LMHC, 36 years of experience
New to Grow
Have worked in addictions and mental health since 1987 with experience in Adult and Adolescent care, residential, OP, IOP and inpatient settings. Moved to Florida in 2000 to work as a Program Director for a Medication Assisted Treatment Program in Florida. At the time, the company had two programs. I worked to grow the company and at this time, they have 8 clinics operating in Florida. Have worked 35 years in addictions treatment; over 25 years with my last company from which I retired. Long history of teaching and training as well. Married since 1990, active as a professional diver and leader of a scuba group, which teaches young men and women ages 14 to 20 scuba diving. The group goes diving every month. I have two grown sons. My youngest is a U.S. Marine and my oldest is in tech writing Texas. They both learned diving in our group and are advanced open water divers. Obviously, I am an avid scuba diver as well.
Our first session will be finding out what the client is seeking and assuring I am an appropriate counselor to aid in that journey. I want to get a good understanding of what issue they desire to address and what success would look like. I would share my style and perspective on what steps we might take along the way and ask questions about learning styles and how they best receive information. The first session is a time to get to know each other in the context of their goal(s) and negotiate ground rules to how we may achieve them. It is also a chance for either one of us to get a first impression and decide if we seem like a good fit for one another.
In 35 years working with patients and clients, I have learned to be very matter of fact. While my inclination is to problem solve, my intent is to help my clients find their own solutions. In working with addictions, I have worked through many emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual issues with clients. Most of my background is in behavior change and working with the thoughts and emotions while the new behaviors can have their impact. I have also learned with clients will change when and how they are ready. I can offer a variety of options such as talk therapy, homework, workbooks, various assignments (if desired) to augment the counseling sessions.
I have spent 35 years working with acute and severe cases of addiction, mental health and the like. At this time in my life I am looking to work with folks who are basically stable and functional, but need to process through issues currently impacting their quality of life. Ideal clients would be seeking to work through life changes, esteem issues, concerns about how much alcohol or drug use they may participate in, relationship processes, and basically wanting to improve in an area of life to foster healthier and better quality of life. I am not a financial advisor, but have experience in budgets and financial goal setting; not a theologian, but can help Christians process their life and behaviors as a Christian; I am not a marriage and family therapist, but my wife and I have done several years of marital counseling from a Christian perspective with couples in our church. Can help men process the struggles of trying to lead a healthy life and lifestyle in a social environment where that is very difficult. In summation I want to work with clients who have goals and desires to improve in certain life areas in order to have a more satisfying life.
Most of my career has been spend working with patients with addictions issues. My counsel is based on assisting patients in exploring what is/ is not working in their lives and making conscious decisions to make behavioral change leading to improved quality of life.
Going hand in hand with CBT, the goal is to help patients explore beliefs and thoughts which may be interfering with behavioral change they desire.
While not a theologian, for patients who are Christian, we will work on how faith and beliefs can impact life and behavior and how living a life consistent with our faith leads to higher quality if life.