Therapy and coaching changed my life. 

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I found my first therapist when I was 21, and she helped me through an intense period of depression, insecurity, anxiety, and deep existential questions. I have continued to see therapists, coaches, mentors and healers regularly for well over a decade; they from a critical support system, not only for my mental health, but for my personal thriving and life direction. I also strongly believe that it takes finding a good fit, and building an honest, trusting relationship to help facilitate real change. 

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My Education

I have been studying and practicing various coaching and counseling modalities for the last seven years. 

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While I have plenty of training and supervision as a counselor and coach, it's important to share that I am currently pursuing my Master's in Counseling for Mental Health & Wellness at NYU and am not yet formally licensed as a Mental Health Counselor.  I am a certified Counselor with the Interchange Counseling Institute (not a state licensure),  and am additionally a Certified Coach through Elementum Coaching Institute. I also have training as an Internal Family Systems-Informed practitioner. I have been working with teens and adults as a coach, counselor, and facilitator for well over a decade. 

 

My Counseling Approach

I take a varied approach to counseling, and draw from a number of core influences and philosophies. Here is a list of some of my counseling essentials and guiding principles:

• Sessions are a collaboration between client and counselor - you help determine where we go, and how deep we go, and together we set your goals and priorities and the pathway for our time together.

• Effective counseling is founded in a strong relationship between the counselor and client. Nothing can happen without trust and real understanding, which is built together over time.

• My approach is a mix between counseling and coaching. I believe that traditional therapy can focus too much on the past while ignoring the present, and often fails to take into account more aspirational goals. Additionally, I believe traditional therapy can easily become too heady and intellect-oriented. Coaching has strengths in it's goal-oriented approach, but as a field is wildly un-regulated - you never know what you’re going to get. I combine counseling and coaching frameworks: reflective work (what happened in the past) with present moment work (what’s happening right now, emotionally and in your life), to help you define and reach goals that are motivating to you.

• I combine a talking/rational approach to understanding your life with an emotion-centered and somatic (body-based) approach. There is a LOT of insight we can gain via mental analysis and discussion of your past and present, but that analysis can only take us so far. As we get comfortable together, we will explore uncovering and feeling emotions that have been left unfelt as a part of the process of personal change. 

• I have been an educator for well over a decade - sessions will often include education on different psychology principles - anything from attachment styles to ventral vagal theory to IFS, along with optional homework for you to take home and practice between sessions in order to integrate the work we’re doing.

• I will often utilize an Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach with some clients. I have found this to be an easily understandable and often profound approach that centers a compassionate and intelligent understanding of the different “parts” of our psyches. I have seen many clients take to this approach with major breakthroughs in areas they were otherwise stuck. To learn more about IFS, click here.

• I also take strength-based, humanistic approach: this means I believe that we are resilient and thrive when we feel safe and supported, even those of us who grew up with deeply dysfunctional or abusive families, or with trauma across our life-span. I pair this with a systemic and existential approach. I believe that, while we can learn a LOT by examining our own psyches, we also have to put this in context within the systems that we belong to - our families and also the culture and environment we were raised in and continue to live in.

• I'm influenced as well by a existential psychology: instead of considering anxiety and depression and other common ailments as “wrong”, sees them as normal and rational responses to the “big” questions underlying human existence - questions and observations around death and impermanence, meaning, responsibility and freedom etc. I provide support in exploring these foundational questions to find a stronger relationship to each of them.

•  I have a lot of personal experience with natural and psychotropic altered states, non-dual experiences, and spiritual emergencies, both personally and professionally.  I work with clients who have experienced significant altered-state experiences, whether they were spontaneous, induced by illness, meditation, breathwork, or psychedelics. These experiences are often deeply impactful (either incredibly positive, incredibly challenging or a mix of both) and often precipitate a radical shift in worldview. They can also be deeply destabilizing. I support clients in integrating, understanding, and making meaning for themselves out of these experiences.

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Pricing, Packages & Scholarships

My regular session rate is $100/hour. To make sessions more affordable I have a limited number of scholarship slots available for $75/hour.

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Sessions are scheduled in advance using an online scheduling system and take place on Zoom. If you live in the New York Metropolitan area, it is possible that we can meet in person at $150/hour. 

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I always offer a free, 30-minute consultation call so we can meet, you can ask me questions, and we can both see if we’d be a good fit.

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If you decide to work together, I’ll send you an intake form and client contract, and we will choose a standard time to meet either weekly or every other week. 

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If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out with my contact form below!

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Sincerely,

Porter

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