My philosophy of counseling

Gestalt Therapy:

Gestalt Therapy is a body-based, experiential therapy which views people as fundamentally healthy and whole. It suggests that difficulties, like the ones dealt with in counseling, are instances of ‘unfinished business,’ meaning they arise from situations in which the person is not able or not allowed to finish working through a natural coping process and becomes emotionally stuck. The process of Gestalt is to help work through those situations, bringing the person to a greater level of integration and integrity in their life. An outcome of this therapy is increasing one’s satisfaction with and enjoyment of life, and increasing one’s sense of being alive and being able to make empowering decisions. One obtains useful tools which can be applied to other areas of life, as well.

My Experience:

I have worked with adults, teenagers, preteens, couples, families, and groups, both adults and teenagers, and with people of various races and religious beliefs. I am a supporter of diversity and an individual’s right to their own belief system and set of values. I find it exciting to learn about people’s perspectives of the world, in order to support their personal growth within their own framework of meaning.

My Training:

I have a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University and a certificate of completion in Gestalt Therapy from the Gestalt Institute of the Rockies. At Naropa University, in Boulder CO, I also chose classes in art therapy, process painting, authentic movement, and aikido. A meditation class was required each semester, as the basis of learning to relate mindfully. Outside Naropa, I studied aikido (since 1988), in which I have a second degree black belt. Aikido means The Way of Harmony. This martial art lends itself greatly to understanding self and other in relationship, through energetic and physical interactions. I took performance singing classes for seven years, studying the relationship of me to my voice and to representing myself in public.