I am in my final year as a Master’s in Counseling graduate student, preparing for becoming an LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor). The foundation of my counseling approach is rooted in person-centered, emotion-focused therapy. This evidence-based method helps clients understand themselves by embracing and working with their emotions instead of fighting, fearing or repressing them. I believe tha
t one of my primary roles as a counselor is to provide clients with a safe, nurturing environment where they can feel free to express themselves and know they are being heard. To join with the individual in a commitment to change through patience, honesty, and thoroughness on the road toward continual personal happiness and fulfillment.
I am now on track with my long-term goal of counseling after a 25+ year career in business that brought me from coast to coast, culminating in the creation and successful selling of a business in Los Angeles, before finally coming back home to Maine. During my business career, I had always maintained a passion for helping people overcome emotional pain and challenges. In both my personal and professional life, I have been the person that others chose to seek counsel from, share their feelings with and to trust with their hopes, dreams and fears. I believe that this has to do with my intuitive ability to listen well and to reflect back to the person what I’m hearing. It is also because I have a strong empathy for people when they are suffering emotionally but are trying to rise above that suffering.
Along with my graduate studies, I am currently participating in a year-long emotional therapy workshop entitled, Senses of the Soul, which is focused on coming to a new understanding of emotions as an internal source of guidance to free ourselves from suffering. And in October of this year (2019) I will be taking part in an intensive Level 1 Training workshop in Emotion-Focused Therapy, learning more about approaches to transforming difficult emotions such as sadness, shame, fear, and vulnerability that are often the source of depression, anxiety, trauma and other mental health challenges.
I work with clients on a variety of personal growth, mental, emotional and behavioral challenges including anxiety and fear; depression, sadness and grief; shame, self-worth and self-criticism; anger and irritability; as well as relationship and career issues. We will work together to set collaborative goals in an authentic, empathetic and accepting setting.
Note: There is no charge for Dan’s services during the Fall of 2019.