© 2009, David J. Bookbinder.

SERVICES

Following is a description of some of the services I provide. Click CONTACT to ask questions or to schedule an appointment.

COACHING, COUNSELING, AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

Coaching, counseling, and psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families, with emphasis on helping clients to access their innate creativity to build the lives they wish to live. Click the PRACTICE button for more information on how I work with individuals, couples, and families.

CULTIVATING YOUR CREATIVE SELF GROUPS

A facilitated, supportive community for people who want to develop their creative/artistic sides, offered either as six-week sessions or ongoing groups. Click GROUPS for more information on groups.

WHAT’S NEXT? AND HERO’S JOURNEY WORKSHOPS

One-session to full-day workshops for anyone interested in changing careers or beginning a new, post-retirement adventure. Click GROUPS for more information on workshops.

OFFICE HOURS

I see clients Monday through Friday, days and evenings. I can typically schedule new clients within one week of our initial telephone or e-mail contact.

Groups typically meet for six two-hour sessions and are organized when sufficient demand occurs.

COACHING? COUNSELING? PSYCHOTHERAPY?

Coaching, counseling, and psychotherapy have many qualities in common and the line between them is not firm. However, there are some basic differences.

WHAT IS COACHING?

Coaching helps clients identify and achieve specific life or career goals. It is often more directive than either counseling or psychotherapy, is often done in a more time-limited fashion, and it is usually not covered by health insurance. The form of coaching I do is based on a structured type of counseling called Brief, Solution-Focused Therapy. Clients start by imagining what their lives would be like if the problems or concerns they are having were no longer there. Then we move together toward this vision of the preferred future one step at a time.

WHAT IS COUNSELING?

Counseling helps clients overcome obstacles to their personal growth and to achieve broader life changes than coaching. Counseling often begins with the solution-focused framework used in coaching, but within that framework a wider range of issues and life changes can be dealt with and a broader range of counseling approaches can be used. Techniques I use include Gestalt, Person-Centered, and Focusing-Oriented therapies. As with coaching, the ultimate aim of counseling is to help clients live the best lives they can imagine, but in counseling the vision is often much broader than in coaching.

WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY?

Psychotherapy, like coaching and counseling, is about developing ways to live the best life you can imagine, and many of the same approaches are used. However, in psychotherapy, changes can be broader and deeper than those achieved through coaching or counseling. In addition to helping clients solve current problems and overcome current obstacles, psychotherapy helps to identify long-term self-defeating patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling, and to change them. In the safe and supportive environment of the therapy relationship, old wounds can be healed and untapped potential can be freed. The ultimate aim of psychotherapy is deep and lasting healing and transformation.