I often get that question from my masters-level Mental Health Counseling students who know that the M.A. along with their LMHC (in NYS) can be the terminal degree for their counseling careers. After all, even though I have my PhD, I’ve been running my private practice for almost 20 years based on my master-level training [...]

“We are not bound by the laws of physics as we know them today.” Gregg Braden We are living in the time when a major shift in consciousness is taking place. We might think that drugs, wars, crime, and disasters are at the peak and the reality of today. When we look around, it seems [...]

Spring is here and a counselor’s thoughts turn to…. escape? I can see branches of a fully blooming crabapple tree outside my office window. This can be a positive and a negative thing. A glimpse of spring flowers is a pleasant sight. But it also reminds me I am indoors and they are out- in [...]

At the ACA conference last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday completing career consults with fellow counselors and Masters students who are currently looking for work. Most were very optimistic about their future and all the possibilities. It was truly enjoyable to have the opportunity to meet people from across the country with different ideas, [...]

When I was going to college over 25 years ago, I heard a wonderful idea on how to strengthen a marital relationship. The activity is called “Loving Things.” The concept is simple—find out how your spouse wants to be shown love and then do it. It is normal to show love the way we want [...]

Whether you are building a Private Practice for the first time, or you are looking to “build” your existing Private Practice, it is important to know the opportunities and risks that exist today. As with almost everything in life, building a Private Practice carries both risks and benefits. A huge focus of my work as [...]

One of the mysteries of life to me is why the newest and greenest counselors often get assigned the most difficult and complicated cases. In a perfect world, which of course we don’t live in, we would always gradually introduce complexity and difficulty in the cases as counselors build confidence, skills and experience. To some [...]

When couples come to me wanting help for their relationship I often offer them this simple analogy: a relationship is like a plant. It is dynamic, living and growing and there are two basic principles that, if followed, will make it flourish. First there must be the absence of negative. For the plant it means [...]