About Andrew

Coffee Enthusiast. Shalom Seeker. Gentle Soul.

Hi, my name is Andrew, and I'm a male counselor who lives and works in the Brookside neighborhood in Kansas City, MO. I specialize in working with Christian faith & ministry, childhood trauma & sexual abuse, pornography addiction, and emotional intelligence.

I help my clients cultivate deep, lasting change––from the roots up.

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Being a counselor is how I participate in God’s restoration project for the world.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

––Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

In my mid-twenties, I’d been following Jesus for over a decade. I had a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies, and I’d served in several ministry roles at churches and parachurch organizations. All good and beautiful things, but I wasn’t aware of how much my childhood wounds––my chronic loneliness and compulsive posturing in order to be seen as special by parent-like figures––were distorting my relationships with God, myself, and others.

I began working with a counselor who helped to uncover the roots of these experiences in the earlier parts of my story. Before that, I wasn’t even aware I had a story. But in bringing these things to the surface, my roots found nourishment in the love of God and his people, and the fruit of love, joy, and peace sprung forth.

Around the same time, I had a seminary professor who guided me through the biblical Story from beginning to end. All of the disconnected facts and figures I’d learned in college were now being integrated into one, coherent narrative. At the time I was learning that I have a story, I was also discovering that God has a Story, and I am written into it!

God’s Story is about the restoration of all things in the Resurrection of Jesus; and to be a follower of Jesus is to be an agent of New Creation.

While this wasn’t the Story being told, nor was it the vision of discipleship being modeled in my early years in church, waking up to my story within God’s Story cultivated a sense of coherence, wholeness, dignity, purpose, hope, and belovedness that forever changed me from the inside out.

Working with a compassionate, wise counselor helped to address some of my roadblocks and open me up to something new. I told him I wanted to learn how to do what he does, and I enrolled in the training program that formed him, the Masters of Arts in Counseling at MidAmerica Nazarene University. There, I learned about celebrating embodiment, treating trauma (trauma is the Greek word for wound), and the connecting power of emotion. This is the professional, clinical training with which I serve the Church and participate in God’s restoration project.

If you are a pastor, priest, missionary, parachurch ministry staff, small group leader, Sunday school teacher, hospitality team member...

If you’ve been harmed by one of the roles just mentioned...

If you’re tired of working to think and feel the right things, to speak and act the right way...

If you wonder if there’s a Story big enough to re-enchant you and write you into a purpose worth pursuing...

If you long for the adventure of following Jesus but you feel stuck, wounded, or anything short of flourishing...

I want to invite you on a journey with me.

I’m not in a hurry. I have room for you in my heart. I want to see you flourish in the restoring love and goodness of God.

How I practice being a Human

I’ve been married to my best friend since 2017. My wise, generous wife and I have two little boys who love wrestling and being outside. Our oldest is highly social and intensely expressive, and our youngest is persistent and refuses to live in an either/or world.

I love drinking coffee, and I’ve been roasting coffee beans at home since 2015.

I love whisky from Scotland, Ireland, and Japan. Malt whiskies pair beautifully with chocolate, and I host whisky + chocolate tastings in my home.

My other interests include hiking and backpacking, outdoor cooking of all kinds, board games, and reading.

From mid-April to November, I wear sandals almost exclusively.

I love progressive bluegrass, folk, and Americana like Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, I’m with Her, Watchhouse, Billy Strings, and The Wailin’ Jennys.

I feel energized when I have something to teach or write about. I’ve been working for over two years on a research and writing project exploring Matthew’s Gospel as a manual for discipleship. If I could have a second career, I think it would be in biblical scholarship.

How I practice being a Counselor

My clients often describe me as gentle, hospitable, careful with my speech, and curious. I don’t withhold my “self” from my clients because I value relationship, and there can be no relationship if there is no meeting of “selfs”. I think most of my clients experience me like a friend, and I like to imagine myself as a kind of Sam to their Frodo.

I help my clients cultivate a conversational relationship with their bodies, so I frequently ask them to notice any sensations that come up in session. We unpack sensations by getting curious about the emotions, images, and words that accompany them. This is a vital part of the experiential therapy that I provide.

I want my clients to exercise their agency in counseling, so I make sure that my guidance in session is invitational. I believe saying “No” to your counselor is an important part of therapy that demonstrates trust. "If I can't say no to you, I can't say yes to you," is a favorite proverb of mine.

Hospitality is one of my highest values in- and outside of therapy. In session, I want my clients to know how welcome they are and how delighted I am to see them. I’d like to help them extend hospitality to the parts of themselves that feel like strangers or even enemies.