Seattle Counseling Therapy Life Coaching Hypnosis Mediation
Personal Change Services Overview
Most of the time, people seek a counselor, therapist, psychotherapist, psychologist, hypnotherapist or other personal change agent because of pain or frustration in their lives. They feel that learning or growing may be a solution to solving their problems—the ones that cause the pain. And many people seeking therapeutic change believe that achieving their goals will give them a new level of happiness, fulfillment or satisfaction in their daily life. Those who feel this way, and believe in their own capacity to learn, to change and to develop, are giving themselves a profound gift—the joy of living a life of continual transformation.
My practice offers breakthrough methods of counseling, life coaching, therapy, hypnotherapy, NLP, mediation and therapy for individuals, couples and families, and divorce coaching.
I provide you a private, personal, individualized process for examining a range of problems, issues, and goals for your benefit and development as a person, and for those closest to you. The methods I use in my work with you are designed to help you to refine your goals and to activate the inner and outer resources and capabilities to help you achieve them.
If and when we work together, you'll experience a private, confidential process for entering into the quiet, inner realms of your own values, your own past, your desired future, and your own thinking. A range of options are possible. We may take an in-depth look at behaviors that may have caused harm to your relationships and/or yourself, or an analysis of your life story, or career coaching for your next job, or re-defining of your highest aspirations, or all of these. And in the process, my change methods will help you solve YOUR problems and achieve YOUR goals.
In your sessions, you begin a process of appreciating and harnessing those patterns, attitudes, goals and concepts that serve you well. And if there are patterns, attitudes, goals and concepts that have failed to serve your current dreams and aspirations for fulfilling your values as a person, a relationship with me as your change agent gives you an expanded capacity to select and generate new ways of thinking, both verbally, with new language patterns, and new patterns of mental imagery.
I use NLP, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, many forms of counseling, life coaching, in a synthesis of methods tailored for each client's painful problems and highest aspirations. My clients have been successful at solving problems such as these: anxiety, depression, chronic pain, smoking, obesity, over-eating, allergies of many kinds such as pollen, cat hair, food, and more, phobias, and many other problems related to unwanted, involuntary behaviors.
For robust, detailed examples of my services, as case studies, take a look at these case studies: allergy case study, PTSD case study, a pain control case study, and this psychosomatic symptom case study. Each of these case studies has either transcripts or detailed written summaries. The allergy and pain control cases have audio recordings of the actual sessions.
Here is a brief graphical summary of the methods I use, and the benefits they provide. By clicking on the image, you can go to an article that describes the methods I use and their benefits in considerable detail:
The Nature of Emotions, Values and Your Fulfillment
Each of my personal change services is based on some key ideas about who you are and about your experience as a person.
You want your values to be fulfilled. So do I.
Happiness and satisfaction, joy and excitement, peace and contentment refer to those values that you feel—that permeate your being—when you are following your life narrative properly to fulfill your destiny. These values cannot come to anyone from a wish or a pill or in any direct way. Rather, the fulfillment of values comes indirectly—through envisioning dreams of destiny, and then doing what it takes to make those dreams come true—by living them fully and bringing forth your goals.
While living our lives and pursuing our fulfillment, we get stuck periodically.
No matter where we are on life's journey, there are times when we experience pain . . . or confusion . . . or depression . . . or conflict . . . or yearning for more excitement, fulfillment or meaning.
It is difficult to realize in such moments that the pain we feel about a problem contains hints and inner guidance about the solution to the problem.
Hunger calls for food. Thirst calls for water. A little cut on the finger calls for a band-aid and some time to heal. For that matter, an oil light going on in the car cannot be fixed with a piece of tape to hide the light. The oil light itself is not a problem. Rather, the oil light calls for oil—it is a signal which indicates that there is a problem. And so it is with painful emotions. Anxiety, feelings of distress, confusion, dissatisfaction, depression, unfulfilled yearning, and other painful emotions are not something to evade or cover up. These feelings are not problems. They are signals—and therefore, symptoms of something else. They indicate a problem exists and they are the key for finding a solution.
So my approach to personal change considers your emotions not as irrational feelings separate from your rational thinking process. Not at all. Feelings are rarely irrational. Rather, I consider your emotions as an integral part of your worldview, and that they come from your inner, automatic, involuntary system of values. Like an inner compass, your system of values—through your emotions—guides you through your life journey by signaling you to identify what is important and meaningful.
Entering with me into the quiet, reflective, deeply felt process of counseling is a process by which you pursue your inner calling for solving problems, for designing and achieving personal changes, and for choosing and achieving a important goals. Your values define your problems and goals, and the processes of counseling provide skills for solving your problems and achieving your goals.
Elsewhere in this website, you'll find more information about me and my work as a change agent, the various kinds of services I offer, the origins of my counseling, the story of its development, the theory and practice of the knowledge I've acquired in my career, frequently asked questions, setting up an appointment, about books, tapes, links and other resources.
If you have any unanswered questions as you explore my personal change services, just go to Personal Change Services FAQs or contact me directly.
While I live most of the time in Seattle, I do travel to and work in the Portland Oregon Area, and share my Portland office with colleague Michael Nagel, a counselor, therapist and hypnotherapist. Michael's website is www.whole-person-counseling.com . It is a great source of information about counseling, therapy, hypnotherapy and more.
