David has been a therapist since 2000. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Detroit, an M.Div at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. and his MSW from Grand Valley State University. He is happily married to Pamela since 1992 and currently lives in Leelanau County. David has and continues to live a rich and varied life. He studied abroad in Ireland and Palestine, and has traveled in Europe, the Middle East and Central America, as well as North America. He has been a teacher, a bookseller and a pastoral minister before becoming a social worker. He grew up in both the Detroit area and on a family farm in Gaylord. While he has lived most of his life in Michigan, he has also enjoyed living in the Twin Cities and in South Bend, IN.
As a therapist, David is trained in CBT, Narrative therapy, Motivational Interviewing, EMDR, and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. He is deeply interested in mindfulness practice and mindfulness based therapy. At heart, however, he is an existential therapist, finding at the heart of the human condition our struggle with life and death, meaning and purpose, freedom and responsibility, loneliness and connection, suffering and happiness, grief and loss, and the problem of evil.
As an elder, David is deeply interested in gerotranscendence, both as an area of study and direct experience. He is committed to assisting others in coming to terms with grief and loss, aging as a process of diminishment, chronic illness, preparing for and adjusting to retirement, and facing one’s own mortality. He has personally experienced loss: his parents, a brother, cousins, aunts and uncles and several close friends.
We all make mistakes and we all have regrets. As someone wisely once said, “None of us get out of this alive.” What we can do is honor our feelings and our experiences. As we face them, allow ourselves to feel them, we can create a space to heal and grow through them.
David believes that spirituality, whatever tradition one lives, is a practice to embody and a path to walk. His own spiritual path has been influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition, Buddhism, Taoism and Indigenous Spirituality.
David loves reading, study, walking, nature observation, poetry, music, playing guitar, kayaking and canoeing, gardening, song writing, and cooking. He is as interested in friendship as he is in nature. He loves the arts and loves beauty wherever he can find it. He believes that loving kindness, compassion, social justice, and concern for all sentient beings and the planet are more important now than ever. He believes the cause and conditions of happiness are within us and all around us, and that there are enough things in life to stay active and to make sure a curious mind is never bored or satisfied. David has a particular fondness for dogs, birds, frogs, turtles, trees and fish.
David’s favorite authors and poets include: J.R.R, Tolkien, Aldo Leopold, Patrick O’Brien, Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau, Loren Eisley, Mary Oliver, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jane Hirschfield, Jim Harrison, Pema Chodron, Robert Frost and Jack Kornfield.
