How he got here

Chris grew up in Northern California, the son of two jazz nightclub owners — his father a trombone player of British ancestry from a small town in Mississippi, self-taught in sailing; his mother a drummer of Italian ancestry from New York, whose activism instilled in Chris an early love of service. As an undergraduate, he worked full-time as a caregiver for people living with Alzheimer’s — the first job he ever loved, and an early education in presence under difficult circumstances.

He moved to Arizona in 2009 to work with children facing serious stressors at a K–3 school in Phoenix. An elder counselor there noticed his aptitude and took him under her wing, and that mentorship set the direction of his career: years in mental health agencies, working with a wide range of people, rising into leadership.

He returned to school for his doctorate at 40 — as someone with real field experience already behind him, which let him study theory and immediately test it against what he’d actually lived. His doctoral research at Saybrook University, supported by a Rollo May Scholarship, examined the client experience of therapeutic presence: what it actually feels like, from the client’s side, when a clinician is truly with them. That research now anchors much of what he teaches, writes, and offers clinicians through mentorship and workshops.

Clinics & the Professionals Program

Before founding Fully Human Counseling & Consulting, Chris also spent years in the other side of the field: managing large, fast-growing integrated medical and mental health clinics, leading clinical, operational, and administrative teams serving hundreds of people daily, with his hands in everything from compliance to community engagement.

He later served as primary therapist for the Professionals Program at Sierra Tucson, working closely with executives, licensed professionals, and high performers across industries — finance, healthcare leadership, entertainment, the military. That combination — clinical depth plus real operational leadership — is what he now brings to his consulting work with individuals, teams, and organizations.

Today

Alongside his private practice, Chris is an Affiliate Instructor at the Existential-Humanistic Institute, writes the Psychology Today blog “The Existential Station,” and co-hosts the Fully Human Psychology Podcast. He has co-authored scholarly work published by the American Psychological Association (APA), and his original research study on the client experience of “presence” is under review with a peer-reviewed journal. He has other research and writing projects in the works, and has presented at state and national conferences on the subject of presence in therapy. He holds an independent Arizona counseling license with Counseling Compact privileges in several additional states.

Outside the office

Chris lives in Tucson with his partner and their dog, Dante — a Labrabull/Pitador named after the great poet. He keeps up a meditation and yoga practice, studies Spanish, trains in martial arts, and spends what time he can reading, writing, and outdoors. He also believes strongly in staying on the other side of the couch himself: ongoing depth therapy and mentorship for the therapist, not just the client.