Hi, I’m Brandon LaBarge. I’m a dog person AND a cat person. I’m also a human person. I currently provide mental health services to students of Temple University at Tuttleman Counseling Services. I have a M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern State University and a M.Ed. in Counselor Education from Georgia Southern University. I am Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Pennsylvania and a Nationally Certified Counselor. I have worked with veterans in a PTSD clinic as well as children, adolescents, and adults in a community mental health and substance abuse clinic.

During my experience, I have worked really intentionally to promote open and effective counseling relationships while also balancing my own stressors and responsibilities in my life. I learned to utilize the innate qualities of mindfulness that we all have by being more purposely present and non-judgmental in counseling.

In 2012, as I was managing a community mental health clinic full time, I began my second master’s program and a regular mindfulness practice. I was then allotted the opportunity to co-facilitate a Models and Techniques and Counseling course for the Counselor Education graduate program where counselors-in-training began sitting with clients for the first time and/or role playing. These beginning stages of training can come with many challenges, anxieties, doubts, and fears. By weaving mindfulness into each class, we promoted more ways of accessing openness, curiosity, and present-moment contact.

The Mindfulness in Counseling Recordings were created afterward to help accompany counselors-in-training face common barriers of sitting with others while also helping to reach some fundamental milestones of counselor development. I believe we all need reminders to be more present in our relationships and the counseling relationship in particular should be valued and respected.