health Counselor (Utah) and Professional Counselor (Alaska) with 30 years of experience working as a mental health and substance abuse counselor. I work with clients with a wide range of concerns including PTSD, sexual abuse, depression, anxiety, family and relationship issues, and interpersonal violence. My counseling style is informed by my foundational belief in individual autonomy and agency. I believe it is my role to empower clients to achieve their full potential and destiny in a strong and healthy manner. I view my clients as the experts in their own lives and do my best to minimize the power differential that frequently occurs in counseling relationships. Clients who have had unsatisfactory experiences with other therapists have thrived in my practice and found resolution within just a few sessions.
After a brief assessment, I provide space for clients to tell their stories, what brings them to therapy, and what do they hope to accomplish.
If you had an infected sore on your arm, which would you prefer: a provider who covered the sore with a bandage and sent you on your way or a provider who cleaned out the wound so that the wound could heal, eliminating the need for the bandage? Much of conventional therapy is counteractive in nature. It tends to fight against symptoms rather than accessing and addressing the cause of symptoms. As a practitioner of Coherence Therapy, I help clients access constructs or beliefs that produce their symptoms, often subconsciously. In this framework, clients learn that their symptoms often serve a purpose. With this understanding, they are then free to change their beliefs which often results in symptom erasure. Clients are frequently surprised at how quickly and effectively this therapy model can improve their lives.
The clients who most appreciate my work are intelligent and introspective. They know where they want to go and what they want to accomplish in therapy. They understand the nature of their problems, have realistic goals, and the motivation to achieve those goals. They have solid characters and strong values. They take responsibility for the part they play in their situations and circumstances and make amends when appropriate.
Experiential Therapy
Coherence Therapy is my preferred therapy model. Coherence Therapy is a system of experiential, empathic psychotherapy that enables therapists to consistently foster deep, lasting shifts, dispelling clients’ symptoms at their emotional roots often in a relatively small number of sessions. The steps of Coherence Therapy carry out the process of memory reconsolidation identified by brain researchers. Understanding reconsolidation shows us exactly what gives new therapeutic experiences the potency to actually replace and erase entrenched, unwanted behaviors, beliefs and states of mind. Coherence Therapy differs from the approaches of standard Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in that it does not attempt to correct or change troubling thoughts, emotions or behaviors. Rather it enables clients to access and identify unconscious constructs empowering them to erase, transform and rewrite neural pathways resulting in profound and lasting change. Stated differently, Coherence Therapy does not label, pathologize or fight against symptoms, rather it addresses and resolves problems at the root level. Clients who have had lengthy unsatisfactory experiences with other therapists have thrived in my practice and found resolution within just a few sessions. My counseling style is informed by my foundational belief in individual autonomy and agency. I believe it is my role to empower clients to achieve their full potential and destiny in a strong and healthy manner. I view my clients as the experts in their own lives and do my best to minimize the power differential that frequently occurs in counseling relationships. I do not view myself as an expert who is reaching down to help troubled souls. Rather I view myself as a fallible human being who is able to empathize with others especially when they are unable to empathize with themselves. I do my best to avoid interpreting clients’ circumstances according to my perspective, because such interpretations are often incorrect and empowerment is better found when clients discover truths from within their own unconscious and conscious landscape. Each client is unique, therefore treatment for each client is also unique. If between session assignments are given, they are usually in the form of asking clients to hold in their conscious minds the constructs that emerged during the session. This simple task often results in a surprisingly natural resolution to issues that were seemingly entrenched and unchangeable. If these concepts resonate with you, then we may form a good team. If so, I would be pleased to meet with you for a few sessions so you can determine whether we’re a good fit. You are, after all, in charge of the process.