The work is personal. It always has been.

Loss has a way of shaping you early. I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was eleven. She had been sick since I was six, and grief became part of my formation long before I had language for it. That early experience of sitting with hard things planted something in me that never left. The questions I bring into the therapy room are questions I've lived.

It wasn't until my senior year of college that I found where that something was pointing. I spent a semester doing family co-therapy with Henry Rojas, the original Phoenix Suns gorilla mascot, a shy telegram messenger who once danced during a timeout and never really left. In costume he became something larger than life, and he brought that same spontaneous, experiential spirit into his work with families. Once a week I'd help cook dinner for whoever was coming that evening. We'd sit at the table and eat together, then move into the living room to work through whatever they were carrying. It was therapy embedded in real life, in someone's actual home. Something ignited in me that semester that has never gone out.

That led me to a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary, where I spent years at the intersection of theology, psychology, and human flourishing. I pastored a college ministry in Los Angeles while doing counseling work alongside it. Eventually I went back to Fuller for a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy, because I wanted the clinical tools the pastoral work alone couldn't give me.

The work today

Since opening my private practice in 2011, I've worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families. My clinical work is grounded in Restoration Therapy and informed by systems theory, narrative and existential approaches, EMDR, and my own integration of psychology, theology, and philosophy. I don't practice as a traditional Christian counselor. I draw from the best of multiple traditions, and while my faith informs everything I do, I work with people of all backgrounds and beliefs.

I began executive coaching in 2016, working with leaders at organizations like Hilton, Marriott, and Chick-fil-A, and became a Board Certified Coach in 2024.

The person

I've been married to my wife Heather for over 20 years. We have a daughter in college and a son in high school, and we're happiest outside, hiking, camping, and exploring. Heather and I have trained together in RelateStrong and led marriage adventure trips together through WinShape.

Trail running has shaped me as much as anything I've studied. What it taught me, and what I bring into every session, is progressive overload. Growth doesn't happen all at once. It happens through consistent, intentional practice, putting in the work again and again until one day you realize you're capable of things that once seemed impossible.

The night before my first 50-mile race, my wife and kids gave me a plate that read "I can do hard things." We've used that phrase in our family ever since. I believe it's true, and I believe the people who find their way to my office are already proving it, just by showing up.