John Orr, LPC Associate

Thank you for taking the time to check out my profile! Effective counseling can open many new possibilities in life, but it might feel challenging to get started. It’s important to find a counselor who is a good fit for your personality, goals, and needs. 

As someone who has benefitted in a big way from my own experiences in counseling, I know first-hand how important it is to forge a strong relationship between counselor and client based on trust, empathy, and acceptance. You can expect me to be genuine, warm, straightforward, positive, caring, and non-judgmental. Many people seek to be challenged in counseling to expand beyond their “comfort zone” so that they can better pursue their goals, and I will work with you to identify when and how you prefer to be challenged. You may have needs or goals that are very clear and defined already, or you may be seeking self-exploration and insight that will help you as you continue your life’s journey. While respecting your comfort level and moving at a pace that feels right to you, I will seek to get to know you on a deeper level and to gain an understanding of how we can tailor the counseling experience to best serve you. 

Let me tell you a bit about my approach and some of the common issues that I help folks to address. If you often find yourself mentally and emotionally stuck in regrets from the past or worries about the future, we can work together to help you gain a greater sense of self-compassion, acceptance, resilience, and confidence. In order to help you to grasp the opportunities for meaningful living that can only be experienced when you are living in the present moment, I can help you develop skills that will allow you to increase your focus on the here and now and to decrease the influence of unhelpful thoughts and difficult emotions on your actions. We can work to align your actions with what you value most in life. If what you value most is unclear, we’ll explore what things can bring you fulfillment, joy, or meaning in order to identify the type of life that you want for yourself and to help you more fully live that kind of life. I have worked with many folks to address challenges such as “overthinking,” “people-pleasing” at the expense of one’s own needs, reducing unwanted behaviors, developing desired behaviors, building communication skills, exploring relationship values, and healing from past or current relational trauma. Whether you are confronted by these or other challenges, I would be honored to help you find a path forward that is authentic to who you are at your core and who you seek to become. 

As I worked through my own struggles during early adulthood, I found fulfillment in a career change which ultimately led to me becoming a counselor. I have over a decade of experience helping people pursue a wide array of goals in individual and group settings. In addition to the issues previously mentioned, I also help people with anxiety, depression, grief, difficulties associated with being highly sensitive, loneliness, managing anger, seeking purpose, life and career transitions, social struggles, family struggles, and relationship difficulties. The majority of my experience has been focused on working with diverse adults of varied ages and with teenage boys. I also love working with neurodivergent folks (ADHD, autism, etc.). 

In my personal life, I am a record collector and a huge music nerd. From my own experience, I am a believer that the arts and music can help a person to make it through hard times and to find a sense of joy, meaning, and connection. For clients who are interested, I enjoy integrating the arts and creativity into the counseling experience. You can often find me listening to tunes, enjoying nature, watching classic scary movies, spending quality time with my partner and my cat, or reading about psychology, art, music, history, mythology, and folklore. 

If you are interested in working with me, please reach out and we can explore whether we would be a good fit. I’d love to hear from you!