What is it all about? [insert here word count reading time module]

This website is the place to have your questions about counselling answered. In the various short articles, I will describe the landscape of the various flavours of counselling, what you might expect, how counselling differs from coaching, psychotherapy, psychiatry, and so on.

I go over the tools and methods used by professionals, and what tools you might learn yourself. I go over the role of hypnosis, the hype about CBT, healing trauma, and the outer limits of therapy, where people are helped with psycho-spiritual issues, questions of meaning, and finding purpose.

Many men in British Columbia have tried hallucinogens, especially psilocybin mushrooms, even just recreationally, and they have been touched in a deep place, and left with a sense that there is something more to life, and a well-lived life. The memory haunts them in a good way, but they do not know how to integrate the experience into their life, how to live the vision of a better world, a better way of being. Transpersonal psychology can help.

The counselling relationship is also something poorly understood. That relationship can come in different styles, depending on the training and capacity of the therapist, and some will be more appealing to you than others. I will help you understand the types of relationship possible, so you can better ask questions when determining if a counsellor is the right one for you.

I also try to describe a typical session, how it might look in different scenarios, with different types of counselling/coaching/ therapy.

Trauma is a reality for more people than you might imagine. I explain the differences between “big T” and “small t” trauma, acute trauma, and developmental trauma, how they can impact your life, how having experienced something horrific doesn’t mean that you are traumatized, how even small incidents in childhood can result in lifelong traumatic impressions, and how trauma is best treated. It is probably the most under-recognised  issue facing people today. I did not say “under diagnosed”, because the idea of diagnosis belongs to the “medical model” championed by psychiatry and clinical psychology. The value of diagnosis is over-rated, in my opinion, because of the uncertainties involved, the models of pathology assumed, the feeding into the arrogance of the one doing the diagnosing, and the under valuing of the uniqueness of the individual.

I discuss the question of needs and benefits in the article  “how do I know I need counselling?” Some people really do need help, otherwise they would continue to flounder through disrupted relationships, a tortured inner life, and so on. But many more people are getting along well enough, so they don’t actually need counselling. But they could really benefit from counselling.

Others function excellently, have good relationships, are free from trauma and excessive past conditioning….but are still deeply discontented. Those people could also benefit from a particular kind of counselling – and this is where the world of psychology bleeds into the world of self transformation, transcendence, and spirituality. I have found that many people have no way of incorporating the idea of a personal soul into their sense of self, and into their lifestyle. Our culture has made soul a taboo subject, or something relegated, at best, to religious contexts. Psychology, having mostly fallen into the presumptions of rational materialism, has abandoned its roots in ancient healing practices, and focused too much on the intellect and emotions. Pockets of enlightenment remain, though, and I try to highlight those types of counselling that honour the transpersonal dimension of human nature.

Since you have read this far, you are clearly interested in the field of healing or self improvement. Check out the short intro videos, read the articles they introduce, and if your questions still are not answered, feel free to reach out as ask, with no obligation. My goal is to serve by meeting the need for increased clarity, to clear the muddy waters in the field of counselling.