.jpg)
There are many reasons why you might be looking for a counselor, but the search always involves a certain amount of courage and humility. Maybe things in life are not turning out as you've planned; or, you've woken up with a hangover three too many times or you can't quite kick your late night consumption of an endless scroll of pornography; or, perhaps, you've never quite gotten past the death of a loved one or a choice made during a heated conflict of war. Perhaps your fighting with your spouse, struggling to discern your vocation, or a myriad of other possibilities; whatever brings you, I commend your brave and humble beginning.
Like many combat veterans, Gabriel is humble about his accomplishments and military service. However, his military service set him on the path to specialize in trauma and abuse as a mental health counselor. For instance, while in service Gabriel showed valor and received a medal for counseling a peer soldier contemplating suicide. He would go on run vet-to-vet peer listening groups, providing combat veterans with a much needed space to talk about experiences of war with those who had been there.
Gabriel has a passion for integrating the mind, body, and soul in order to address the chronic stress that follows traumatic experiences for, not only military members, but their families; first-responders; sexual abuse victims; those who experienced childhood trauma and neglect; and the needs of the local Catholic Christian community.
Gabriel is a husband and father of four wild red-haired children; and also a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Washington. He is the founder of St. George Counseling, a faith-based clinic that enhances mental health care through physical fitness and the outdoors for combat veterans, service-members, first-responders, and the local Catholic and Christian community in Kitsap County. He is an armchair philosopher and theologian with a furious gratitude for the redemptive work of Jesus in his life and family. He loves kettlebells and olympic weightlifting, mountaineering, motorcycles, carpentry, light-roasted pour over coffee, sushi, pizza, and snow, sleet, and shine: maybe all these loves is his ADHD or, perhaps, he is just a passionate lover.
Gabriel is a convert to Christianity through a vibrant Presbyterian youth ministry in Pittsburgh, Pa. He studied theology and the scriptures at Geneva College and then his Master’s of Divinity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were settling in, Gabriel enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 2004, joining the military police corps. Eight years later, he converted to Roman Catholicism, lived a hidden life of devotion inspired by St. Charles de Foucauld, attempted to help form an oratory of St. Philip Neri in San Francisco, and spent one year in the diocesean seminary studying philosophy at Duquesne University. Discerning a call to marriage and the courageous invitation to deeply engage his own childhood trauma and abuse, Gabriel finally entered into his vocation as a husband, father, and counselor. He received his Master’s in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology with a concentration in Trauma & Abuse through The Allender Center.
From such experiences and more, the St. George Counseling Clinic was born. The protector of soldiers of all types on and off the battlefield.