Introduction
To Schedule An Appointment
Education, Training, and Credentials
My Approach To Counseling


Introduction

As a counselor, I work to help you become more alive. Whatever your starting point--relationship issues, depression, low self-esteem, spiritual questions, grief, stress, family issues, questions about your work, or simply a sense that you are being called to take a "next step"--my role as a counselor is to 1) provide a safe and supportive place where you can reflect deeply on how that starting point is inviting you to grow, and 2) to empower you to respond to that invitation with creativity, vitality, and hope. Whether I'm working with you as an individual, or seeing you in couple or family therapy, my hope is that counseling will help you lead a richer, more fulfilling life.


To Schedule An Appointment

To schedule a counseling session with me, or for information on fees, office hours, or other areas not covered below, please call my office at 206-523-1340. Please note: in order to maintain the highest level of confidentiality, I do not conduct correspondence with counseling clients via email.

Education, Training, Credentials

I hold a Master's degree (M.S.) in Marriage & Family Therapy from the program that was co-taught by Seattle Pacific University and The Marriage & Family Therapy Training Center at Presbyterian Counseling Service. I am a Washington State Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (state license # 020705 LF00001195). I have also studied Analytical Psychology at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. I am Past President of The Seattle Counselors Association, an organization of more than 200 counselors from around the Puget Sound Region. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) in Theology from the University of Notre Dame, and have done graduate-level theological studies at St. Michael's College, Georgetown University, and Notre Dame. Before opening my private practice in counseling, I worked at several counseling agencies, and as a Mental Health Counselor at a hospital that specialized in treating people with psychiatric and chemical dependency (drug & alcohol) issues.

For additional information on my training and experience, see the "Astrology" section of this website.

In order to continue growing professionally, I regularly attend workshops and seminars, participate in supervision and peer consultation, read, and attend to my personal growth.

My Approach To Counseling

My approach to counseling takes into account your whole self--your emotions, your thoughts, your physical/bodily experiences, your behaviors, the events, relationships, and circumstances of your life, and your spirit. I believe that counseling at its best integrates contemporary psychotherapy and behavioral science with spiritual principles. I am, however, deeply committed to not imposing my personal spiritual beliefs on any client, and I warmly welcome people with a wide variety of beliefs to my counseling practice. I am here to serve, as best I can, whatever psychological or spiritual needs you bring to this setting, and I place the highest priority on respecting and nurturing your unique life journey. I believe what Walter Benjamin once wrote--that "counsel is less an answer to a question than a proposal concerning the continuation of a story which is just unfolding."

The way I practice counseling is informed by all the disciplines I have studied, including Jungian Psychology, Systemic Marriage & Family Therapy, theology, astrology, and shamanism, as well as by my love of literature, music, and other arts. Let me say a few words about each of these.

Jungian Psychology (after the Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung) attempts to bring to light your unconscious motivations and desires, and integrate them into your current self-understanding and life choices. In practice Jungian counseling reflects on dreams, fantasies, meaningful coincidences (or "synchronicities"), and other manifestations of a person's unconscious for clues about what they are being called to by their deeper self. For these reasons, Jungian psychology is sometimes called "Depth Psychology."

Systemic Marriage & Family Therapy looks at how your current concerns are influenced by your interactions with the larger "systems" in your life (e.g. family, work environment, school, current relationships, church, etc). One of the most important contributions of Systemic Marriage & Family Therapy to the field of counseling & psychology, is the assertion that sometimes change occurs most effectively when we focus on and shift our part in relationship patterns. This may include patterns that originated in previous generations of our family. For this reason, Systemic Marriage & Family Therapy might be thought of as a psychology of "breadth"--because it looks for meanings and avenues of change far and wide in a person's network of relationships, rather than primarily within the individual.

I've written above about my perspective on the place of spirituality in counseling. Here I will add that the influences of my lifelong study of theology and spirituality on my counseling practice are perhaps best reflected in my framework of life as a journey in time with the divine/transcendent--however one names that (Jesus, Buddha, Great Spirit, Higher Power, etc). A bumper sticker I recently saw says it well: "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, but spiritual beings on a human journey."

I have written at length about my approach to astrology in the "Astrology" section of this web site, so I refer you there for those reflections. Here I'll say this--astrology and counseling are wonderfully complimentary disciplines. While astrology provides you with a blueprint for your potential, your gifts, the central questions of your life, and the "potholes" you must watch out for, counseling deals with the specific ways in which you choose to use your gifts and address those key questions, as well as what to do when you fall into some of the "potholes." Astrology deals with potential, while counseling deals with your actual biography as you create it.

Shamanism is an ancient spiritual practice going back tens of thousands of years, and spanning cultures from Siberia, to the Celtic peoples, from the natives of Australia to those of North and South America.  Compatible with any religious or belief system, Shamanism asserts that all life has a spiritual or "soul" dimension, and therefore any illness, "dysfunction," or other hindrance to our well-being has a spiritual component. A "shaman" (the word literally means "one who sees in the dark") or shamanic practitioner, is one who deals with the spiritual aspect of "dis-ease." In practice, I sometimes teach my counseling clients the technique of the "shamanic journey" (similar to "guided imagery") as a means of connecting with and transforming the spiritual dimension of their concerns.

Finally, I make use of literature, music, and other arts in my counseling practice. This means I am just as likely to recommend a good novel as a "self-help" book to assist a client, following the words of a character in one of Barry Lopez's stories: "Sometimes a person needs a story, more than food, to stay alive." I also frequently tell stories in the context of the counseling session itself. I may also recommend a song, or talk with a client about a piece of music, or a movie, or a painting that has seized their imagination. Ultimately, the place of the arts in counseling is not about creating or analyzing paintings or books or music; it is about calling each of us to the deepest levels of creativity in our daily lives. As Thomas Moore has written, "In ordinary life creativity means making something for the soul out of every experience."

All of the above disciplines contribute ideas and practices to the art of counseling. However, I believe counseling is not primarily about theories and techniques, but rather about providing a safe, welcoming, open environment in which a client can reflect on whatever aspect(s) of their life they feel called to explore. C.G. Jung once remarked that everyone longs to tell his or her story to someone, and have it understood and accepted. This, more than anything else, is what I want those who come to me for counseling to experience.