Specialties

Relationships

I work with individuals, couples, and families to create the relationships they want. It is my point of view that the majority of counseling issues are relationship issues. Whether the symptom is depression, anxiety, stress, grief and loss, career difficulties, or even substance abuse, many of these have a relationship component.

Relationships can be challenging. They can be difficult. They can also be phenomenally rewarding when we learn more about how to manage ourselves and our interactions. Some of the more frequent relationship issues I work with include couples counseling, family issues, and romantic relationship concerns.

Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Combined, mood and anxiety disorders (such as depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, social phobia, and others) are the most frequently occurring mental health issues that people struggle to manage. Thankfully, effective treatments are available. I utilize scientifically supported assessment tools that help with making a clear diagnosis. We'll then formulate a treatment plan for your specific needs and identify helpful skills that you can use to get you back on track and feeling your best.

Career Counseling

Now more than ever before career issues have moved to a front and center position. Due to the combined forces of economic pressures, work-life balance conflicts, and uncertain employment stability, career counseling has become increasingly important.

Career counseling can help you to identify and refine your career interests while helping you meet your career goals. A large part of career counseling is oriented towards examining a combination of personality styles, interests, and skills and how they fit with different career options. The possible benefits? Increased job satisfaction and a better ability to manage the demands of work and family life. You might even be able to answer the question that never quite seems to go away: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Brief Counseling

I have been trained extensively in the application of brief counseling models. My earliest training experiences were in university clinics that utilized session limits. Counselors only had eight sessions to complete the work! This is not a lot of time and at first it was intimidating to work within that structure. Amazingly, though, the session limits were actually quite helpful in a number of cases. Working briefly means working in a focused manner that quickly identifies therapeutic priorities and translates those priorities into action steps aimed at addressing the presenting issue in as little time as possible.

At Focus Forward Counseling and Consulting, Inc., we have no artificial session limits to work within. Still, the training has served myself and my clients well, as it has lead to a mindset that expects and helps to produce therapeutic improvements in reasonable periods of time.

I continue to maintain an interest in brief approaches to counseling. As part of my professional activities I teach a doctoral course entitled Brief Psychotherapies for students in Argosy University / Atlanta’s doctoral program in Counselor Education. It is a fascinating and rewarding area to research and practice.