My philosophy as a practitioner.
Dr. Rodney Luster
Therapist
Approach
My years of experience in the field, my affinity for design-thinking and creativity as well as my roles as an innovator in industry and academe have led me to an affiliation with the term “pragmatic” therapist. I see the potentials in various approaches and philosophies as they serve the prospect for addressing a client’s needs. Having taught and studied the discipline from an array of perspectives, I utilize my first few sessions to gain an understanding of the client’s personality, their issues and understanding their goals.
After charting a potential provisional path, we will spend a bit more time refining things, and ultimately set about developing a robust methodological strategy, finding the most salient and potential evidenced-based tactical approaches, as well as experimental, for achieving the results you desire. My process is also imbibed in the deeper possibilities of the meaning-making experience of working together, doing what we were engineered to do through the interchange of counseling.
How we move forward
There is a great story that starts “One day he sat beneath the tree, contemplating the eastern quarter of the world, and the tree was illuminated with his radiance.” This begins one of the legendary stories captured as the Great Struggle of Buddha. What lay ahead would be a battle with a formidable antagonist and their attempt to destroy a hero. Our lives are not very far removed from such legendary tales. Perhaps you are in such a struggle and, as noted psychologist Peter Levine says, it is your time to wake the tiger!
The potential to lean into the storm and learn from it, from adversity, is part of a hero’s journey, your journey. Joseph Campbell presents such an expedition in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. What I know is that every journey is unique, but we all will be challenged with one.
I believe in positive psychology as a critical aspect of what we all need to inspire us to move forward. It now brings me to the construct of Inspirethought. The site combines the elements that are all the cornerstones of what I engage, imbued with the acumen and wisdom of years of professional experience to validate. It is my hope to bring to all my clients not only my services but a richly imbued place of “anchoring” resources that everyone can engage and flourish from in their own unique walk and hero’s journey. I am here for your vested interest in psychological counseling, coaching, or industry consulting needs. The first step begins with you!
Every journey presents us with metaphorical dragons along the way. They come to us in the form of traumas, impacting events, and much more. But what I have also understood about a hero’s journey is how we can lean into adversity if we allow it, so that we take control, harness, and modify how we respond.
Such issues are simply a given of human existence, how we respond to them is not! In fact, these uninvited elements can be the very agents of tremendous transformation. Whatever road you are on and the current challenges you face, there is a light at the end of the road and all it needs is your progression forward to get there.
I welcome the chance to be your strategic personal mentor, psychotherapist, and or consultant to your own hero’s journey, whether it is for you or your organization. Looking forward to joining you on the road ahead!
Breaking the chains of unhealthy thinking!
One of the primary functions of counseling is to help clients recognize their own strengths, uncover what is preventing them from using their own strength’s and help clarify what kind of goals and person they want to be.
Every patient has some important rights in the counseling process such as the right of informed consent, providing the information they need to become active participants in the therapeutic alliance. As well, dimensions of confidentiality guarantee the patient a high degree of privacy which is central to the therapy process. As well, every counselor must abide by rigorous ethical codes of conduct to ensure patient safety and security.
The theories and techniques revered and deployed by the profession are extensive. Every counselor typically aligns themselves with a higher philosophical orientation such as psychoanalytic, Adlerian, Existential, Person-centered, Gestalt, Reality, Behaviorist, Cognitive-Behaviorist, Family systems, and the list goes on. Within each of these broader psychological orientations are a number of technical tools utilized to engage the issues a patient may be having or experiencing. And like all therapists and counselors, I have over the years, developed my own mobilizing practices and lean into the ‘here and now” of the time I spend with clients, an ahistoric approach that allows much more than a clinical exchange, but a person-to-person meaning-making opportunity in the here and now of the hour.
Psychotherapy is a part of my practice that is integrated into counseling as a higher, third-tier complement to therapy, that helps to see the gestalt or broader uniform parts as they look in a person’s life. Counseling then allows a more focused prospect of engaging each client’s goal with strategy and tactical ambition.
From 3,000 scientific studies, the pronounced benefits of psychotherapy endure, and the potentials of therapy are wonderful.
Current Insights.
When Heroes Need Rescuing
Dr.Rodney Luster
In 2022, the world has been challenged by several unprecedented large-scale crisis events such as increases in mass shootings, increases in violence, and pernicious natural disasters. Although first responders have been trained to engage in extreme conditions amid rapid onset of change circumstances, such trainings do not comprehensively address or provide resources for the post-response mental health needs of these professionals. Read more…
Are We in the Middle of a Mental Health Crisis?
Dr. Luster interviewed
It’s important to find a therapist that’s a good fit.
My Background
I have a bachelor’s degree in Art/Speech Pathology, a master’s in Psychology/Sociology, and a doctorate degree in Counseling specializing in Trauma and Forensic Pathology. My postdoc counseling internship was conducted through Johns Hopkins University. I have trained with some of the best in the field from Dr. Drema Dial to Dr. Peter Levine. Part of my career has also been working as a research scientist, leading a specialized center for leadership and organizational research for a large university where we conduct research on a host of topical matters from business to psychology.
I am also currently a senior director of innovation and research strategy and have been an executive director in various roles in business for many years now. In tandem, serving as a professor of psychology and sociology for 18+ years now, currently teaching psychometrics at the doctoral level as well as doctoral residencies. I have published in the world of academe, spoken around the country, and am currently working on research around current social phenomena. As a counselor I have worked for years now not only teaching the subject to new counseling students and lecturing to counselors at workshops, but also in private practice, having worked on some of the toughest issues challenging people.
Schedule a session with me in my Headway portal.
Headway is a third-party platform I use to make the process of getting started much less invasive for clients. You can also schedule with me there directly at a time that is convenient for you.
