Counseling Approaches

I am trained in various individual modalities, as well as marriage and family, and group therapy. I use several methods in my approach to counseling.

• Person-centered therapy, which is based on the importance of providing caring support for the client in the therapeutic process, and emphasizes the ability of each person to solve his or her problems with the proper support.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves assisting the client in redefining his or her way of thinking about life, and then taking new actions to express this new orientation.

• Psychodynamic theory, which is the theory that there is "unfinished business" from the past that need to be understood and dealt with before healing can take place.

• Dream analysis, based on over 40 years of personal and clinical experience. I have developed an approach to dreamwork—the FiveStar Method—which is widely used by coaches and clinicians around the world. My training site at DreamStar Institute has dozens of papers and presentations on "co-creative" dream theory and analysis, of which the FiveStar Method is an example. I work with dreams whenever a client expresses an interest in
  using them in their therapeutic work, or suffers trauma-related nightmares.

• Transpersonal counseling, which is based on the idea that almost every psychological “problem” involves some kind of spiritual cure along with conventional therapeutic methods. I endeavor to work with your own unique spiritual tradition, and I am familiar with the major religions, East and West.

• Systems-oriented marital and family counseling, which is based on the idea that many of our problems originate in, and are perpetuated by relationship dynamics. I work a lot with communication issues, infidelity, and marriages that have grown distant over time.

• Process-oriented group work, in which adults work on a variety of issues in a confidential setting.

For your information, I teach these modalities in my role as a full Professor of Counseling at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, so I am constantly informed by the reading and study required of a university professor.

If you have any questions about my training and
education, please feel free to ask me at any time.