Spiritual Direction / Personal Growth Counseling
I’m not Jewish and had never even spoken to a Rabbi before I called Rabbi Yitzi. I don’t even know why I picked up the phone, but instantly I knew I had found something special. I had no idea that Judaism was so open to varieties of thought, experience, and practice.
Traditional Therapists were too rigorously-intellectual. Most clergy I’ve talked to were too overbearing. Many of the spiritual teachers I’ve seen were just too “out there”.
I’ve been working with Rabbi Yitzi for over a year now. He has seen me through joyous times and tough times, all-the-while helping me to anchor my own footing so that I can trust my heart’s wisdom. He is a blessing in my life and has helped me to be a true blessing in the world.
Sue Breckenridge
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Belief in God is not required. Does that statement surprise you? In most cases, when people tell me about the God they don’t believe in, I wouldn’t believe in that image of God, either. And, in most cases, when people tell me about the God they do believe in, we may not see eye-to-eye there, either.
One of the joys of counseling as a Rabbi is the reality that Judaism neither claims to be “the only right path” nor does Judaism claim any specific dogma. I do not endorse, advise, claim, or recommend any particular description of “God”. The bottom line is that whatever beliefs or non-beliefs you possess, they are welcome here.
What separates spiritual counseling from classical psychotherapy is the belief that there are sources of inspiration, motivation, and even expectation which lie beyond the individual self. It makes no difference to me whether you are most comfortable calling those sources “Higher Power”, “Inspiration”, “Divinity”, “Universe”, or even if you choose to use that most troubling of 3-letter-words: “God” The primary focus in any spiritual counseling is the client’s experience of and relationship with the Divine Source of Being.
Debating the existence of God is a fascinating intellectual exercise. I do it all the time and enjoy it thoroughly. If you want us to debate God’s existence or lack thereof, I invite you to the “study” section of my website and we can spend some very meaningful time exploring theology, mortality, suffering, inspiration, conscience, morality, ethics, and all the great unanswered and maybe unanswerable questions of the universe.
But ultimately a relationship with the Divine is not about intellectual understanding. Carl Jung—in my humble opinion—put it best: “I don’t believe in God,” he said, “I feel God.” Rabbi Harold Kushner comes in a close second: “It’s not the existence of God that matters,” he said, “it’s the meaningfulness of God.”
Do not misunderstand—I value the intellect highly and welcome your conscious intellect in our work. And for the record, my personal definition of God is “The Force that motivates me to be a better human being than I would be left to my own devices”.
But my job as a spiritual counselor is to help you explore the sources of wisdom that lie beyond your individual self, and the resources you have to tap those sources of wisdom. Your intellectual mind is welcome, but be prepared to use other resources which our post-enlightenment Western society does not teach us as readily to utilize and trust.
Individual Counseling / Marriage & Family Counseling / Spiritual & Pastoral Counseling
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