A Month That Matters

Three one-hour conversations over the course of a month, approximately two weeks apart, with email conversation between sessions as needed and wanted. The complete one-month engagement is $1,500.

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A MONTH THAT MATTERS

Work with Me as Your
Human Experience Specialist

Your life deserves serious attention

For more than forty years, I’ve worked with people on the challenges that come with being human. I’ve done that under many names—as a psychotherapist, creativity coach, life-purpose thinker, existential wellness coach, author, teacher, and trainer.

Now I have a name for the work that feels larger and more accurate: Human Experience Specialist.

A Human Experience Specialist begins with a simple premise: you do not have to have a disorder to have a problem, and you do not have to fit your problem into somebody else’s category in order to deserve help with it.

You may be trying to write a book and not writing it. You may be facing a career decision. You may have reached a crossroads in a relationship. You may be wondering what to do with the next chapter of your life. You may be struggling with motivation, identity, creativity, disappointment, aging, ambition, anxiety, meaning, purpose, or the peculiar feeling that the life you are living no longer quite fits.

Or you may simply have something important that you want to think through with someone.

That is enough.

What Could We Talk About?

Almost anything.

We might spend our month together getting very concrete about how you are finally going to write that novel, launch that business, make that career change, complete that project, or have that difficult conversation.

We might spend it wrestling with questions that have no easy answers: Who am I now? What matters to me? What am I doing with my life? What do I want the coming years to stand for? How do I create meaning when meaning is not simply given to me? How do I live with uncertainty without becoming paralyzed by it?

And, very often, the concrete and the existential turn out to be connected.

The book that isn’t getting written may raise questions about identity, fear, ambition, and meaning. The career decision may really be a life-purpose decision. The relationship problem may turn into a conversation about who you have become. The apparently abstract question—What should I be doing with my life?—may eventually require some very practical answers.

We go where the conversation needs to go.

A Month Devoted to Something that Matters

I am offering this work as a one-month engagement rather than as open-ended coaching.

We meet for an initial session. Two weeks later, we meet again. Two weeks after that, we have our third session. Between sessions, we can continue the conversation by email, as needed and wanted.

There is no curriculum to complete and no predetermined destination we must reach. We begin with what you bring me, and together we decide what deserves our attention.

I may ask questions you haven’t been asking yourself. I may challenge an assumption that has quietly been governing your life. I may help you distinguish a practical problem from an existential one—or recognize that you are dealing with both. I may suggest a life experiment, a new way of framing your situation, a concrete next step, or a completely different way of understanding what is happening.

Sometimes what a person needs is a strategy. Sometimes it’s a decision. Sometimes it’s permission to change direction. Sometimes it’s a clearer understanding of what is actually going on. And sometimes what matters most is having a serious, sustained conversation about a question that the ordinary world gives us almost no place to discuss.

Why a Month?

Because one conversation can illuminate something, but three conversations allow something to develop.

We can begin somewhere, see what happens when you return to your life, and then meet again with new information. You can try something. Think differently. Notice what changes. Discover what resists changing. Between our meetings, our email exchanges allow the conversation to remain alive.

A month creates a container: long enough for movement to occur, short enough to feel focused and purposeful.

At the end of the month, you may have completed something,

decided something, begun something, stopped something, understood something—or changed the question altogether.

Nothing Human is Off the Table

This is perhaps the most important feature of working with a Human Experience Specialist.

You do not need to arrive knowing what category your concern belongs in.

Bring me the hazy book idea.

Bring me the impossible decision.

Bring me the question about meaning.

Bring me the career that no longer fits, the creative project that won’t move, the ambition you’re embarrassed to admit, the transition you didn’t ask for, the future you can’t quite picture, or the life question that keeps returning at three in the morning.

Bring me whatever in your human experience currently deserves serious attention.

For one month, we’ll give it that attention together.

Why Work with Me?

For more than forty years, I’ve been thinking about—and working directly with—the challenges of being human. I’ve written more than sixty books on creativity, meaning, purpose, and the art of living, and I’ve worked with thousands of people as a psychotherapist, creativity coach, existential wellness coach, teacher, and trainer.

That experience has taught me that people rarely arrive with problems that fit neatly into categories. A creative problem may also be a meaning problem. A career decision may be an identity decision. A practical obstacle may have an existential dimension.

What I bring to our work is not a formula or a predetermined method, but decades of experience listening closely, asking useful questions, seeing connections, challenging assumptions, and helping people find their own next steps. We begin with you—and with whatever in your life currently deserves serious attention.

How do we begin?

Once you decide to work with me, I’ll send you a brief questionnaire so that I can learn a little about you, what brings you to me, and what you might like us to focus on. Then we’ll schedule our first meeting.

How do we meet??

We meet remotely by Zoom, so you can work with me from virtually anywhere. Our three sessions take place over approximately one month, with about two weeks between meetings.

What can I bring to our conversations??

Almost anything that matters to you. You might bring a very concrete challenge—finishing a book, making a career decision, navigating a transition—or a much larger question about identity, meaning, purpose, relationships, creativity, or how you want to live. You don’t need to decide beforehand what “category” your concern belongs in.

Do I need to have a particular goal?

No. You may arrive with a very specific goal, a difficult decision, a persistent problem, a question you can’t answer, or simply the sense that something in your life deserves serious thought and attention.

What happens between sessions?

Email is part of our month together. You are welcome to write to me between sessions when something arises, when you want to report on what you’re trying, or when you want to continue a thread from our conversation. I’ll respond so that our work can remain alive between meetings.

Is this psychotherapy or mental health treatment??

No. Our work together is not psychotherapy, psychiatric treatment, diagnosis, or medical care. Human Experience Specialist work is a different kind of helping relationship, centered on understanding your lived experience and helping you think, choose, experiment, create, and move forward.

Do you accept insurance?

No. The one-month engagement is privately paid and is not billed to insurance. The complete fee is $1,500.

Can I work with you while I'm seeing a therapist, psychiatrist, coach, or other professional?

Yes. Human Experience Specialist work can readily complement other forms of help. You don’t need to stop working with another professional in order to work with me.

What happens after the month is over?

The month is designed to be a complete engagement in itself. At our final meeting, we’ll look at where you’ve arrived and what might come next. If we both feel that another month together would be useful, we can discuss that then.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. Your fee is fully refundable at any time before our first session. After our first session and before our second session, you may receive a $500 refund. After our second session, no refunds are available.

What if I miss a scheduled session?

A scheduled session that is missed without reasonable advance notice counts as one of your three sessions. If you need to reschedule, please let me know in advance. For purposes of the refund policy, a scheduled session that is missed without reasonable advance notice is considered a completed session.