Relationship first

The foundation of how I work is simple, even if it's not always easy: I try to create a space where you can be fully honest — about what you're carrying, what you're afraid of, what you've never quite been able to say out loud — and meet whatever you bring without judgment.

I believe the therapeutic relationship is the foundation of everything. Most of us learned early that certain parts of ourselves weren't safe to show — the needs that were too much, the feelings that made people uncomfortable, the doubts we kept quiet to keep the peace. Therapy is a place to bring those parts back. Something shifts when you experience that you don't have to leave anything at the door.

Depth and insight

I work at the level of depth — which means I'm less interested in managing what's on the surface than in understanding what's actually driving it.

The patterns that show up in your life now — in your relationships, your reactions, the ways you get stuck — usually have roots. Understanding those roots doesn't just explain things intellectually. It changes your relationship to them. Things that felt like character flaws start to make sense as adaptations. Reactions that seemed irrational become understandable. And that understanding, when it's real and not just conceptual, loosens something.

That loosening tends to happen not just in the mind but in the body — in the breath that deepens, the tension that releases, the nervous system that finally gets the message that it's safe to settle. I pay attention to what's happening somatically alongside what's happening in your thinking and your history, because real change tends to register there too.

This means I pay attention to your history, to what operates outside of your full awareness, and to the connection between your past and your present — not to keep us stuck there, but because insight into how you got here tends to open up genuine choices about where you go next.

More than symptom relief

Underneath everything I do is a fundamental orientation — I'm not primarily trying to reduce your symptoms, though that happens. I'm trying to help you become more fully present in your own life. More alive to what's actually here. More at home in who you are.

Clients describe it concretely — a heaviness that lifts, a pattern that loses its grip, relationships that feel less charged, a sense of more room to breathe. The anxiety doesn't disappear but it stops running the show. The past stops feeling quite so present. There's more of you available for the life in front of you.

What about tools and techniques?

I use practical approaches when they serve the work — including attention to what's happening in your body, not just your thoughts, because emotions are somatic before they're verbal and working at that level can move things that talking alone doesn't always reach. But I think of these as doorways into deeper understanding rather than techniques for managing symptoms. The goal is always helping you get closer to your own experience, not further from it.

What this looks like in practice

Sessions are conversational. I'm not going to hand you a worksheet or tell you what to think. I'm going to be genuinely curious about your experience, listen carefully for what's underneath what you're saying, and occasionally name things I notice — in what you're describing, in how you're describing it, sometimes in what's happening between us in the room.

It's collaborative. You set the pace. And the relationship we build over time is, I believe, the most important factor in whether the work produces something real and lasting.

I've had years of personal therapy and continue doing my own inner work. Not as a credential but because I think you can't take someone somewhere you haven't been willing to go yourself. The inner life I'm inviting you into is one I've had to find my way into too.

I also have training in spiritual direction, and clients who are navigating spiritual questions — deconstructing, searching, expanding — often find that therapy with me is a rare space where that territory is welcome rather than bracketed off.

Before becoming a counselor I worked for a global non-profit and served as an Army artillery officer. I found my way into counseling through these experiences, and they shape who I am in deep ways.

I'm a reader, a walker, a devoted fan of the American version of The Office, and a dedicated husband. I do my best thinking on neighborhood walks, usually accompanied by my wife and our Cavapoo, Freud — who has, despite his name, no formal training but excellent instincts.

• Licensed Professional Counseling Candidate, Colorado

• MA in Counseling (CACREP Accredited)