What questions do you help clients navigate?
I’m Chris. I’m a therapist at Optimum Joy, and I really like working with young adults and adults navigating life’s big questions like: Who am I? What’s my place in the world? What am I good at? And how do I find joy and peace in life? Counseling is becoming more and more popular because I think stigma is going away and that we’re realizing it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to struggle. Everyone hurts. Life can be hard. And this really is a space to kind of talk through what you’re struggling with and what your pain points in life are.
How has working with clients impacted you?
The biggest thing that’s impacted me as a counselor is really just the clients I’ve worked with. I feel like I’ve learned as much from them as maybe they might learn from the counseling process working with me, but it’s really impactful whenever the clients I work with start to get better, start to feel better, start to think with more clarity, have a better understanding of themselves, have a better understanding of the world, and really have just better quality relationships—a relationship with others, a relationship with themself, a relationship with their faith, their spirituality, if that’s something that’s important to them, something that they resonate with. So really, the reason I do this is so that people can improve and get better and be well.
Why are you passionate about working with men?
I do like working with all kinds of people, but I really enjoy working with men, particularly men who are interested in kind of exploring their inner world, maybe for the first time. And I think there’s kind of like a negative stigma around men being emotional or making emotional decisions. But I really enjoy the process of kind of normalizing emotion and big emotional feelings with men, because that’s just part of the human experience.
And I think helping a man kind of go inward for the first time and really become more reflective and introspective not only helps them, but it just kind of bleeds out into their world as well. So if they’re more comfortable with themselves and they’re more in tune with how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, their emotions, then they’re a better partner, then they’re a better father, then they’re a better friend. So I really enjoy that and working with men for sure.
What is unique about your therapeutic approach?
So something unique about my approach as a therapist is I use Feedback-Informed Treatment, or FIT for short. And basically FIT is a way to systematically use your feedback as to how our relationship is going and how therapy is going to make sure we’re on the right track for therapy. Quality therapy and a good client outcome is something that is really important to me, something that I really strive toward as a therapist.
I feel like I hear a lot from people, whether it’s their first time in counseling or it’s, you know, they’ve been in counseling for a while and they’ve seen a few different counselors. It’s like, “Yeah, I’m in counseling, like it’s going okay, but I don’t really know what I’m working on or I don’t know if I’m getting any better.” And that is something that really motivates me is to not have that experience for my clients. So I like a really goal-oriented, focused approach where after just, you know, a few sessions, my clients can feel like, “Okay, I’m still struggling because progress isn’t linear and it’s not quick, but I know I’m on the right track”—and that’s why I use FIT.
What brings you joy in your personal life?
So some things that bring me joy are being with friends and live music. And the third thing will probably be any kind of sport. I have an athletic background, both playing and coaching, and I love pickup basketball, slow pitch softball. Just being in any kind of like league is really fun for me. I think I thrive in my group settings, whether that’s team sports, just being out with a group of friends, out at a restaurant, being in a concert venue, seeing some live music. That’s kind of where I—that’s my jam.
