ABOUT ME

So therapy doesn't have to be about pain. You might be in some pain or someone you know and love is, but therapy is about being content, not complacent. Sitting across from me in my quaint little office at the foothills of the mountains potentially is one of the best investments you will ever make in yourself. 

Every therapist wants to make a safe environment for their clients. When you meet with me, I will do that and help you dismiss the bullcrap you've been feeding yourself for who knows how long. 

I do care how long you've been malnourished by negative thoughts and beliefs and what really matters to me is what you're ready to feast on now. 

I once heard someone say the best time to look for a job is when you don't need one. Applying that same principle to therapy just isn't realistic. Nobody has ever called me to see what kind of day I am having, they're usually calling me out of frustration, anger, fear, whatever, because they are desperate enough to think meeting with a complete stranger who happens to be licensed in Marriage and Family Therapy can help them get rid of pain.

Just over 20 years ago, I was sitting, observing a city council meeting wondering what my professional life will lead to as a political science major and it occurred to me that I didn’t want to sit in the boring hell that council meetings were putting me through, for the next 40 years. And so I had to find out what to study in college. I was fairly indifferent. When I was a cub scout on the way to tour some dam in northern California, where I grew up, my den leader asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up and all I could think of was being a dad. 

So there I was at age 21 feeling as clueless as ever about my career. I had no real skills but I liked people and that was about it.  I just wanted to be a dad and so I knew I needed to establish a career that would enable me to do that. I had never done therapy and knew almost nothing about it. I never had an interest in it until much soul searching and study. One day after about 9 months of trying to figure this out,  I found myself listening to a marriage and family therapist share some of his experiences with some professors at a local university. Some were positive and some didn’t have happy endings. I was inspired and the light turned on for me. There was no doubt what I wanted to do. 

So here I am, I just want to help you heal. Most of my current and past clients understand this. I want to help you experience joy in your relationships and experience personal freedom. I will sit with you in the mud and when you are ready, clean up and move on.

Picture this: You come in not knowing what to expect, because you haven't met me before and after completing some necessary legal paperwork we chit-chat about what has brought you in. I listen and formulate some ideas about how we can achieve what you want. If there is time, and I hope there is, we actually start to work right away. I probably give you some simple task to complete until we meet again. 

If you're truly interested, we'll talk shop about how hypnosis works and how it will benefit you, but only if you're interested in some awesome change right off the bat.

I've now been working as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 2000. 

I'm fascinated by the outliers in life. You, know, the person who has been through some personal tragedy and is thriving so well they wouldn't trade the tragedy for some alternative. Who are these people? We all have heard of them. Maybe you know one personally. I love to learn what these people do to thrive and not just overcome, and help myself and others like you utilize what they have learned. One of my favorite examples is Amy Purdy, check out her TED talk - it's only 9 minutes long, you will be inspired. 

I have been trained in clinical hypnosis by one of the world's foremost experts on depression and clinical hypnosis, Michael D. Yapko PhD. I also have training from Marissa Peer. and the ever engaging and fearless Karl Smith who taught me the fine art of rapid hypnotic change and the Kinetic Shift. See my page on Hypnosis.

I also have level One and Two training in Holographic Memory Resolution by developer, Brent Baum. It has fantastic results clearing up trauma. It’s efficient, clean, and there’s no need to relive trauma. Clients who have experienced it sometimes comapare it to EMDR, only it seems to be more efficient.

I have extensive experience working with clients suffering from difficult relationships including marriages. I have been trained by Susan Johnson the developer of Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples. I work a lot with young adults navigating adolescent/family turmoil; with men suffering pornography compulsion/addiction and others who might have addictions including sex and drug or alcohol addiction.

When not working at my private practice in Orem, I enjoy spending time with my incredible wife and family. 

I’m not going to tell you what to do here, making an appointment is the next logical step. I’ll do what I can to help you make the changes you can imagine.