Counseling & Consultation
We are constantly challenged and buffeted by the many people, places, things and circumstances in our lives. As such, counseling allows for the time, space and safety necessary to slow down and reflect in pursuit of our truest and most vulnerable selves. In its best form, counseling allows us to live our lives with greater authenticity, intention, freedom, peace and joy.
As your therapist, it is my job to support, encourage, comfort, assist, facilitate and guide you through the process of counseling in order to allow you to make the choices and take the steps necessary towards living your most meaningful life. The counseling relationship involves courage, collaboration and commitment, but given these things – it can be life changing.
Counseling involves change. Sometimes people come ready and desirous of change as they are dissatisfied with current life circumstances and are looking to explore alternate options. Other times, change seems to have taken up residence already whether or not it was welcome. And still other times, change is the only option… for better or worse. No matter in which circumstance you may find yourself, our counseling relationship will offer the safety, knowledge, trust, objectivity, comfort and guidance necessary to most productively explore your change – whether minor or monumental. In every circumstance, the therapeutic relationship is designed to most wholly allow you to seek your healthiest self and the most fulfilling and respectful version of the life you choose. Regardless of your circumstance or your motivation for seeking counseling, I welcome you and offer to you the best professional assistance I can provide.
There are never absolute guarantees in counseling. However, I have found that counseling is most productive when it is a working, collaborative effort between client and counselor, where everyone actively contributes to the process.
As your counselor, I am responsible to provide you with the highest level of professional skills commensurate with my training and experience. I will help you think and feel through any issue or concern. I will facilitate communication between you and any significant person so that you can say what you need to say and so you can accurately hear what the other person needs to say to you. I will suggest outside reading or activities and will often provide “homework” assignments. If necessary, I will recommend that you consult with a physician to receive medication therapy or other medical treatment. Throughout the entire process, I will encourage, guide, challenge, and support you to make the changes you deem to be right for you.
As the client, you are responsible to be as honest and open as possible. Change usually involves letting go of things that are familiar so new possibilities may emerge. Effort and risk will be required. There may be some emotional pain. You may have to battle fear, anxiety, frustration and sometimes pain, but we will navigate these things together.
Consulting involves objectivity. No matter your need or your organization’s need – there are inherent issues and relational challenges that occur when any group of people is placed into a specific environment. Individuals need assistance when asked to “come together” and peacefully coexist, let alone thrive, in any given community. Whether it is your organization, your work group, your community, your company, your institution or even your extended family that is in need of a “recalibration,” professional consultation services can help.
Using professional counseling and consulting skills, it is my goal to identify strengths, harness leadership potential, define specific and general roles and create a structure of clear and mutually beneficial goals. Through consultation, clients can identify those parts of their organization that are best suited for each task and learn to work together more cohesively by shifting the paradigm through positive perspectives, mutual respect, open and honest communication and shared goals. Consultation allows for each individual to be empowered and driven towards the best interest of the organization and the organization to best suit the needs of the individual… and therein the sum really can become greater than its parts.