I maintained a private practice in Ventura, CA for about 35 years as a marriage and family therapist and i worked with children, teenagers, adults and couples. About 8 years ago my wife and i moved to Oakland, Ca to be closer to our adult children and our two granddaughters. For the past five years i have volunteered at City Team, Oakland which is a residential placement for men with anger and addiction problems, I wrote the book that i am using to teach the men at City Team and i have self published six other books on parenting, marriage and personal issues; a couple of titles are "Dragon Slaying for Parents (and Couples)" , "The Lost Aspect of Love (sympathy)", "Winning at a Losing Game" and "The First Pictorial Self-Help Book for Men Who Do Not Read". I have conducted hundreds of seminars on parenting, marriage and personal issues. I obtained a masters degree in Petroleum Engineering at UC Berkeley, and worked for Shell Company for five years; not wanting my epitaph to read that i made 10 billion dollars for an oil company and returned to school to obtain a Masters Degree in Counseling. I was a School Psychologist for a school district for five years then opened up my private practice. This experience has proven to be very valuable in counseling with adults,
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
During the first session i will encourage my client/s to ask me any questions that they have of me and i encourage them to call me out on something they might object to during any counseling session I will ask them if they have had any previous counseling and what was helpful for them and what was not helpful to them in their previous experience. Then i will explain to them my three fold approach to counseling, support, education and digging deeper. Then i will ask them to let me know what they hope to accomplish in counseling, eventually concluding with asking them for a brief summary of their childhood experiences.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
What makes me unique is that i have counseled for many years and i have seen hundreds of clients over the 40 plus years of counseling, with a wide range of problems and situations. My wife and i have been married for 57 years and we have three adult children and four grandchildren. My wife and i wrote a book for our three adult children when they were in middle school and high school, titled 10 Things That We Want You to Remember Forever and believe it or not, 30 years later those 10 things are still critical to our adult children and all adult children. Two of the 10 were: take risks and have faith. i have had experience in the private sector; i have self published six books and i have conducted hundreds of seminars on parenting, marriage and personal issues. I have served my community in a variety of ways; once having been selected as school psychologist of the year for my region and earned the honor of best youth soccer coach in my city; having coached all three of our kids in youth soccer; helped train adults who went on short term mission trips in our Presbytery and I have gone on multiple mission trips as an adult. My wife and i were volunteer high school youth leaders at our Presbytery Church for 10 years and took high school students on mission trips to Mexico and to the Tenderloin District in San Fransisco. i have a sense of humor and i am not afraid to use it during counseling sessions. I am able to meet people where they are and not only address their immediate concerns, but i am able to suggest other goals for them. I am able to zero in on the most important goals that the client has and i am able to suggest activities that they can start working on the next day. and in short, I Care!
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
Due to my many years of counseling experience it does not take me long to come up with the strategies that will help my client reach their goals, I liken myself to a tennis coach who can observe a player for a few minutes and come up with some proactive measures that they can take to meet their goals, or the car mechanic who can listen to a car for a few minutes and detect two or three problems. The challenge for me is to motivate and encourage my client to put in the time and effort it takes for a person to make positive changes in their life. I am a firm believer in giving my clients homework and recommending books that will help them progress toward their goals. After each session i will send my client some session notes and email them some attachments that will illustrate many points discussed in counseling. I believe that i can successfully counsel motivated adults, from ages 19 to 79+, both men and women. I strongly encourage women to come to counseling for their marriage, even if their partner is not interested. Subsequently i wrote a book titled; "Changes, One Person Can Make a Difference", to encourage the woman to attempt to help her partner make changes or for the woman to get strong enough to leave the relationship when their is domestic violence. In the past five plus years i have worked with men who are in a residential placement for those with anger and addiction problems. I feel that i am well qualified to address these issues. I often tell the story of a man down by the river bank who swam out to save some one who was drowning, By the time he saved about 4 people who were drowning a large crowd had gathered to applaud and cheer him on. When a fifth person yelled for help the hero, just walked away and the crowd pleaded with him to save another person. He responded, "no, i am going to go upstream, where the water is shallow and not fast moving and teach them how to swim". Adults do not know what they do not know, at the river bank and in life. They will venture out into river where the water rises up to their knees; not knowing that when they get swept away in to the deep, fast part of the river, they are unable to do well, they can not swim, and will drown unless they are rescued, I believe that i can help adults who are in the shallow part of the river and not drowning, but want to learn to make life and relationships more positive. I also believe that i can help adults who are drowning in life and in
About Tom Prinz
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I have used this approach to counseling for most of my counseling career; many adults have taken unhealthy core beliefs or limiting core beliefs from their childhood and these unhealthy beliefs must be identified, usually with the help of a counselor, in order for the client to address any behaviors that they want to change. The phrase limiting core beliefs is very descriptive as it will limit the client's ability to achieve their goals in counseling.
Psychoanalytic
My approach to counseling has always been three-fold; 1. Support is where I will listen to and encourage each person, 2. Education is where I will give couples and adults the tools that they need to have healthy relationships, and tools to deal with stress, anger, conflicts, problems dealing with children and teenagers, building their self esteem, and strategies to overcome addictions and eliminate unrighteous anger from their daily lives. 3. Digging deeper is where I will work with each adult to help them to determine how their childhood experiences have impacted their adult lives and relationships. All adults need to dig deeper in order to apply the tools, just mentioned, effectively and consistently. Resolving childhood trauma issues is extremely important in my approach to counseling, and is essential if adults desire to overcome their addictions and in order to create a new life where addictions are not part of that new like. Digging deeper is also essential if clients desire to eliminate unrighteous anger from their adult lives. The goal is to eliminate unrighteous anger; not manage unrighteous anger, from their adult life.