ABOUT JOSH

I have over 20 years experience of pastoral counseling, coaching, training, and teaching people through many of the most difficult emotional barriers and roadblocks that we face.

I understand what it is like to experience a loss / change of your belief system and how completely disorienting and confusing this can be. And as someone who has been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of trauma suffered by churches and religious people and systems, I have great empathy and understanding for people dealing with trauma.

What will it be like to work with me?

  • I’ll get to know you through asking questions. No one story can encapsulate all of who you are, so I’ll listen and show curiosity about you and your life.

  • I will speak hope to you. I believe that hope is essential to keep moving forward as a human being. I also understand how hard it can be to hold onto.

  • We’ll look for repeated themes, ideas, and connections in your stories so that we can find the problem(s) and discover the tactics and strategies that the problems are using to stay in power.  

  • We will work to separate you from the problem(s). I honestly believe that you are not the problem but that whatever problem you are struggling with (anxiety, depression, anger) is the problem.

  • We will discover who you aspire to be and develop tools and strategies that can help you to live for longer stretches of time as the best version of yourself.

  • We’ll work to develop tools that you can utilize in between our sessions, and truths for you to hold on to, so that you can have more hope. I’ll help you learn to pay attention to the ways that your body is trying to communicate to you. I find that the people who make the most progress usually do some reflection between sessions.

I am also very comfortable talking (or not talking) about issues of faith, if this is something that is important to you.

Among the services that I offer are therapy for religious trauma, trauma and PTSD treatment, anxiety treatment, depression treatment, counseling for college students, and young adult therapy. I offer online therapy in Maryland and Pennsylvania to treat a variety of mental health concerns. Contact me to learn more about the many ways I can help you find hope in your story.

 

I’m kind of a geek, if the Lord of the Rings quotes didn’t give it away.