Spiritually-Sensitive Therapy

Licensed Psychotherapist Serving Religious Minorities in Arizona & New Mexico

If you’ve found this page, chances are your spiritual practice is a huge factor in the mental health services you are seeking, and I’m here to support that!

NEW IN 2024, I AM OFFERING A VIRTUAL GROUP, FINDING THE MAGIC, A SAFE SPACE FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NATURE-BASED, PAGAN, WICCAN AND ADJACENT SPIRITUAL PRACTICES. LEARN MORE HERE AND CONTACT ME TO SIGN UP!

nature-based butterfly lover wendy howell lpc in arizona and new mexico

I’m Wendy Howell, LPC – a professional counselor licensed in Arizona and New Mexico. Since my first master’s level class, I have researched the intersection of spirituality and mental health. My professional experience includes working with people who come from all walks of life, and who have experienced all kinds of systemic challenges. I love helping ground people in basic needs and self-regulation to give guidance out of a mental health or life challenge and help to clarify the role of spiritual practice in healing. I’m GREAT at doing a thorough evaluation that considers YOUR healing, wellness, and spirituality on your terms, in your own words.

Just to be clear, I DON’T do “spiritual counseling” or “pastoral counseling”. Some professionals are trained in this and might have an M.Div. degree or have been ordained. Some religious or spiritual groups certify pastoral/spiritual counselors but there isn’t a State of Arizona / New Mexico board that certifies people in this. Instead, I am offering clinical mental health counseling in a judgment-free space that affords room to include your own unique spiritual practice if you so desire.

Individuals often seek my guidance for the following types of psycho-spiritual therapy concerns:

  • From the beginning of my counseling training through present day, my education and training have focused on how to be present for YOUR process and how your spirituality MAY be a part of it. We will discuss it at your first session. It’s up to what you decide with me in our sessions, and it can always change, based on what feels comfortable to you.

  • I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), which means I employ evidence-based Clinical Counseling techniques based on my master’s degree and counseling training and supervision. As a counselor, I support bio-psycho-social-spiritual healing in a clinically sound, culturally, spiritually sensitive manner. I use counseling interventions such as mindfulness that you may use in or out of session. I teach the ‘secular’ version of these. If you are interested, I will help you find a version of the coping skill that fits into your practice. Some people like it to be integrated fully into their practice. Others separate mental health coping from spiritual practice.

  • We are multifaceted beings who develop in a variety of ways. Spiritual development is one way, but emotional and thought management are another, intertwining but also separate way we develop. Because of my training in Integrative Counseling, I can help you identify areas where you might implement more coping skills.

  • My position as a therapist is to help you feel understood, and to support your greater internal understanding. I do that by validating your experience, and believing what you experienced was very real for you. My role is not to have credulity and take everything you tell me as dogma, because that wouldn’t help you resolve anything! Instead, I explore with you in grounded, empathetic curiosity. Maybe you’ve had spiritual experiences like visions, synchronicities, dreams, or intuitive understanding off and on throughout your life. Maybe you had one event that blew your mind and was even frightening, a crisis or spiritual emergency. Regardless, I use a variety of tools including but not limited to Jungian work, Depth Psychology, Internal Family Systems, trauma therapy to support your grounded insight and healing.

  • Wow, I can SO relate! There are so many interesting traditions out there! I’ve felt this way too, and sometimes even still feel this way! If you study history, you can see how, in fact, many spiritual traditions have influenced each other from time immemorial. So, we’re in good company! As far as counseling- I have specific approaches for impostor syndrome, whether its spiritual or in other areas of life. We will feel into authenticity and True Self together, while combatting the parts of your narrative that just aren’t true.

  • I use Systems Therapy and other interventions that can help you identify areas of personal growth, as well as why you are having challenges in this group or relationship. I work to help you feel seen, heard, and validated in your experience. By learning more about the nature of this relationship and each person’s potential role in it, you can gain insight and tools to heal. To be honest, sometimes spiritual leaders aren’t developed emotionally or in managing their thoughts or behaviors, and sometimes that creates a high demand group. But more often, it just creates conflict and challenges. You are are ‘human-ing’ differently than they are and we can figure out how to increase your coping with these challenges.

  • I have material especially for this! You can purchase it and do it on your own, come to my group 1-2 times, monthly, or have an individual session specifically for this toolset. Simply contact me to learn more about this option!

My position on how spirituality integrates with mental health…

I know what it is like to feel not seen, not heard, not understood by your therapist. I can recall more than one well-meaning counselor who used their own language of deity (God), assuming that was mine. I’ve even had spiritually alternative clients tell me their counselor tried to convert them to their own faith or treat their spirituality as crazy or invalid.

We all want to feel completely safe with our therapist and to be truly seen, heard, understood, and validated. I get it.

And also, I’m here to tell you I’m no expert in Wicca, Paganism, any particular Magical practice, or any other alternative spirituality. While that sometimes makes me feel like an impostor, I know who I am, and I’m just not into exploring anything other than what I’ve explored. If I do, I get too much in my head, and that’s not about being fully in my life. It’s about being grounded and open-minded.

I try to be scientifically literate and follow the science. I’m also a skeptical believer who observes signs in epic dreams, synchronicities, and a couple of visions. When one happens, I say, “It could be this or it could be that. I’m not so sure.” I don’t take it literally. My experience may be my brain, deity, the universe, some kind of spirit or elemental… or something else. What’s more important is its meaningfulness to me, and whether it helps me to be a better person, heal, or better serve and love others.

Wendy doing some energy tuning work in a forest in Arizona or New Mexico.

My clinical path is authentic to my personal experience.

My clinical training, experience, and personal work all come together so I can facilitate your process, support your personal growth and meaning, assist you in having radical acceptance and make radical change during life’s challenges and in challenging relationships / systems.

My coursework has always been supportive of inviting clients to make this a part of sessions should you so desire. I identify as a religious minority but don’t want my own path to get in the way of our work together. I disclose based on what is appropriate to each client relationship. But, to give you an idea of where I’m coming from: I have family, good friends, mentors and/or clients who have identified as Wiccan, Pagan, Eclectic, Granny Witch, Wiccan, Esoteric, Gnostic, Classical Jungian, Buddhist, Yogi, Jewish, Baha’i, Atheist, Agnostic, and, Mainline Protestant, Inclusive Mainline Protestant, Alternative Christian/Catholic, Science of Mind, LDS, and in other ways at different times.

Perhaps you, too, feel like an impostor because you don’t know how to use Tarot cards or other spiritual practices like they do on social media. Maybe you’ve never had anything really ‘crazy’ happen, so you wonder if you’re ‘doing it right’.

I’ll help you find your authentic voice in the context of holistic healing practices.

spiritual inclusive therapy, such as tarot card incorporation into your wellness practice.

I’m highly experienced in working with religious minorities and nature-based therapy. I have worked with:

  • those who use various Nature-Based / Magickal / Metaphysical / Alternative healing practices such as Tarot and Yoga

  • those who practice traditional Indigenous Healing and Spirituality such as Dine, Chiricahua Apache, Gila River, either exclusively or alongside Christianity, from the rez or urban environments

  • those involved in Latinx practices such as Curanderismo and Limpias

  • those who do ancestral work

  • those who see ghosts or other creatures

  • those who have experienced some type of spiritual emergency or crisis

  • Pagans, Witches, Wiccans, and others of adjacent identity/practice- solitary and affiliated with groups, traditional or eclectic

  • Highly Sensitive People (HSPs)

  • Survivors of cults or high-demand organizations

  • Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics

  • LDS, Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Nondenominational

  • and many individuals who just can’t / don’t want to be defined by any ‘label’.

I’m not here to read your Tarot cards, but I can walk you through questions and formats to help you find greater meaning from that card. And perhaps even help you look at them in a totally new way through a counseling technique – like mapping them using a CBT elemental process!

I’m not here to tell you how to believe or who to follow, but I’ll help you find clarity in your own thoughts and validation for your feelings. I can provide you with psychoeducation specific to you – not from an algorithm!

The steps in our therapeutic path together...

Our first session will be an evaluation. If you are going through insurance, it’s going to be a multidimensional clinical assessment. If you are going through private pay, we can decide together whether to do that assessment or whether I use your pre- completed questionnaire as the evaluation. I consider the whole person – body, differences brain ‘wiring’ (neurodiversity), mental health conditions, development, the systems and relationships you’re a part of, AND your spiritual path.

After the evaluation in the first or second session, we’ll come up with a treatment plan. I do integrative counseling, so when I come up with treatment interventions, I’m like a painter blending paints. It may seem like a lot but that’s because I’m customizing tools for you. Maybe we decide to make treatment like a small, abstract painting, or maybe we decide to make a large, detailed mural. Maybe it changes during treatment. But the treatment plan is the place to create our plan for your personal work.

In the first 3-5 sessions I like to review ‘101’ counseling tools but they will still be specific to your situation. I find that if we skip these, clients don’t get the optimal benefits of treatment. These include dysregulation (individually and in systems), self-regulation, emotional management, and managing thoughts. Throughout treatment, we work together for you to identify ‘regular’ coping skills, starting with ones that you and I already know work best. After every session I give you something to do – a tool to use based on your learning style, like something to listen to or read that is relevant to questions or concerns you have.

a secular, pagan-friendly counselor holding a crystal ball.

If we do include your spiritual practice in our counseling sessions…

I’ll work to help you identify ways that negative past narratives, dysregulation, and/or trauma are impacting you, and to leverage your core beliefs into positive healing, meaning, and transformation. If you ever change your mind, we can change the direction and content of treatment and determine the best option.

And if you like, I can help you improve the benefits of your own spiritual practice by pairing them with counseling techniques including but not limited to Trauma Therapy tools, Mindfulness, Internal Family Systems, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

If you aren’t sure whether you had a spiritual experience, a mental health crisis or something else, we can work together to help you feel more comfortable. We may come to a more specific conclusion about what has happened. But we may also help you get to a place where you’re comfortable in the not knowing and you can get back to living life on life’s terms.

Whether we do more brief therapy or if therapy takes longer, we collaborate on how often we see each other; and therapy is always going to be relevant to what you are bringing in to each session. I’m here to keep us on track with YOUR original goals, and to steer towards new ones should we decide a change is in order.

In the end, you will go away remembering what we’ve talked about in session, having found new insights and self-regulation tools. Whether they are a part of your spiritual or ‘every day’ practice is up to you!

I am currently offering in-person counseling options in the greater Glendale / Phoenix area – and am available via Telehealth virtual therapy sessions for individuals throughout Arizona and New Mexico.

Contact me to schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation today!

Call or Text Me at 623-777-5815 or send me a non-confidential message: