Karel Chan

Contemplative

We are often weighed down by self-defeating messages and interpretations of painful experiences, and think that there must be some answer "out there" to feeling better and being happy. I believe that the answer is deep within you, buried underneath all those messages and interpretations. We will work together to excavate the outer layers that have formed over the years and investigate the true heart, spirit, and wisdom that begins to shine through.

Mindfulness-based

Mindfulness is a two-pronged skill of awareness: noticing something arising, and nonjudgment: allowing it to simply be what it is. In learning, strengthening, and repeating this practice, we become expansive in our ability to be with any experience that life brings us, without feeling clinched, panicked, or pressured to "prepare for the worst." We also become deeply loving and compassionate of our humanness, no matter what we are thinking, feeling, or doing.

Attachment Theory

Our adult relationships reflect our earliest relationships in life with our families of origin. Whatever the quality of those relationships, they taught us powerful messages about love, how it's given, and sometimes what we need to do in order to receive it. If love was absent, inconsistent, or highly conditional, then we move through life feeling a persistent lack of belonging, no matter who we are with. Understanding that these messages are not true can open us to freely give and receive love.

Spirituality

Rather than see you through a framework of pathology or mental illness, in need of treatment or problem-solving, I see you as a human who has lost touch with their spiritual being and is feeling the anguish, isolation, and helplessness that comes from that disconnect. I will guide you to create room to listen and attune to the deeper truths of who you are, who you have always been.

Personal Growth

It is our human nature to change and seek growth; it is also our human nature to cling to sameness and fear the unknown. We often search outside of ourselves for solutions and direction to ensure that we are making the "right" choice as we age and develop, when truly the answers live within us. By attuning to and connecting with the wisdom of our souls, we will find that the path of our growth reveals itself.

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem, to me, embodies all of the ways we attend to and treat ourselves: self-love, self-compassion, self-governance. Much of our suffering stems from ways that we, as a survival response to neglect or abandonment when young, have neglected or abandoned our selves. Only by turning toward the forgotten, disconnected self can we come back online with a fully embodied presence and an intact esteem for the whole self.

Relationship / Marriage Issues

How we learn to seek and then engage in relationships is formed in our earliest experiences with others: our families of origin, parents, caregivers. Whatever our environment tells us we need to do in order to be loved — even if it hurts or actually feels bad — we do. We will find and nourish those tender, scared, confused spots within you, so that you can embark on seeking relationships already feeling whole, ready to give and receive love courageously and open-heartedly.

Anxiety

Anxiety is the mind's way of trying to achieve peace and safety using thoughts and intellect to exert control, find solutions, and fix what's "wrong." The problem with this is that very few things require solutions, or are actually "wrong" or truly within our control. Peace and safety, though, are innate human needs, so the journey is learning to step away from thinking and into a space of courageously being with feelings of fear and unrest, building an inner strength and wisdom that we trust.