Website of TairaStJohn.com . Counseling, Coaching and Creative Services

"Thank you for visiting my web page! I would like to get to know you, introduce you to my counseling philosophy and film and stage projects, and be your partner in connecting with your own creative muse. Whether you are interested in individual, couple's or family therapy...or in expanding your own creative capacity, we can work together toward your therapeutic life goals."

Taira St. John, Ph.D.,M.F.T.

As a depth psychotherapist, life coach, radio host and writer-producer of radio, film and video, I combine a private family counseling and mediation practice in Lakeport, CA with my background in communications and entertainment. As a Ph.D., California-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (CA MFT 33695), Family and Civil Court Mediator in the California Superior Court, and Director of Alternatives to Violence (ATV), I have integrated two decades of mental health and court experience related to marriage, divorce, reconciliation and child custody and visitation mediation with my general mental health clientele, all based on the creative process.

Whether viewed from a neurological or depth therapy perspective, human behavior is largely produced through observation, mimicry, habit or current focus. For better or for worse, outer behaviors affect the inner, just as inner thinking and feeling affect the outer. Therefore, you can start almost anywhere in the cycle of daily experience to change your simplest habits in order to improve feeling and sense perceptions that positively impact your living conditions.

The consideration of possible and imaginal outcomes can provide rich veins of insight to an otherwise sense of confusion or imbalance. Sometimes I use poignant human stories and images in theatrical drama and comedy as allegories for the the real-life human stories expressed in the counseling room. These imaginal stories also serve to fulfill my clients' development of imaginative thinking in resolving their own daily relationships and the actual creation of their lives.

Not surprisingly coming from the perspective of a Jungian therapist, analyzing your dreams is likely to be your deepest and most reliable teacher. Now that I have learned its value, It would be a rare experience to be in counseling in my office without at least touching upon "dream tending", as suggested by Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D. in his book and seminars (see his interview streamed in audio on this website under "Radio Downloads"), and other psychoanalytic techniques of Carl Jung.

Utilizing a unique combination of Jungian depth therapy, family systems and brief, solution-focused techniques, we can address together the core of your concerns in a timely and economically-sensitive manner, toward the goal of resolving or integrating them into your life in a way that increases self--confidence, fulfills your needs and helps you cope effectively with obstacles and frustrations.

My counseling practice and media projects are dedicated to helping people understand themselves and others, to increase joy and fulfillment in life, and to reduce obstacles, including anger, violence, and negative projections. In my view, life is intended to be happy and productive. Founded on a simple philosophical rule of taking responsibility for everything that happens in our lives, including words, actions and attitudes, we can learn to reduce our errors in thinking or behavior that unwittingly create long, painful or inconvenient detours to the fulfillment of our dreams.

In addition to specific interventions for more serious mental and emotional conditions, changes in personal habits and thinking help reduce critical mental and physical illness, including: clinical depression, anxiety, manic or psychotic episodes, stress reactions, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the everyday, but no less devastating family or gender communications obstacles. Even grief and loss are more adequately coped with through the development and practice of healthy personal habits.

Responsible commitment to ones own well being through daily practice of personally-derived spiritual mandates, healthy living habits, adequate physical rest and exercise and intelligent eating and spending habits, can provide basic steps toward creating workable solutions to personal and relational problems.

Although it is sometimes gratifying to work with long-term clients committed to personal change, I do not believe in endless, drawn-out therapy except under unusual circumstances. As both a pragmatist and student of the unconscious, I like to encourage my clients to take on life and use it as a learning tool, discovering what their overarching issues are to resolve in this phase of their existence. While good times teach us important lessons about our value and personal relationships, we sometimes learn our most critical lessons through the most disastrous situations. In fact, it may take an unfortunate incident or series of events to teach us what we may unconsciously seek to learn.

Through practicing what you learn from everyday experience, depth counseling and personal encounters in your relationships, you can learn and practice in a meaningful way what really works in your life. When people take energetic control of their own psyches, they can reliably take time out from counseling, and return for therapy as needed to take the next step in developing even more fulfilling personal and professional solutions.

I also conduct certified online therapy in California (where I am licensed) and life coaching in California and throughout the world through my website, on MyTherapyNet.com, or by telephone, including Skype. Life coaching deals more with the present and future than the past. Setting and fulfilling personal and career goals can be as therapeutic and satisfyng as counseling.

Taira St. John