About Me

Bio

After a 23-year sales and marketing career, I made a major mid-life change because my career was no longer life-fulfilling. Becoming a new dad at mid-life (after my wife and I adopted our son) caused me to do a lot of thinking about my life; what I had accomplished, and more importantly what I had NOT accomplished! After considerable introspection, I realized I really felt called to help people with their most significant life challenges. I am now trained as a licensed professional counselor and assist individuals, couples or families with issues including: stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and relationship challenges. I am specifically interested in helping people through life transition challenges including: divorce, job loss, death of a loved one, chronic illness pain or challenges related to aging.

Individuals who see value in working with a neutral professional to help them achieve their highest level of self-actualization are also ideal clients for me. In addition to my counseling degree, I have been working as a business coach helping individuals and teams reach their highest levels of performance since 2010. Some of the tools from coaching can be blended very nicely with counseling, especially for clients who are emotionally healthy, but who just want to focus on personal or professional growth.

I am qualified to work with adult families or couples looking to improve their relationships with each other or their children, but I am currently not counseling children (boys under the age of 15 or young ladies under 18).

My counseling orientation is integrative, contingent on what I believe each client will respond to, but I naturally lean most toward cognitive behavioral, narrative or solution-focused and existential interventions. As a middle-aged man, and parent who has lived through ups and downs, I believe I also have insights garnered from life experience. I believe I possess a unique ability to combine sincere empathy and acceptance with a future-focused, problem-solving style. I believe most people want a counselor who makes them feel comfortable and supported (rather than judged), but they also want to be challenged, because they want change. In August of 2013, I started seeing counseling clients at my office in  Washington Missouri at 20 East Fifth Street (within the St. Peter’s church building). I am not offering Christian Counseling, but am open to discussing spirituality as a part of healing, only if clients wish to go there, regardless of faith traditions or beliefs.

I work with compassion and understanding, helping individuals build on their strengths to attain the personal growth they are committed to attaining.