Spiritually-Sensitive Therapy

From the beginning of my counseling training through present day, my education and training have focused on how to be present for YOUR process and how your spirituality MAY be a part of it. We will discuss it at your first session. It’s up to what you decide with me in our sessions, and it can always change, based on what feels comfortable to you.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), which means I employ evidence-based Clinical Counseling techniques based on my master’s degree and counseling training and supervision. As a counselor, I support bio-psycho-social-spiritual healing in a clinically sound, culturally, spiritually sensitive manner. I use counseling interventions such as mindfulness that you may use in or out of session. I teach the ‘secular’ version of these. If you are interested, I will help you find a version of the coping skill that fits into your practice. Some people like it to be integrated fully into their practice. Others separate mental health coping from spiritual practice.

We are multifaceted beings who develop in a variety of ways. Spiritual development is one way, but emotional and thought management are another, intertwining but also separate way we develop. Because of my training in Integrative Counseling, I can help you identify areas where you might implement more coping skills.

Maybe you’ve had spiritual experiences like visions, synchronicities, dreams, or intuitive understanding off and on throughout your life. Maybe you had one event that blew your mind and was even frightening, a crisis or spiritual emergency/ spiritual psychosis. Regardless, I use a variety of tools which may include Depth Psychology, Narrative Psychology, and trauma therapy to support your grounded insight and healing. My role is not to take everything you tell me as dogma, because that wouldn’t help you resolve anything! Instead, I will help you ground as we process your experience. My position as a therapist is to help you feel understood, and to support your integration of meaning with healthy functioning and relationships.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I provide trained, clinical support to effectively manage dysregulation, emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. I also ground you with the original sources of information used by self-improvement coaches. When you have these tools, you set the stage for a better mindset for self-improvement of any kind, naturally increasing your capacity for positive change, be it physical fitness, embracing your shadow, finding your true self or other goals.

Counseling will assess and treat your mental health condition/s in the context of your life. We will discuss in depth your history, relationships and systems, values/lifestyle, functioning, and mental health symptoms. Mindfulness facilitation WILL consider any unique conditions and situations you have to create customized, personal mindfulness tools and/or practices. It WILL NOT diagnose or treat mental health conditions, relationship, or functioning issues. Click to learn more about mindfulness facilitation here.

I use Systems Therapy and other interventions that can help you identify areas of personal growth, as well as why you are having challenges in this group or relationship. I work to help you feel seen, heard, and understood. By learning more about the nature of this relationship and each person’s potential role in it, you can gain insight and tools to heal. To be honest, sometimes spiritual or other kinds of leaders may be dysregulated and haven’t developed healthy emotional, thought or behavioral regulation. Sometimes that creates a high demand group, whether a group of 2, a family, church or other group. You are ‘human-ing’ differently than they are and we can figure out how to increase your coping with these challenges.

Mindfulness facilitation may be perfect for you! I don’t do counseling with you. Instead, we talk about your needs and choose from a menu of mindfulness facilitation options. Click to find out more information on Mindfulness Facilitation.

Spiritual Counseling is a general term. I consider Spiritual Counseling to involve giving spiritual direction and/or spiritual accountability. Some are Ordained practitioners, who have degrees like an MDiv/ DDiv. Also, spiritual group leaders may have special training within their group to do their group’s brand of Spiritual Counseling. Spiritual Counselors may initiate or even lead conversations about how spirituality fits into your life, and this may be their main focus. They may have a spiritual solution as part BUT NOT ALL of your mental health picture. If they are diagnosing or treating a mental health condition and don’t have a mental health counseling license, this is a violation of ethics and the law.  

I am an LPC, a Licensed Professional Counselor. I provide Integrative Counseling, which holistically addresses your personal big picture of mind/body health, personal meaning/spirituality, family and social systems, culture/ beliefs/ lifestyle and identity. I work with you to become self-regulated, manage your emotions, improve relationships and functioning and create a new healing narrative. During our therapy process, I invite you to include your philosophy/spirituality in our healing work and am available to answer questions about the intersection of spirituality/philosophy and psychotherapy.

If you ever work with counselor who says they do Spiritual Counseling, I encourage you to ask more questions about their ethics, training, role and group affiliations so that you know where they are coming from.