Counseling

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. I really care about my clients and really seek to give them tools to take what they learn home with them. There is little value in feeling better in the counseling office and then going home and still being stuck. I give a lot of handouts and also offer exercises and techniques to help people deal with stress, anxiety and negative thinking.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. To see people make progress. I also like to learn new ideas, concepts and skills to impart to people. The human mind and heart fascinates me and I am ever reminded out complex and yet simple we are. I like to offer simple, do-able solutions to people. I seek people as just getting stuck. My job is to get them unstuck. I have seen addicts get sober, the anxious become calm and the depressed start moving again. I see families learn to understand one another. I also have experienced many challenges in life and feel that I am at times, just a few steps ahead of my clients. I know the solutions work, because of my personal experience.

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. Clients ask how long will it take?
I say that it takes about 4 or 5 sessions where you will see changes. What I don't tell them is that I try to help effect a change with every visit. I was taught in graduate school that the average amount of session people will go is 5 visits. You have to work fast. I do not believe in just an "expensive" conversation.

What I am trained in or what is my approach?
Well, I like to come from a "wellness" model over a "disease" model. The disease model approaches depression, anxiety, addiction or troubled relationship by studying what didn't work, looking at brain scans, etc. The wellness approach asks the question, "what would it be like for people not to have the problem?" It studies people who aren't prone to depression, anxiety or addiction and looks at the recipe for what they do. So, I am helping my client move towards where they want to be which is a life free from depression, free from anxiety and free from addiction. It is helping them build healthy relationships.

What do I think about working with medication?
I am a counselor so I am not trained to prescribe medication. I do believe in medication but see it as a last resort. I offer many other alternatives beside medication-changing thought patterns, habits, exercise, nutritional supplements, and neuro-feedback and biofeedback where these things have been proven helpful.

Where are my locations? Well, I have two. My main office is in Lake Stevens, WA. I am there every work day, except Tuesday, where I am in my Lynnwood office. I originally worked down there all the time. I moved my office closer to my home to cut down on commute time. This allowed me to see more people. I thought I would slowly close that office, but it is 7 years and I still like going down there. It is more centrally located for those coming from Seattle and the Eastside.