I practice counseling psychotherapy and provide consultation and supervision from a Humanistic perspective. My understanding is an integration primarily from Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy, Positive Psychology, John Gottman, Alfie Kohn, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Zen Buddhism, various religious traditions, and Existential Philosophy, as well as from other congruent literary, artistic, philosophical, and scientific teachings. I do not consider myself to be “eclectic”, i.e. I don’t use “whatever works”; rather, I strive to integrate various perspectives into a conceptually and pragmatically consistent whole. In this sense I have a ‘holistic’ approach that parallels my view that human nature itself is ‘holistic’.
Experience
I have 39 years’ experience. I worked for 20 years with severely disturbed adults in a residential setting, 17 years of which I served as the Clinical Director hiring, training, and supervising my clinical staff. I also worked on an inpatient involuntary psychiatric unit. This overlaps 29 years of counseling individuals, couples, families, children and adolescents in both private and agency based psychotherapy practice. My experience includes working with adults, couples, children, adolescents, families and parents experiencing a wide range of difficulties including psychoses, personality disorders, workplace stress, substance abuse, discordant relationships, divorce, parenting, grief and loss, depression, ADHD, chronic illness, and spiritual conflict. My clients have come from a very wide range of ethnic, racial, cultural, and economic, backgrounds from all over the world.
Since 1984 I have served on the board of the Puget Sound Adlerian Society. As Chair of Parent Education I helped oversee our acclaimed series of parenting education classes (Sanity Circus) that was offered in Seattle schools and other venues. These classes were largely based on Jane Nelson’s Positive Discipline model which developed directly out of Adlerian Psychology.
Over the years I’ve conducted numerous workshops, taught classes, lectured, and led forum discussions. For the past 4 years I have been honored to teach Adlerian Psychology to graduate students at Antioch University as an adjunct professor.
Education and License
I hold a Master of Arts degree in (Existential-Phenomenological) Psychology from Seattle University. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Washington, although most of my undergraduate study took place at the University of Oregon in Eugene. I was trained in Transactional Analysis, Individual Psychology (Adlerian), Gestalt Therapy, and Rational Emotive Therapy (a cognitive behavioral approach). I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Washington State, # LH00003542.
Fees and Appointments
My usual fee is $140 per session. A typical session is generally one hour. I charge proportionately more for sessions ($35.00 per quarter hour) running significantly over an hour. Payment is due upon each session and is prerequisite to scheduling following appointments. I expect notice of cancellation 24 hours in advance or full payment for any missed appointment except when due to “acts of God or Nature”, in which case I’m willing to share in your misfortune and will charge half of the fee. I don’t object to late arrivals since you, not I, pay for the time. If you cannot afford my usual fee, ask me about a reduced fee.
I deliberately choose not to be paneled with any insurance company or network. At the time of the appointment you are responsible for the full fee. I accept checks, cash, Visa, and MasterCard. Most insurance companies will partially reimburse you directly for my “out of network” services and I am happy to provide you with documentation to provide to your insurance provider. Check with your insurance company to see what coverage you have.
Setting
My office is on the north end of Capitol Hill near the junction of and with convenient access to I-5 and 520. There is ample parking on the street.
Bias, Values, and Approach
My approach is an Adlerian based integration of Humanistic Psychology following interrelated models developed by Alfred Adler, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Vicktor Frankl, Eric Berne, Virginia Satir, Albert Ellis, Rudolf Dreikurs, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and many others. While I have training in Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, and cognitive approaches I seldom employ psychological techniques in counseling. My style is direct, personal, collaborative and interactive. I emphasize our social embeddedness, sense of community, and spirit of cooperation, as the context for individual growth and well being. I strongly embrace democratic, egalitarian relationships within the community, workplace, families, and between individuals. My role is that of a guide, to reveal and highlight landmarks, pitfalls, and to explore alternatives. Each individual is responsible, however, to choose his or her own personal path. I offer encouragement, suggest practical strategies, and bear witness to suffering, defeats, and victories, but I will not attempt to determine your goals or try to fix, repair, or heal you through persuasion or techniques.
My intention is to help you improve the quality of your relationships, and hence your life, by helping you to explore how to improve your style of approach to challenges before you. I will not give guidance on how to control or change others, be they children, spouses, family members or other adults. I do not subscribe to Behavior Modification, or the use of rewards and punishments. I do not advise parents on how to establish control over their children, or how to “get” children to behave. I hold that both passive (permissive) and authoritarian styles of relating are destructive in all relationships, consequently I support parents actively leading and encouraging their children while establishing firm and kind limits. I help parents to change their own patterns in order to transform their relationship with their children in order to encourage and hold appropriate boundaries and limits with children. Those who follow this way find their influence to be far more powerful than through efforts to change or control others.
I have no interest to persuade, argue, debate, overcome “resistance,” or try to change clients. Most difficulties in which people get trapped emerge from a limited view of their situation and solutions become apparent by building courage and expanding one’s point of view. I offer perspective and encouragement to consider seeing things differently, and support for practicing new ways.
I seek richness and creativity in our striving to grow, to overcome life’s difficulties, and deepening our experience of the world, versus diagnosing pathology. Past experience may illuminate the present, but need not determine the future. Except in extreme circumstances, organic or physical impairments do not preclude growth or the positive influence of encouraging, cooperative, and nurturing relationships. Our way is primarily set not by what we are given, but by what we make of what we are given. I focus on what nourishes psychological, mental and spiritual growth, particularly through relationships such as parenting, marriage, work and friendship.
Records and Testimony
I do not generate clinical notes or treatment records, so I do not keep records that can be sent to other professionals, payers, or that could be used in legal proceedings. Clients seeking insurance reimbursement will understand that they also will be requesting that no treatment records be kept per WAC 246-809-035. I will generate necessary information such as mental health diagnoses and appropriate billing codes for insurance purposes only. I do not provide testimony for clients except as ordered by a judge.