VALUES BASED® COUNSELING
with Kelly Patrick Gerling, Ph.D.

Serving the Seattle Area

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VALUES

Kelly's Quest

What are values from the point of view of cognitive science?

This is a question that was recently answered by advances in cognitive science. The answer gets to why my counseling practice is “values based.” And the answer involves the brain.

The heart of our system of valuing is located in a deep, older part of every human brain in an called the locus coeruleus. It operates quietly, silently and automatically. According to Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, Gerald Edelman, in this part of the brain “neural value systems” engage in “signaling to neurons and synapses all over the brain . . . producing a sudden burst of firing whenever something important or salient occurs.” The neurons in this area of the brain “give rise to a vast meshwork of axons that blanket the cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and spinal cord, potentially influencing transmission of billions of synapses over all levels of the central nervous system.” Edelman goes on to say that “Value and emotions, pleasant and unpleasant, are obviously coupled and are central to conscious experience.” (See Edelman's book A Universe of Consciousness, p. 88-91.)

Edelman uses the words “pleasant and unpleasant.” And he uses “values” and “emotions” as equivalent.

Important values, when fulfilled, are felt as pleasant emotions. And when these values are not fulfilled-when they are contradicted or violated—we experience them in their unpleasant forms. Disrespect, mistrust, unhappiness, and other such feelings are the felt experience of values violations.

Our values then are feelings that communicate what is important to us—both what is going well and is pleasant, and also what is not going well, what is unpleasant, and what seems counter to our best interests and current life plan.

In the quiet realm of our own inner experience we can learn to pay attention to the messages our values are sending to us—as emotions. In those times when we may feel down and depressed, or anxious, nervous or uncertain, it doesn't mean we are crazy or bad or wrong. When problems persist, and unpleasant feelings grow and intensify, it doesn't normally mean that we need something to eliminate these feelings—the drug, alcohol or entertainment equivalent of a piece of tape over the oil light. Rather, it means that we need a new process of thinking and acting so values which have been violated become fulfilled.

It is basic that the worldview that created the current problems cannot solve those problems—rather, an enhanced worldview is needed.

So my practice focuses on your unpleasant or painful values violations, and on your desires for fulfillment. With a variety of methods from depth psychology, cognitive science, NLP, hypnotherapy, conflict resolution, healing, spirituality, conceptual blending and the synthesis of these methods into a plan for each person with whom I work. I help you move from a state of emotional distress to a state of fulfillment, and often on to a new path in your life journey.

METHODS
Depth Psychology
NLP

Hypnotherapy

Conflict Resolution

Values

Healing

Spirituality

Conceptual Blending

Synthesis

TYPES OF SERVICE
Individual Counseling
Family Counseling
Life Story Coaching
Mediation
Physician Coaching
Leadership Consulting

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