What I Offer You
Welcome to my practice, where you can help for your emotional suffering and problems in living. I coach individual adults who are struggling with painful and frustrating emotional issues, including depression, anxiety, relationship problems, and life transitions. I am passionately committed to relieving your suffering and facilitating your long-term personal development through deep exploration, sustained empathy, and the elevation of emotional intelligence.
My approach focuses directly on the emotional dynamics that are the driving force behind your thoughts and actions; and because I believe that no two people’s emotional lives are structured in precisely the same way, my coaching will always be tailored to your individual needs. I will work to raise your level of Emotional Intelligence, allowing you a greater opportunity for living the life you want.
Right now, you may be thinking, “But I have emotional issues, and I need to get rid of my problematic feelings.” It is not the emotions themselves that are the issue, however. Emotions serve many critical functions for all of us, including evaluation, motivation, and communication. Without them, we would be literally incapable of navigating our way around our world. The problem is the way that healthy emotions are being unconsciously blocked, so they are not available for effective use.
When you come in and talk about what is bothering you and what doesn’t work in your life, I will work to bring to light your emotional strengths and weaknesses. In particular, we look for rigid emotional rules that create obstacles to adaptive, healthy functioning, and we work to loosen their iron grip. As a result, you will have greater freedom to make healthier, more adaptive choices for your life. You can then become that emotionally strong and socially resilient person you have always wanted to be, one who will thrive and succeed in the world
What You Can Expect from My Coaching Practice
- A safe and comfortable environment; an atmosphere of respect and compassion in which you get the help you need to face formerly unbearable and frightening feelings.
- Insight, empathy, support, and understanding.
- A collaborative process. You help design a coaching regimen that works for you.
- Emphasis and expertise in emotional life.
- Honesty about what we see. We believe you will benefit most by hearing the truth.
- Continual and collaborative monitoring of the process, to determine its effectiveness and make any necessary adjustments.
- A free use of creativity and imagination, rather than a formulaic approach that comes from a textbook.
- Care and concern throughout the process. Coaching can be difficult and painful, but I will do my very best to see that it is not any more so than is absolutely necessary.
Coaching Issues
Depression
Relationships
Depression
Depression is a complex emotional state that centers on hopelessness, helplessness, and loveless aloneness. It is black hole, a living Hell, and it is formidable, but it is not unconquerable. Depression must be undone from the inside, by examining and dismantling its emotional underpinnings. I like to think of myself as a tour guide to Hell. I can help you face down the darkness and emerge into the light.
Anxiety
Relationships
Depression
High levels of anxiety manifest in a wide variety of ways, including obsessions and compulsions, panic attacks, phobias, eating disorders, and avoidance behaviors. Some of these manifestations are outright fears, while others are defenses against more hidden fears. In either case, the expressions of anxiety need to be brought into the light, so their true nature can be deciphered and remedied.
Relationships
Relationships
Living with Emotions
Love is an important aspect of a good life, but for many people relationships can devolve into troubling, repetitive patterns; for instance, the pursuit of unavailable lovers, or brief, intense affairs that end badly. Whatever your problematic pattern, it needs to be illuminated, understood, and remedied, so a happier one can emerge.
Living with Emotions
Living with Emotions
Living with Emotions
Life has many wonderful things that trigger joy and contentment, feelings we all live for. Life also presents us with difficult challenges that trigger painful feelings of grief, hurt, loneliness, sadness, anger and fear. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to feel only the good ones, never the bad? Sadly, that’s not our lot as human beings. However, there is a way to feel the positive more and to be on better terms with the negative. This is the path of radical acceptance. By experiencing and integrating all your emotions, you can live a life that is full, rich, and rewarding. I can show you how to do that.
Here is a short video that explains the basics of emotions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJOjpprbfeE
Men's Issues
Living with Emotions
Assertiveness
Traditionally, men have shied away from looking at themselves, believing that emotional struggles are best ignored or suffered in silence, or that they should be “strong and manly” and deal with their issues on their own. Nothing could be further from the truth. All emotional problems developed relationally, in the crucible of early childhood; and, as has been demonstrated across many cultures for thousands of years, they are best resolved relationally. I have been coaching men for over a decade, and I wrote a book that can help you as well.
Assertiveness
Living with Emotions
Assertiveness
Once upon a time, people took assertiveness training classes to help them stand up and speak out, borne of the conviction that by doing so, they would feel better about themselves and get more of what they wanted in life. Many achieved these goals, at least in part, because assertiveness, the honest expression of one’s feelings and desires, is an incredibly effective means of interpersonal interaction.
Sadly, however, there are few assertiveness training classes still in existence. However, I can teach you this incredibly useful concept. Assertiveness is something that you can learn, and, with practice, effectively apply. The results can be immediate, powerful, and long-lasting.
Services
Individual Coaching
Individual Coaching
Individual Coaching
Individual coaching aims at expanding your emotional horizons to give you increased freedom and a greater sense of aliveness. It focuses on the 12 domains of emotional competence to increase your self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills.
Sessions can focus on personal issues, professional development, interpersonal dynamics, or any combination of these.
Group Therapy
Individual Coaching
Individual Coaching
My present coaching groups are for men and are primarily centered on the principles outlined by Dr. Robert Glover in No More Mr. Nice Guy, utilizing my workbook, No More Mr. Nice Guy: the Hero's Journey. The groups are weekly and limited to 10 participants.
Workshops
Individual Coaching
Workshops
I have led many workshops in the past, and I offer this service on a requested basis.