About
Chris’s approach to therapy focuses first on creating a safe, supportive, and collaborative environment where you are truly seen and heard and where you can, when the time is right, challenge yourself to grow into the life you value.
“One does not become fully human painlessly.”
Rollo May, PhD
8 Themes of the Client Experience of Therapeutic Presence, per Dr. Bradshaw's research.
The "common factors" in psychotherapy, with "presence" at the hub. See the work of Bruce Wampold, PhD and Zac Imel, PhD, on the common factors, and the work of Kirk Schneider, PhD and Shari Geller, PhD on the central role of presence.
The mission of Fully Human Counseling & Consulting (FHCC) is to ethically and compassionately support humans in their search to be and become fully human: to rediscover their core values, and their full range of strengths and abilities. Part of this process is to explore, understand, and integrate what holds us back in life. This is how we develop the capacity to creatively work with life as it comes. This may require building our capacity, or “window of tolerance” for facing life. We strive to do this in a way that is safe and gradual.
The foundation is a safe and deep therapeutic relationship. This involves forming a bond appropriate to the work, agreeing on the tasks and goals of therapy, and agreeing on the method for accomplishing these tasks and achieving these goals. We work to create a shared understanding of what your unique challenges and opportunities are, and how we want to address them.
Ultimately, a therapist works to bring “presence” to the encounter of the therapeutic relationship. In therapy this is more than “focus” or “paying attention in the moment.” This involves creating a “holding” environment, marked by safety and sanctuary. Presence also involves helping to illuminate what strengths and values you have that are trying to emerge, and what may be holding you back.
Next comes engaging approaches to counseling. Chris is grounded in the “common factors” and in Existential-Humanistic therapy. The common factors research proposes that there are elements that must be actively involved in effective therapy, no matter what type of therapy is practiced—and that these factors are, in fact, more important than the type of therapy itself.
He then integrates other approaches as indicated and as designed. See the Existential-Humanistic and Somatic Experiencing sections of this site for information on these modalities. A future version of this site will include more information on additional modalities Chris may utilize in his practice, such as: EMDR, CBT, dream work.
There are over 400 types of therapy. Chris practices Existential-Humanistic, Somatic, and dream work approaches as primary. He is then further informed by EMDR, CBT, and MI approaches and utilizes them as needed. The “common factors” are foundational to all. See the second figure on the left.
However, the modality is not as important as you and your therapist coming to a shared understanding, collaboratively, about what is going on and how to work on it. Chris does not come to sessions with rigid pre-conceived ideas about how to help you, or how to understand you. He does not take an approach to therapy off the shelf and apply it to you as soon as you sit down in his office. He gets to know you, and it emerges what therapy may be needed.
All approaches to therapy are employed with an ethic toward safety, appropriateness of fit, and utilizing the approach respectfully as it was designed. This is thoughtful integrative and depth-oriented therapy.
More about Chris
Chris grew up in Northern California, the son of two jazz nightclub owners. As an undergraduate, he worked full time as a caregiver for folks living with Alzheimer’s—the first job he ever loved. Though it was quite challenging, he found the work meaningful. He pursued graduate studies in literature and art. He enjoys, when there is client interest, incorporating art, story, literature, myth, philosophy, spirituality, when it serves the client’s work.
Chris moved to Arizona in 2009 as an Americorps service member to work as a Community Resource Coordinator with children facing multiple stressors in a K-3 school in Phoenix. In 2010, an elder counselor saw Chris’s keen interest, and mentored him. Thus, he began his career in mental health as a Behavioral Health Technician (BHT). He began facilitating group counseling and psychological education addressing needs such as substance use, anger management, and domestic violence.
This was a pre-licensed counseling role in Arizona, under supervision of licensed counselors at licensed facilities. He worked in several mental health agencies with diverse individuals as a BHT counselor, rising to leadership positions, and engaging more training in the above mentioned approaches. For about 6 years he managed large addiction/mental health treatment clinics in Arizona, and traveled out of state to help additional clinics. He earned his Masters degree, engaged practicums and internships at various facilities, and became licensed as a counselor at the associate level in 2021.
He worked at Sierra Tucson (ST) in various counseling roles, a world-renowned residential treatment center. He served as the primary therapist for the professionals program. This was a program at ST geared toward supporting licensed professionals and individuals with demanding jobs. He earned full licensure as a counselor in 2024, and opened his private practice. His fourteen years working at mental health treatment agencies gave him experience working with a wide range of presenting concerns and cultures.
Chris passionately pursues ongoing training in therapy, including study, self-application, personal therapy, research, writing, consultation, mentorship. He believes in receiving his own ongoing depth therapy and mentorship. He has engaged extensive personal therapy from a depth psychologist who specializes in somatic experiencing, and from Jungian and Existential informed psychotherapists. He is now formally in Jungian analysis. As part of his EMDR training, he engaged with this form of therapy. He mentions this openly because of how important it is to know your therapist has engaged/is engaging actively in their own search/work. He believes it is one of the most important things to know about your therapist.
Along the way, he returned to school to earn his doctorate in Psychology. He completed these studies in 2024. He is not licensed as a psychologist. He is licensed as a counselor. He pursued this degree to gain deeper knowledge of psychotherapy/counseling theory, research, and approaches. He also wished to expand his ability to conduct research, and to analyze research. Quite experienced in the field by the point he returned to school, he was able to dig deeply into his studies and was able to easily pull real-world examples in his mind to apply to what he studied.
At Saybrook University, Chris earned the Rollo May scholarship, passed his comprehensive exam “with distinction,” earned the “dissertation with distinction” award for his original research, and earned the “Stand Out Student Award” for scholarship and leadership. He has earned other awards while working at mental health treatment agencies.
Chris writes a blog for Psychology Today titled “The Existential Station,” and has co-authored a scholarly piece published by the American Psychological Association (APA). He has additional scholarly work soon to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. He has presented at state, national, and international conferences, and has given talks/lectures at universities.
He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his partner and their beloved dog, Dante—named after the great Italian writer of “The Divine Comedy,” and the loyal companion in the Disney movie “Encanto.”
"My first objective is for you to know I'm here for you—confidentially, and with compassion. I'm not an expert in front but a guide alongside —a fellow traveler who has walked with others. My goal is to help you, at your pace, and in your way, feel ready to navigate toward the life you want with skill, conscience, meaning."
Chris Bradshaw, PhD, LPC