PERSONAL PROFILE

My Path to Becoming a Counselor

I am a newly licensed Pastoral Counselor. I spent the last 23 years working in education, the first 16 as an elementary school teacher, and the last 7 at White Cliffs Middle School. I learned that my greatest strength as an educator was my own challenging experience I had as a student. I was able to empathize with the struggles students face because I faced many of them myself, both academically and socially. After 3 years at the middle school, I left the classroom to become an administrator, as I had found I also enjoyed helping newer teachers to grow as educators and as individuals, which I was able to do as Instructional Coach.

For the next school year, the opportunity arose to move into the Dean of Students position. It was there that I was able to take what I had learned over the years in the classroom to a more in-depth level, in regard to relationships with students. As the disciplinarian, I had the opportunity to allow students to share the internal and external conflicts shaping and affecting their behavior. That time helped me to see that everyone has a story. I was constantly being reminded and inspired by my favorite educational quote: “The students who need the most love, will ask for it in the most unloving ways.” I believe this quote holds true not only for children, but potentially for us all. And I believe finding our identity, worth, and purpose in Christ is what unlocks our ability to “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). God has been so gracious and merciful, helping me through my dark times and teaching me to find joy in Him, and I feel led and excited to help others find the same.

My role as Dean of Students also caused me to realize I wanted something different. I constantly found myself spending more time with students than I was expected to in a disciplinary position. I wanted to understand why a student was misbehaving and try to help with the root issue, rather than simply assigning a consequence. I didn’t feel I was able to address the real need in the student. But the time I would spend working with students and our school counselor was particularly interesting and fulfilling.

The opportunity to become a counselor came after my wife had suffered a terrible accident. She began to see a local counselor, who, down the road, actually became an inspiration to me, as well as my mentor! She connected me with another counselor, whom I already knew, and has been an invaluable support in getting licensed. I truly feel this career change is God’s will for me, and I look forward to all He is going to do in me and through me.

 

Personal Info

I was born in 1974 in Monterey, CA. I went back and forth between the bay area and the Central Valley until 2006, where I met my wife at the age of 24. We married five years later, in 2003. Our first child, my son, was born in 2006, six months before we relocated to Kingman. My daughter was born here in Kingman in 2007.

For fun, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, taking drives and road trips, writing fiction, hockey, watching movies, Mythbusters, and Friends (with the wife), board games, and occasionally playing video games and guitar.