Counseling Services
If you or someone you know needs help with any of the following issues, please consider contacting me:
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• relationship issues • marital and family concerns • pre-marital counseling • life transitions • spiritual and personal growth • parenting • grand-parenting |
• grief and loss • divorce • infidelity • depression • anxiety • workplace stress • aging |
"The quality of life is best defined by the
quality of our relationships to God, others
and self."
-Mary Ann Van Buskirk
My approaches to counseling primarily include the following:
Pastoral Counseling
This approach integrates spirituality and theology with my clinical practice. This approach offers a holistic approach to health and healing taking into consideration the spirit as well as the mind and body. People, who want to honor their faith tradition, want to incorporate their spiritual walk or just want to heal from some religious hurt benefit from this approach.
Family Systems
I use the metaphor of a mobile, you know, the kind you put over a baby’s crib, to describe how family systems works. You move one part and the whole thing is affected. Each individual is influenced by his/her family, workplace, community, culture, etc. and also each person has an influence on the whole (family, work, society, and culture). I help individuals, couples, entire families see how their interactions help or hurt one another and, more importantly, what they can do to make their relationships with one another healthier and happier.
Cognitive-Behavioral
This approach is solution-focused and more short-term with oftentimes, measurable results. It is more “here and now.” What do you need to think and do differently to get the results you want? For example, some people who are depressed or anxious have some pretty negative thoughts which adversely affect their lives. By helping them “re-think” some of these thoughts, they can begin to respond more effectively to loved ones, their work situation, enjoyment of life, etc. To know better (a different way of thinking and feeling) leads to doing better (behaviors).
Developmental
People come to me for counseling when they are in a certain developmental stage of life. That can be when they are a certain age, they are moving from one stage to another, i.e., from being single to getting married, a change in their life occurs, i.e., job loss, retirement, menopause, etc. Each stage may bring on a crisis which is experienced as a problem. I help people see what they need to do to move through this crisis and begin to see it more as an opportunity for growth.
