How Did This Happen?
You’ve heard the statement, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Instead, why not focus on the best thing that can happen? You see, when we focus on the worst things, we create the worst things. The flip side can bring to you your dreams — and it sure did for me. At Basic Steps Mental Health, we teach our participants how to focus on what they want. These “Ideal Scenes” help people...Learn More
How to Use the Universal Power
From time to time, I ask myself why I am withholding a lot of valuable information that was taught at the University of Santa Monica. Many of these techniques are ones I use daily in my practice and have helped thousands of people. Being in an almost trance-like state while counseling others has helped me survive an industry I have worked in for over 30 years, many of those years spent at...Learn More
The Energetic to Psychology
One cannot deny that each cell in our body is comprised of an electric charge. If we were to view ourselves as energetic beings, then we have the capacity to choose whether to emit positive or negative energy. When a person walks into a room, their energy impacts it. Some emit a creepy vibe that puts you on guard, while others may fill you with a sense of joy. What impact do you have on a...Learn More
The Number One Healing Tool
As an advocate of Spiritual Psychology, sometimes I feel like a lone wolf in the wilderness. In a world where CBT and DBT get much of the attention, I’ve seen each approach not get the results that are desired, giving psychotherapy a bad rap. If you are in acute distress, behaving a certain way, thinking a certain way, or using anger as a defense will lead to poor results. Then maybe it is...Learn More
12 Steps vs Spiritual Psychology
When somebody remarked in group that our program is not the 12 Steps, a fire was ignited. And no, it is not. When I was admitted into graduate school, I had been working at a 12-Step facility for years and quickly learned that this was the real thing. This is not to say that the 12 Steps are horrible and that people don’t heal and grow from its application, but being a brash young man, I...Learn More
Assessments for the Courts – My Battle
It was inevitable that I’d write about the legal system. Doing Mental Health and Substance Use Evaluations for court proceedings pits one genre against another. The courts try to decide what is right or wrong, but according to Spiritual Psychology, there is no right or wrong—only learning. How do I survive my interactions with the legal system when I tend to lean toward the learning side?...Learn More
Substance Treatment
I was asked to write a note to a lawyer ensuring I was providing substance treatment to their client, so I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to draft something that I could have on my website. My approach is different than 98% of the approaches out there because we focus on the core wounds underneath substance and mental health treatment. Ours is a program of empowerment, where people...Learn More
Feelings of Frustration
I am beyond frustrated. I just had my computer wipe out the article I was preparing, and “frustrated” doesn’t begin to describe the feelings shooting through me. It was going to be the greatest paper ever created, but no—my computer had another agenda of its own. So now I am faced with a decision: either be angry and complain to my staff, or take it in stride and see the computer glitch as...Learn More
Overcoming Anxiety
It’s about time to talk about my battle with anxiety. Anxiety was thought of as a burden that everybody had to carry. I looked at it as the cross I had to bear for the rest of my life. As most of my friends did, I turned to drugs to numb my fears, but after years of doing so, I became a prisoner and felt there was no way out. Because of my drug use, my personality began to change. I became...Learn More