We provide high-quality, competent, and compassionate counseling services.
ABOUT ME
Hello, My name is Eric and it would be my pleasure to utilize the knowledge and tools I have gained over the years to assist and facilitate your healing, growth, and sense of well-being. I have always known that I would function in the helping role since I was very young - not because of some sense that I knew what was best for other people but because I have always been a student OF people and how they think, feel, and behave, and especially when these patterns were different from my own. I am a very driven social worker and professional and I am always looking to learn more from schooling, seminars and most importantly, my clients. Lastly, I pride myself on being professional yet human, competent yet compassionate, and accepting while encouraging. Thus, I would be humbled and appreciative by your choice as me for you to try me as a counselor and social worker in order to facilitate your healing and growth.
In so far as my education, and experience is concerned, my undergraduate degree is in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. The served as the foundation of my professional and therapeutic growth. For most of my education, I worked full-time and went to school full-time on the over-night shift providing essential care for moderately to profoundly developmentally-disabled individuals.. People would ask how I could do it and my answer was, "how could I not do it". The experience and learning in one enhanced and informed my work with the other and vice versa. I took my first Counseling Class then and just consumed it. I was inducted into the International Psychology Honors' Society - Psi Chi and am currently a lifetime member. I was invited to the Senior Honors's Seminar in Victimology and graduated with High Honors - Summa Cum Laude. I also completed an extensive internship at a facility for the treatment of acute mentally-ill individuals. All of this experience taught me extensive counseling skills in the area of Rogerian Client-Centered Therapy, which I believe should be the basis of all counselors, therapists, and social workers experiential educations. In addition, I matured a great deal in my professional stature and how to interact with my professional peers, superiors, clients, and experts in the counseling field.
As far as my graduate education is concerned, I attended and completed my Masters' Degree in Social Work at the University of Buffalo' s School of Social Work with a concentration in Health, Mental Health, and Addictions. In this program, I extensively augmented my counseling and clinical skills with a great deal of class work in various interventions for differing populations learning and utilizing a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy approach mostly. In addition, I completed both a Generalist as well as a Clinical Internship, both of which were a year long. In the Clinical Internship, I learned more CBT as well as learning and utilizing Brief Solution-Focused Therapy, Relapse Prevention as well as Structural Family Therapy, and Relationship Counseling. Toward the end of the Clinical Internship, I was invited to begin training and conducting Forensic Counseling Groups, such as Domestic Violence, Anger Management, and Sexual-Specific groups where I had access and experience in more CBT, SFT, Relapse Prevention, and the Duluth Model. It is also essential to mention that my ability to connect with clients grew exponentially as this connection is as important as the techniques utilized.
The Clinical Internship ended at the same time I graduated with my MSW and I was hired by the agency the provided the Clinical Internship and I was able to continue growing and learning these modalities of treatment and how to utilize them effectively, gain more experience with a very wide and diverse field of clients and clinical issues. In addition, I gained extensive experience with Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) programs, referrals, and clients where I utilized a Brief Solution Focused and Cognitive Behavioral approaches to successfully treat people in a shorter time-limited format.
Since graduation from the UB School of Social Work, I was immediately hired by the same agency where I did my latest (Clinical) internship and counseled in both their Family Counseling and Forensic Counseling Office-Based Programs. In my work with the Family Counseling Program, I did family, couples and individual counseling. I got an enormous amount of experience working in these sorts of counseling and sought out both Clinical Supervision as well as continuing education in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Schema-Focused Therapy, Brief Solution-Based Therapy, Relapse Prevention and Relationship-Based Therapy. During this time I also obtained my Certification as a Clinically-Certified Forensic Counselor and recently earned Diplomate status with the National Association of Forensic Counselors.
Soon after this, I obtained employment at an agency that provided Inpatient Behavioral Health, Outpatient Chemical Dependency, Inpatient Chemical Dependency, and Medically Supervised Withdrawal (Detoxification) Programs where I worked in all of these programs and gained enormously valuable experience. During this time, I sought out and completed continuing education in Motivational Interviewing and utilized it a great deal with those in recovery from substances and found this modality to be very effective. I still utilize this selectively in clients who seem receptive to its fundamentals.
At the same time, I started my own Private Practice which I later named Quantum Counseling Services. I am still working to expand and gain more skills to add to my therapeutic tool case. I provide treatment for a wide variety of clinical issues to include depression, anxiety, trauma/PTSD, relationship issues, sexual issues, domestic troubles, anger management, eating disorders (for which I have specialized training), family and couples issues. In this time, I pursued more knowledge and certification in how to treat Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I gained extensive training and certification (Certified Clinical Trauma Professional) from the International Association of Trauma Professionals. I am trained in an EMDR - Related technique - Tactile Alternating Bilateral Stimulation to directly treat symptoms of PTSD by eliminating the unwanted emotions related to traumatic flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts and irrational avoidance.
I also work at an agency that provides in-home counseling for individuals with Traumatic and Acquired Brain Injury. I provide both CIC (Community Integration Counseling) and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and supports) for this population in their homes. CIC counseling is to assist individuals who have spent a great deal of time in a nursing home or hospital setting after their TBI in order to assist them in adjusting them back to independent living. PBIS counseling is behavioral in nature and assists individuals with TBI who demonstrate behaviors that put them at risk of losing their independent status in the community. Treatment modalities that I utilize are mainly CBT, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Positive Psychology, Rogerian Therapy and Behavioral Therapy in addition to Psychoeducation. During this time I have gained valuable experience in working with this unique population in utilizing simple reframing, and emotional reflection and validation. I also pursued and completed training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Positive Psychology. I have found that individuals with TBI respond very positively to the themes of Mindfulness and hopeful positivity of DBT and Positive Psychology
Finally, I would like to state that I have worked very hard to gain clinical skills in the modalities I have mentioned in addition to Crisis Intervntion, Mental Status Exam, as well as identifying Suicidal and Homicidal Ideations when meeting with clients regardless if it is meeting with a client for the first time or for the fiftieth time. At the same time, I recognize that of equal importance with the skills is the connection between the counselor/therapist and the client for without it, very little therapeutic work can be accomplished. This rapport is developed early in treatment and involves a great deal of the Rogerian Principles of Unconditional Positive Regard, Paraphrase, Reflection/Validation, Compassion and Empathy. I have found that when these elements are appropriately utilized, the client will calm down, lower her/his defenses and become receptive for therapeutic intervention.
