Services/Values

Mac cultivates his practice to include a wide range of clients from late adolescents to adults. Major issue areas that he has the greatest depth of experience include:

• Addictive/compulsive behaviors
• Men's issues
• Relationship and communication dynamics
• Sexual orientation and/or intimacy issues

• Adult Age and Transition issues
• Chronic/Terminal illness
• Grief and Loss
• Religious abuse and re-integration issues
• Trauma recovery and life functioning skills Four interior page

Professional Values

My philosophy of counseling is based on a "wellness model." This means that I am committed to the belief that you, the client, have an innate drive towards health and growth, and the inner wisdom to make constructive changes in your life.

Based upon assisting you with the problem(s) you have identified, I also believe in actively working with the whole of your life. Sometimes that will mean that I will be a counselor and help you examine the basics of your life, such as relationships, work life and physical well-being. On this level I am often a coach, and attempt to provide you with information and support when and how to accomplish standard life tasks.

Sometimes your journey might call for us to work on deeper levels, such as going back with you to earlier periods of your life to help you heal from the roots up. I believe that the core of almost all issues involves a historical childhood sense of abandonment and/or engulfment. The work we do is intended to help you discharge the old, painful feelings and help you approach your current relationships with a fresh, clear perspective.

Above all else, I believe that being a therapist is more than simply an occupation for me. My own continued growth and recovery are intimately connected to the work I do with clients. My journey through life has provided me with a wealth of experiences, such as the on-going growth of an eighteen-year relationship, career change, surviving the loss of a parent and friends to terminal illness, and my own recovery issues.

The general methodology of my style is drawn from a Gestalt approach, which means developing a highly interactive relationship between the two of us. This relationship becomes a laboratory for you to experiment with new perspectives and skills. After you have refined and practiced these skills with me, you can then immediately use them in your everyday life.

Generally, I employ an integrated systems approach in which we examine all the arenas of your life, including health, work, family/ relationships, and your existential/spiritual life. At every phase, we will work at providing you with new ways of reframing and responding to problems, more effective communication styles and techniques for living life in a more proactive manner.

I continue to learn and update my theoretical knowledge outside of the therapeutic session. I am part of an on-going study group with other counselors and consultants. I also retain the counsel of other veteran therapists whom I respect so that my work remains safe and grounded.