My Approach

All of the emotionally based issues and problems my clients deal with are grounded in and expressions of a state I call core debilitation. Core debilitation speaks to having the deepest parts of our emotional systems torn up and in need of help. I’ve found we’ve normalized this state within this culture by unwittingly learning to neglect some of the primary needs of our emotional systems. Over years, this neglect weakens and degrades our emotional wholeness while we also learn different ways to suppress and ignore the consequences of this neglect as best we can. When suppress and ignore eventually falls short, negative emotions, such as anxiety, panic, shame, grief, hopelessness, anger, worthlessness, etc. appear and persist. This is the first type of struggle I work with. This negative emotion also drives us to struggle with different relationships that we engage with in life—especially the more challenging ones—causing issues and problems within them. Unwanted behavioral dynamics within relationships with people, food, sex, work, etc. is the second type of struggle I work with.

With emotional issues and problems that are driven by a debilitated core, you need to be able to heal at a core level to create real change. I progressively use the songs of Life, which is a healing modality that’s foreign to our culture, but that’s tangibly effective in stimulating the core level healing process that’s already taking place within my client’s debilitated emotional systems. My clients then learn to work with their negative emotions, to establish a tangible connection with the earth that gives their healing process the energetic support it needs, and to work with certain on-the-ground challenges so they can work for and support this unfolding process instead of unwittingly neglecting and working against it. My clients learn to use our sessions, my 3 manuals that guide them through the healing process, and the time between sessions to meet this healing process where it’s at and to help their debilitated cores move back towards more balance and wholeness. The more emotional wellbeing the healing process generates, the better and stronger you feel and the more able you are to bring connection and fluidity—instead of distance and conflict—to the relationships you’re engaging with in your life. This healing process progresses in 3 phases, and we work our way into and through them until you either achieve your goals, or until you’ve decided that you’ve gone far enough with your work.

Initially, my unconventional approach can seem strange because it will be, to some extent, unfamiliar. What’s nice about it is that you’ll get the chance to engage with and test out all the different parts of it so you can find your own truths about it. In the end, I care about what works because that’s what gives my clients a chance to heal and overcome their struggles. If you’re willing to honor your misgivings about something new and different while you give my approach a try, I think you’ll find the results will start speaking for themselves in a matter of months, if not weeks.

Testimonials

‘As a fairly traditionally trained psychologist, I was at first somewhat skeptical of placing my own mental health in the hands of a ‘non-traditional’ practitioner, however, as I worked with Doug, I found that he was able to quickly get an intuitive sense of who I was, what I was struggling with, and how I could best get myself ‘unstuck’. He balanced deep compassion and understanding of my struggles with a rather blunt and firm expectation of accountability and personal responsibility for doing the emotional work necessary to move forward. This was immensely helpful for me. He taught me how to begin to access, face, and engage with my feelings so that I could begin to heal some fairly deep wounds which were holding me back in my life. I left my work with Doug much stronger and more emotionally complete than when I began with him, and at the end of the day, that is the mark of a successful therapy, traditional or not.’—Anonymous

‘When I first started working with Doug, my wounded experience was so deeply embedded, that to ask me to identify it as anything 'other' felt impossible. I couldn't access the core, and could barely perceive of its existence. Through the work with Doug, I was able to find an inroad to this core wound and make a place for it to exist so I could start to connect to it and create change. Peeling back the layers was a slow and intense process, but one in which I was never without the tools necessary to succeed. Having arrived on the other side of this challenge, I greet each new day with an intense gratitude for having gone through this process. Creating a relationship with my core wounds in order to allow for healing changed my life, provided me with a freedom I couldn't have imagined possible, and gave me access to personal depths that continue to teach me even years after finishing the work with Doug.’—JT