Transitions Individual & Couple’s Counseling: Harrisonburg, Virginia — Make Changes that Last

Note: If you are experiencing a mental health emergency please call 911 (or equivalent for your locale), try some of the community emergency resources, or visit your nearest hospital emergency room.

Please Remember:

• Your letter is anonymous, which means you will not receive a reply.
• Anything you write to me may be quoted exactly, or altered for clarity, readability, etc. at my discretion. Thus, do not write anything you are not comfortable being shared with the world via YouTube. Do not share your full name, and certainly feel free to refer to yourself and others via initials, first name only, nicknames, etc.—whatever feels best for protecting your privacy and anonymity.
• While I aim to give a video response to every letter received I cannot guarantee a response (nor the timing of a response).

Tell me the story your letter is embedded in. Where were you? What kind of day were you having? What sorts of feelings and thoughts were you having before, during, and after the occurrence of whatever has prompted your letter. How was your body feeling (pay attention to things like changes in tension and energy)? Who are the key characters in the story, and what is your relation to each? All of this is less about sharing exact detail, and more about giving me a “feel” for your experience. You might find it helpful to write your letter as though you were telling your story to a friend or family member. I would also encourage you to share your own thoughts and reflections regarding why you are struggling, feeling stuck, etc. in the ways that you are, as well as any ways you have made sense of the focus on your letter thus far.

I welcome letters from anyone. However, if you are a current/previous client then I recommend that you bring your questions directly to me in your next counseling session. Ask Sean is intended to be a resource for those who do not have me as their counselor—it is a way for me to offer some help and guidance to many more people than I can realistically see as clients. So if you are one of my clients (current or past) just schedule a counseling session ▦ and we can talk through your question(s) together in real time.

Regardless of whether you are a client or not, you are welcome to share Ask Sean with others whom you feel might resonate with or benefit from my YouTube videos or from getting to write an anonymous letter. Simply point them to www.AskSean.org/YouTube which will automatically redirect them to the YouTube Channel (and www.AskSean.org, which redirects to this current page).

Fellow counselors, helpers and leaders are welcome to pose questions too regarding the people you are trying to guide and support. Whether you are a mental health worker, a pastor, a teacher, a medical professional or a leader in your organization, you are working with people and thus may have challenging dynamics and situations which you would like my input on. Obviously, in writing your letter you will need to be particularly circumspect in the details you share, but as I have recommended above, focus on the feel of whatever patterns, behaviors and situations with others you are finding challenging to navigate. In addition to offering some possibilities of what might be going on with whomever you are trying to help, I can also potentially offer you some things to consider regarding how the other person’s struggles may be intersecting with your own (which is often a part of where we get stuck when trying to help other people).