About

Charles Pastoor

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor with an MS in Community Counseling. Prior to embarking on a counseling career, I worked for over 20 years in higher education as a professor of English literature. I have always been interested in stories—in interpreting them to better understand what they mean, as well as how they mean. I have found that it isn’t a huge leap to go from helping students interpret a play like Hamlet to helping clients interpret their own lives and finding the meaning and beauty in their own stories. Which is basically what Hamlet does right before he dies. I work with clients of any age to find those things, preferably as soon as possible.

My counseling style involves a synthesis of cognitive/behavioral and existential therapy, but I do not limit myself to one or two therapeutic approaches. I have experience working with people struggling with sexually maladaptive behavior, chronic and situational anxiety and depression, grief, trauma, relationship problems, spiritual crises, the whips and scorns of time, and the thousand other natural shocks that flesh is heir to. I try to avoid Shakespearean quotations in therapy but they have a dirty habit of creeping in anyway.

Here are some of the things that happen when I work with clients:

•  We talk. I listen. I encourage clients to listen to themselves.

• We talk about beliefs. If clients are operating on beliefs and assumptions that are causing them distress, I might challenge those beliefs and assumptions.

• If clients feel lost, we work together to find a path forward.

• We focus on personal responsibility for making decisions.

• We consider the necessity of taking ownership of our own lives. 

• We talk about feelings, if necessary. We do this because talking about them gives us some measure of control over them, rather than them controlling us.