Hi. I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor based in Pennsylvania. I have a PhD in Educational Psychology and a Masters degree in Music Therapy. I also got a certification in Gestalt therapy by going to a 3 year training program. Over my career I have worked with many different populations and in many different settings. My basic approach to therapy is to use the tools and techniques that I've developed to help people become unstuck and to grow and to reach toward their full potential.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

The first step in therapy is building a therapeutic relationship. Clients need to know who their therapist is and Therapists need to know who the client is and what they are struggling with. Once we explore what brings you to therapy, we can begin to design a plan to deal with those issues. It's important to realize that therapy is change and that change is hard and that it takes hard work to change embedded patterns. But it can be done.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

I believe that I've always been a supportive person. I was the one who everyone came to with their problems. What my training in therapy taught me, was how to effectively challenge clients who are stuck in various ways. Because of my extensive and diverse background I can offer many ways to help people change - dialogue, Gestalt, ACT, Music therapy, etc. In the past few years I have discovered the importance of mindfulness, as a well - to calm ourselves, improve our attention, learn to look at our thoughts rather than seeing the world through our thoughts and to increase our satisfaction and joy.

About John M. Berns