Philip F. Daniels, Ph.D., LMHC

          My desire to become a mental health counselor stems from the idea of having a career that allows me to experience a wide variety of challenges, and being a Christ-follower who desires to help individuals who are suffering.  I am from a family of plumbers and I worked in the field since I was a young boy.  It was exciting to go from job to job in different customer’s houses and businesses to fix their problems. The best part and most rewarding was no problem was the same, and every issue was solved with the proper resources.  Although there were similar themes, like humans no pipe is the same.  Beyond my pipe dreams, I more importantly want to follow God’s calling in my life. 

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          I help people by understanding them before trying to be understood.  Like Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:8 (New International Version), “Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.” Although, now I understand this as “Empathize” with each other). I offer a safe place to experience strong emotions and encourage that healing is possible with faith, hope, and forgiveness. I am a blank slate for someone to project their raw emotions while I provide unconditional positive regard, and acceptance of the exposure while the individual is a vulnerable state. I abide by the American Counseling Association’s ethical and professional boundaries, and practice evidence based therapies through the foundations of person-centered, cognitive behavioral therapy, reality/choice theory, and recently added child-center play therapy to my repertoire.

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         While journeying through my college and professional career, I have found that there are many types of mental health careers to choose from.  From these I chose to become dually licensed in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Marriage & Family Therapy (MFT).  My specialties include substance abuse, pediatric, and geriatric counseling. I feel that to fully provide a comprehensive service for my clients and meet CACREP standards, I should be well versed and competent in these specific areas of counseling. My counseling research interest is founded in my passion for helping families with loved ones diagnosed with neurocognitive disorders. 

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          When I began my career as a counselor I remember struggling with what type of theoretical belief, practice, or philosophy I would conform too?  Since then I have learned many different theories, practices, and philosophies. Thus far, I discovered what feels natural and works with my personality and therapeutic style.  These theories are person-centered, reality/choice theory, and solution-focused. However, this does not limit me from utilizing practices or interventions from other theories. Intentionality and competence are key components to my counseling theory to best serve my clients. 

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          The aspect of person-centered is how I connect and build a therapeutic relationship based on empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness.  I consider person-center my home based because without establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship I could harm the client and not help them.  I consider reality therapy/choice theory as the vehicle in which helps conceptualize, co-create goals using the WDEP system, and meeting desired outcomes.  Finally, I utilize solution-focused therapy to identify strengths, exceptions, and the use of scaling.  I find that the use of scales as a measure helps raise awareness within the client and quantify concepts or symptoms to measure progress.  

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          I believe that individuals have their personal foundations and it is not my place to rebuild their foundations. It is my place to meet that person where they are at, and help them process their emotions and thoughts as they rebuild themselves from the inside out.  I believe that everyone is created in a specific image, for a specific reason, and has specific gifts and abilities to not only help themselves but also to help others.  Helping an individual realize these potentials is the essence of accepting and connecting with one another in my counseling practice.