George Hage,Ed. D., Ph. D., LCMHC, LCMHCS

I have been involved in the counseling field for approximately 33 years. I execise counseling as a ministry to all who see the need to work with me. I welcome all regardless of income level and ability to pay. I have learned that much of the pain and suffering we experience is the way of seeing ourselves and our trials and struggles. Some of the great spiritualities such as Buddhism teach that we can reach the point of no suffering while others such as Christianity and Judaism traditionally teach that suffering remains with us. However, I am sure that we can minimize pain and feelings of suffering that we undergo in struggles. As a therapist and counselor, I empower your awareness of emotions and thoughts to the point of finding the wisdom of managing them and changing them. For example, we may undergo the trial and pain struggles and challenges, but the end of counseling is to minimize the extraneous pain and suffering that comes through fearful thoughts and emotions that plague us to the point of seeing and feeling the worst that could happen to us. But in reality, that worst is uncertain. It is often what we think we see coming, and this thought is empowered by our belief in the worst that will surely happen. The end of counseling here is raising your awareness of seeing "this" as merely thought and belief and not the substance of reality. Furthermore, the approach applied is guiding you to remove all of "this" extraneous "stuff" so that you may focus on the healing of your true heart or cancer condition. This basic principle applies to all of our trials and struggles no matter how great or small.

I primarily counsel with adult men and women who are struggling with issues such as anxiety, depression, and relationship issues, as well as those who have attention deficits. I also work with individuals struggling to find the big picture of their lives and are struggling to identify their core values, are “failing to launch,” are having a mid-life crisis, are struggling to adapt to retirement, or are having a crisis of faith. I work with older teens (16+) who are having school related problems, are suffering from anxiety or depression or who have attention deficit disorder. My work with teen boys may take the form of individual therapy with the teen, family therapy that includes the teen and his parents, or “parent coaching.” Over the years, I effectively served clients with behavior and learning problems, clients seeking change in their lives vocationally, educationally, and relationally, clients with family dysfunctions, clients with spiritual, developmental, social, and cultural issues, clients with mild substance abuse issues, and clients who are seeking overall self-improvement and wellbeing. I well as my willingness to work with women who feel that I can help them, I will accept younger teens if they and their parents feel that I can help them.

I am available should you have the Licensed Professional Counselor Associate credential and are needing to seek clinical supervision for the Licensed Professional Counselor credential. I have been involved in clinical supervision since 2008.

I apply counseling techniques from varied spiritual schools including mindfulness, prayer, meditation, biblical and mystical Judaeo-Christian techniques that have been applied toward holistic growth and well-being since ancient times. Relatively, I apply principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Positive Psychology, Solution Focused Therapy, Person Center Therapy, and Logo Therapy which actually plug into the techniques of antiquity.

I have written books, among which are Seeking Wisdom: A Quest in Poetry which conveys the power of poetry and scripture in counseling through personal wisdom quests of the counselor. Counseling and Creativity: Reflections is a personality study that treats counseling as a fine art. Reconciliation: Toward Creative Counseling and Education provides a creative method to counseling for the purpose of finding connections in differences and oppositions. Consciousness, Culture, and Healing (with Suzanne Deakins) treats counseling as a form of healing in the context of the American cultural consciousness, and A Parent’s Guide to Holistic Education (with Suzanne Deakins) is a companion for Reconciliation; it focuses and clarifies Reconciliation as a means of attaining holistic counseling and education. A lately written and published work is The Heart of Mother. This demonstrates the wisdom and experience of mothers displayed though the counseling process. Lately published, is a dissertation written by myself during graduate school for the degree Doctor of Education. It is entitled A Symbolic Analysis of The Dimensions of Holiness in American Culture and Curriculum: Toward a Symbolic Synthesis of Wholeness. This study displays the psychodynamics of the implicit domain of American culture and curriculum. Having applied the structural method of analysis, the current dis-eased culture of hierarchical binary oppositions is displayed, and a synthesis of healing and wholeness though the eternal circle is posited. This work provides the foundation of my work as a counselor, educator, and writer. You may see my books and lucid descriptions of them on Amazon.com. Go to that browser and type in each title and author, George Campbell Hage.

I hold doctoral degrees in education, curriculum and teaching (Ed. D.), and theology, Eastern Orthodox Studies (Ph. D.). I have taught in the community and have served in the ordained clergy of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ in North Carolina from which I am retired and am now serving in a local Eastern Orthodox Church. Thank you for considering me as your counselor and therapist.