Hypnotherapy

Some clients have particular treatment goals that are more easily and effectively addressed through hypnotherapy.  Such goals can include desires to: stop smoking, lose weight, overcome phobias, stop nail biting, reduce stress and anxiety, manage anger, improve study habits, and increase self-esteem and self-confidence.

Spiritual Psychology

I believe that one of the reasons we are here on Earth is to learn how to love and accept ourselves more (for both our "positive" and "negative" attributes), particularly when we didn't get the benefit of having the loving parents we wanted.  When we can look at life as a learning opportunity, and view our behaviors and others' behaviors from a more elevated perspective, we can begin to appreciate the difficulties of our humanness and be kinder and less judgmental towards ourselves and others.  From such a vantage point, we can also discover and apply the compassionate forgiveness that will contribute to feeling and being more whole and content with ourselves and our lives.

Many of us know or suspect that our parent(s) love(d) us.  They just haven't or didn't love us the way we want(ed) or need(ed).  For various reasons, most often having to do with our parents' limitations as human beings, we can't always get what we need or want from them.  When we finally realize and accept that, we can grieve the loss.  Still, we need to get the love we want from somewhere and often look to other relationships to fill up a sense of emptiness.  Ultimately, however, we're best to look for love inside ourselves - where it truly resides - instead of as a reflection in someone else.  So, counseling with the use of a spiritual psychology approach essentially becomes a way to learn to love yourself more - with a guide.  Let me be your guide on your journey to wholeness.

Understanding Feelings

Whether you are anxious, hurt, sad, lonely, depressed, grieving, guilty, bored, stressed or otherwise feeling overwhelmed, those feelings are present for a reason.  Usually, it's because some important need, want or desire isn't being met.  As human beings, we are constantly needing, wanting and desiring and our feelings change accordingly.  So, for some clients, I help them to identify and adequately and effectively express feelings that have been causing them pain or preventing them from making satisfactory adjustments in their personal, family or work lives.  For example, when a client comes in to see me for anger issues, I remind them that anger is present because they've perceived some situation as being unfair and, once that anger is acknowledged and validated, then it's usually a matter of the client making the choice of a more effective response to get the underlying need for fairness met.  And, when the need for fairness is met, the client's anger dissolves.

Allow me to help you better understand the origin and nature of your feelings and how they can be used to help and guide you to greater satisfaction in your life.  After all, happiness and inner peace is a commonly desired goal - which can only be achieved when feelings are understood, validated and satisfied, as opposed to ignored or avoided.

Grief

Grief can occur when we lose people, relationships, pets or things we formerly enjoyed.  Grief can also happen when we never had a person, relationship, pet or thing in our life that we wanted or thought we should have.  Grieving can be short-lived for some and longer for others.  Older teachings informed us that grief followed an expected course of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  This is no longer the enlightened viewpoint.  What we now know is that each person grieves very differently and, as such, accommodations need to be made for those who experience more complex and prolonged emotional and behavioral responses.

(Therapeutic Approaches are continued on the next page)

Marc R. Bertone, MA, JD, MFT

4010 Barranca Parkway, Suite 252, Irvine, CA. 92604

(949) 683-0412

marcbertone@me.com