Great
Forest
Counseling
About
"One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us."
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Genjo and
Great Forest Counseling
"Love myself so heavy so thick so consistent that anything that comes my way bursts into love. As it should. As it should. Because love is my gravity and my air. Love is all that happens here. And here you are."
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Atmosphere
I have been working in the mental health field since 2017. During my graduate studies, it became clear that it was also necessary to level up (read: root down) the Zen practice element of my life, which I have been doing since 2011. So, I found a spiritual home and teacher, and a few years later ordained as a Zen priest under the tutelage of Rev. Teijo Munnich in the Jikai Dainin Katagiri Roshi lineage of Soto Zen Buddhism. I spent the majority of 2024 training at a Zen monastery in Japan. I've also worked and done lots of other things, from food running and dishwashing at a restaurant to teaching yoga to leading canoeing expeditions to doing racial justice and social liberation work. I say all of this because it is all me and informs my psychotherapy practice.
Now, I use an integrated approach to psychotherapy and draw from Buddhist psychology and meditation, Relational-Cultural Theory, Gestalt, and Jungian Depth Psychology. Some focuses of mine include supporting adolescents and adults navigating anxiety, depression, relationship issues, identity-based oppression, spirituality/religion, and grief/death/loss. If you are motivated to do your work, go deep, look at yourself honestly (and lovingly), and invite joy, humor, and laughter along the way, then let's get to work!
Assuming a life-affirming stance, I am against any framework that stifles, oppresses, or aims to shame life, including colonialism, imperialism, racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, and anthropocentrism. Our work together will most likely include an exploration of how these forces of oppression influence your life.​
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I believe that we all contain multitudes and are always whole despite sometimes feeling fragmented, disconnected, alone, lost, alienated, disassociated, and distant. That is where the work of psychotherapy comes in. Through this work, we can become more and more ourselves, more and more connected to our inner and outer worlds, more intimate and loving with the world and the people within us and around us.
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To read more, check out my writings here.