Paula Chu, Ph.D.
Licensed Professional Counselor
offering coaching and professional counseling services

Working Together:

The process of counseling works best when you are actively involved, honest, and willing to work on your growth both in sessions and between them. No one can "change" you, but counseling can provide a time and a place for you to mobilize your own inner resources to change. My job is to understand your perspective and experience and to hold before you a clearer and more useful "mirror" than the one you might be viewing yourself and your existence in. My purpose is to help you move toward living with compassion, humor, resilience, and a deeper sense of meaning.

Playwright Edward Albee once wrote: "Sometimes you have to shake things up to get them to fall into place." Sometimes counseling shakes things up, stirs up painful memories, losses, regrets. However, I hold a fundamental assumption that the risks involved in working through one's barriers to growth are balanced by the benefits of furthering that growth and embracing greater well-being. I believe we are hard-wired to grow, and that growth will occur naturally if we remove the barriers to that growth.

I value the opportunity to work with clients of varied ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. I honor loving relationships and families among people of any sexual orientation.

Working with Couples:

My work with couples can best be described as relationship coaching, as in my practice I work only with couples where both people are ready and willing to fully participate in the process of change and of deepening their connection. Relationship coaching can be invaluable for committed couples who want to strengthen their communication, deepen their trust, and learn how to better nurture and enjoy their partnership. I coach couples in the processes of dialogue and repair*, and deeply believe in the importance of turning towards* each other in daily interactions, and in practicing full respect living• at all times. I treat with great care the special privilege of being invited into the conversation of two people who share a desire to thrive within a relationship and who have the courage to choose actively loving each other over wanting to be right. When both people approach the process with hearts open, couples find this work challenging, strengthening, and ultimately joyful.

* thank you to John Gottman for these terms and
•Terrence Real for this term

Length of Sessions:

Except for our initial meeting, sessions are generally scheduled for 50 minutes. I meet with adolescent clients for 45-minute sessions. The initial session is 60 minutes, allowing you to complete some paperwork before we begin. Please be on time for sessions; given your schedule and mine, we need to end on time even if we haven't started on time. If you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, I am happy to accommodate this as long as you give me 24 hours' notice. I charge a full fee for cancellations without notice. In the case of an emergency that prevents you from coming to the office, we can, if you wish, hold our session over the phone.

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"Kindness is more important than wisdom,
and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom."
-- Theodore Isaac Rubin