Twenty-eight years ago, Erik began working in the social service world with children and teenagers who were struggling in life to find the balance between who they were and how they fit into the world around them in relationship to where they had already been in life. Over his career, he has continued to work with children, teenagers, and adults who suffer with diagnoses such as: bi polar, schizophrenia, PTSD, Autism, Aspersers, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc. In doing so, Erik has worked in classrooms, residential placements, and community proctor homes, and he has worked as a proctor parent. Over the course of his career he has worked with a variety of cultures such as: Native American, Latino, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, street, gang, etc.
Erik recently graduated from Corban University with a Master’s degree in counseling. He is a Licensed Practical Counselor. During his graduate program, Erik completed a sixteen month internship at a drug and alcohol residential treatment program for adolescents. As an intern at the program, he continued to work with a number of clients from other cultures. He worked with individuals that were struggling with addictions and the desire to find healing and sobriety. He was also able to do family counseling with the families of the adolescents in treatment. These family sessions brought out relational problems that ranged from simple concerns to complex relational conflicts. Erik uses Family Structural Therapy in working with families.
Throughout his career, Erik has developed an open, warm, and inviting bed side manner. Although, he is straight forward, Erik does offer up front feedback while wrapping that feedback in gentle challenges and observations. Erik’s philosophy is that clients bring with them a variety of answers and strengths. His goal is to assist people in finding ways of incorporating their strengths and the answers that they already have into a new way of being that overcomes their problems and moves them forward in their futures. Erik continually seeks to create an atmosphere where people can explore and discover themselves in the midst of finding healing. In working with individuals, Erik operates out of a foundation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Gestalt and Psychoanalytical techniques. He also uses: Strength Based and Solution Focused Therapy.
Professionally, Erik has also developed and presented seminars on Autism and Asperger’s. Over the years, Erik has also grown his interest in photography. He believes that an important part of having a healthy life is also engaging in hobbies and interests which also overlap as outlet avenues for life’s stress. Erik’s other interests include: writing, art, and he is an avid sports fanatic.
Throughout his career, Erik has developed an open, warm, and inviting bed side manner. Although, he is straight forward, Erik does offer up front feedback while wrapping that feedback in gentle challenges and observations. Erik’s philosophy is that clients bring with them a variety of answers and strengths. His goal is to assist people in finding ways of incorporating their strengths and the answers that they already have into a new way of being that overcomes their problems and moves them forward in their futures. Erik continually seeks to create an atmosphere where people can explore and discover themselves in the midst of finding healing. In working with individuals, Erik operates out of a foundation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Gestalt and Psychoanalytical techniques. He also uses: Strength Based and Solution Focused Therapy.