I think that our lives are best lived when we are in alignment with ourselves. This means that our closely held values, thoughts, aspirations, identity, and our own way of life are aligned with how we are actually living and experiencing those facets of our identity. When these things are not aligned we find ourselves experiencing difficulties in life. These difficulties can manifest as depression when we overfocus on the past and they can manifest as anxiety when we overfocus on the future. Sometimes we can even experience other forms of physical and emotional pain as a result of this misalignment.
One of the great psychologists of our time, Carl Rodgers, called this lack of alignment "incongruence" and he discovered the healing power of a therapeutic relationship between a client and counselor that included proper empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. The culmination of Rogers' work was the creation of Person Centered Therapy which is a way to conceptualize, or approach a helping relationship where the client is the expert on their own life and counselor is there as a partner to help support, guide, and sometimes challenge a client as they journey towards increased congruence/alignment in their life and work towards increasing self-actualization.
My philosophy of counseling is a Person Centered Approach whereby. I work to build rapport with my clients by offering empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. There is extensive research that shows that clients who experience empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard in a helping relationship will "improve" regardless of the type of interventions or theoretical orientation of the counselor.
I believe that an important first step on one's healing journey is to be able to offer empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard to one's self. We can't give to others what we have not given to ourselves. I call empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard the "Three Legged Stool of Self Love".
I think it is important to bring in other resources and interventions to help clients on their healing journey. I help clients to help themselves by bringing in appropriate and helpful tools from theories such Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, and Mindfulness. I hope to begin working on credentials in EMDR, Career Counseling, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and ADHD.
During my two decades as CEO as part of my 40-year career in business I was mentored by some amazing (and even some not so amazing) leaders. I have made it a priority learn from my mentors and to help others grow professionally and personally. I continue this effort through a coaching practice in addition to my counseling work. Coaching and Counseling are very different offerings with each of them being a distinct and separate way for me to give back and help others.