About
The Goals I have as a Christian Counselor
I am passionate about helping clients build healthier and more enjoyable lives that are honoring to God and themselves. My goal is to meet you where you are in your journey and walk with you toward healing, hope, and health. Regardless what you are struggling with, we will work to strengthen hope that you can change your behavior and rediscover the joy of living. I offer judgment-free, authentic, and empathetic care. As a Christian counselor, I am continually aware of my own reliance on God, and therefore conduct my practice with the knowledge that I, too, need His help. I strive to provide a safe setting in which I can get to know you and adapt my methods to suit your personality and individual needs. As much as possible, it is my goal to provide brief solution-focused therapy to all my clients.
Being a Christian counselor was not always part of my plan. I have personally experienced almost all of the issues my clients face in their own lives including but not limited to: failing in school, struggling with multiple addictions, and wrestling with my faith. Today, I am a licensed mental health counselor with over twelve years of counseling experience. I am living proof that change and redemption is possible, and I have the privilege of helping others find freedom from addiction and rediscover the joy of living.
I offer expertise in working with all forms of addictions including but not limited to: chemical dependency, sexual addiction and other process addictions. Additionally, I work extensively with the interaction of multiple addictions and mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and trauma. I address these concerns from a variety of angles including: group therapy, individual, family, and couples therapy.
My Approach to Counseling
As a counselor, I see myself like a personal trainer but with much higher stakes: I provide the framework through which my clients are empowered to go out into the world and make everyday changes that benefit their growth. I hope to help you get good at life, not at coming to therapy.
I am educated in a variety of therapeutic methods. Some of them approach counseling by helping people change from the outside-in and others cultivate change from the inside-out. I have found both are very important to help people transform their lives. Different people benefit from different approaches. As a result, I have a very customizable style of counseling, and I enjoy finding what works best for you. To ensure that I am able to provide you with maximum counseling benefits, I adapt my methods to you rather than asking you to adapt to my methods.
My Areas of Expertise
My particular expertise is in the area of “co-occurring disorders”—meaning I specialize in the interplay between various addictions and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. A majority of the time, if an individual struggles with one of these, they end up struggling with several. Furthermore, within the context of addiction, I work to address addiction interaction disorder. This involves multiple addictions that coexist in the brain and interact with each other such as substances, processes (food, sex, work, money, exercise), relationships (co-dependency, love addiction, trauma bonding), and core affect states (shame, despair, rage).
I also specialize in counseling adolescents and young adults. I have found it is far easier to work with an adult that is seeking out therapy than a young person who feels they are being dragged in by their parents. As a counselor, my approach shifts dramatically working with these young people. I am more focused on connecting with them in a meaningful way that relates to their world. Much of our work is helping them identify what they want for themselves instead of what everyone else wants for them. Contrary to what their behavior may suggest, most young people do not enjoy being miserable; but they have not found healthy and adaptable skills to accomplish the goals they have for themselves. As a result, they turn to destructive behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and conduct disorder problems because they falsely believe that these will provide the relief they are looking for. Counseling focuses on helping them learn how to connect with their deepest desires and then learn how to apply skills to fulfill those desires.
In addition to my particular expertise in co-occurring disorders and adolescent counseling, I offer therapy for:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar disorder
- Grief and loss
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Spiritual direction
- Marriage and Couples counseling
- Men’s Issues
On a Personal Note
I have been married since 2010 and my wife and I are blessed to have two wonderful daughters. When I am not counseling, I enjoy spending time with my family, exercising, reading, and serving in the local community in other ways.
