Holistic Counseling • Somatic Healing
We all have our own journey. I honor the unique path that has brought you here.
Hi, I’m Barry. I’m a holistic counselor who helps people seeking personal growth, healing and transformation. I am passionate about helping people live a healthy, balanced and joyful life.
I use Hakomi mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy along with intuitive and Earth-based traditional modalities to help you discover and reconnect with your true Self - that part of you that is confident, happy, grounded, curious, and compassionate. I will help you understand the core beliefs that color and shape your life. We will work together to understand the origin of these beliefs, examine how they might be limiting, and help you redefine them, leading you to grow and heal.
I work with clients from all backgrounds and can help you navigate life transitions, relationship challenges, childhood trauma, career changes, depression, anxiety, self-criticism or perfectionism, feelings of loneliness, self-esteem issues, feeling stuck or powerless and spiritual growth and yearning.
Offerings
One-hour sessions
In our hour-long sessions I help you explore what is alive for you in your life, current challenges you may be facing and any deeper core issues and beliefs you want to work with. I help you feel into your body, into your deeper true Self, so you can explore and feel your emotions as well as discover and understand who you are. In this embodied state I work with you to re-experience any limiting beliefs, early wounds or traumas in a safe, supportive space where they can be tenderly held and healing can take place. We also use these sessions to prepare for day-long intensives by collaborating to create a set of intentions for your growth and healing. These sessions are also used following day-long intensives to integrate any insights gleaned and help you apply them to your daily life so that your growth and healing is realized in a concrete way.
Daylong intensives
In our day-long intensive sessions we make the time for you to go more deeply into yourself and open up to opportunities for key personal insights and profound growth and healing. These immersive sessions often include expanded states of consciousness, somatic mindful exploration, bodywork (with prior and express consent), sacred rituals and music, guided meditations for inner exploration and sound and energy work. Day-long intensives can be very helpful in addressing long-standing depression, anxiety, PTSD and relational wounds or trauma. During these sessions I sit with you and create a supportive and nurturing space so you feel safe to deepen within yourself to explore, grow and heal.
About Me
I am honored to be here and feel privileged to be doing this work. My journey, like yours, has been unique and multi-faceted. I grew up in West Los Angeles and spent my days playing sports and music with my friends, building things with my dad and brother and hanging out at the local airport and beautiful Santa Monica Beach. It was in many ways an idyllic suburban childhood, but there was also difficulty. I struggled with depression and anxiety in my teens, twenties and thirties. After trying traditional psychotherapy and antidepressants to mediocre results, I discovered this work and found deep healing. I also pursued a bachelors and masters in psychology because I wanted so much to understand the human psyche and what makes us tick and helps us to heal. I have worked in the past as a cabinetmaker and carpenter, a research psychologist and a user-experience designer and leader. I am also a certified massage therapist. I studied at The School of Consciousness Medicine where I learned my somatic, mindfulness approach to self-discovery and growth. I also have been known to hug Redwood Trees.
Testimonials
"I came to Barry after a decade of working on my childhood trauma. I had much difficulty going from my head to my body. With Barry’s caring, gentle, compassionate guidance, I am finally able to truly feel my body and I am in the process of releasing the trauma. Barry is amazingly aware of where I am in my process and knows just when to step in to guide me to where I need to go. Barry has an intuitive sense for sharing his own experiences in a natural way that inspires me to grow. The changes I have gone through in the last six months are remarkable. I am forever grateful to Barry and unequivocally recommend him.
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- Maury
"I came to Barry during a very difficult period of my life. I had been suffering from depression and my marriage was ending. In a few short months, Barry has helped me start turning my life around. I no longer need anti-depressant medication and am back on track to happiness and well-being. I am so grateful to Barry. He is truly a wise, gifted, creative and compassionate healer."
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- Debbie
"I worked with Barry because I was looking for someone who had the wisdom of life and the experience of being a husband and father. From the moment I started working with Barry I felt a deep sense of safety and care. Barry has such a warm and compassionate presence that comes from deep groundedness, as well as an ease and comfort with himself. I knew I could be myself with Barry and that I could be held in a very open and nonjudgmental way. This allowed me open up about parts of myself that I might normally have shame around sharing. Barry really helped me to see these parts as normal and to understand how to be kind to all the parts of myself, while keeping healthy boundaries. Barry is a very solid presence and I love the way he used song lyrics and his immersion into compassion to help me see how I was not alone in my experience and that my needs and feelings were important and part of being a human being. I left my work with him feeling so much love for myself that I realized I had an abundance of space for the people in my life as well. Thank you Barry for your love and care."
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- David
"There's a good chance your angst — your misery — your trauma — is hidden from you, by your own brain, because it's painful. If you want to explore your past to find out how to fix your future, you need a "way in" to your brain - and body. Barry's approach helps you find a way in. Once you're in, you need a guide to lead you through the exploration. And there's no better guide than Barry. He understands, he's been there himself, and he keeps you focused and directed so your journey is fruitful. He works with you to uncover the "treasure" that is buried in your subconscious. Barry is the best guide I could, or ever, will, have."
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- Robert