AMERICAN CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION OF SPIRITUALLY TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES

ACSGC Practitioner Profile

Laurel McCormick, PhD, MSW, MA

ACISTE Certified Spiritual Guidance Counselor (ACSGC)

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Professional title(s)
  • Life Coach
  • Pastoral Counselor
  • Spiritual Director
Additional Licenses & Certifications
License/Certification Organization/Issuing Body
Clinical Pastoral Chaplaincy Education, 1 Unit CPE, 2017 Association for Clinical Pastoral Education
Spiritual Emergence and Emergency crisis training, 2016 Integrative Mental Health for You
Life Coaching Certification, 2011 InviteChange ACTP Portfolio Training Program
Areas of practice

 

Specializations
  • After-death communications
  • Distressing, bizarre or frightening experiences
  • Kundalini experiences
  • Near-death experiences
  • Non-western STEs
  • Out-of-body experiences
  • Paranormal experiences or aftereffects
  • Prebirth memories
  • Religious Experiences
  • Religious Conversions
  • Spiritual experiences
  • Teens/Young adults who have had STEs
  • Other (please specify below)
Additional Specializations

Integrating and embodying the STEs
Desire to live from an open heart
Assisting the mind to understand what has happened
Inconsistency in maintaining desired self-change in daily life
Renovating dysfunctional behaviors and belief systems
With dark night, distressful, or challenging times
Adjusting to everyday life post-STE
Spiritual crisis or loss of meaning
With disintegration and reintegration into daily life
Loss of sense of self, no will, emptiness
Reintegration after altered state or journey experiences
Accessing the wisdom of the body
Reintegration after changes in interests, morals or ethics
Developing inner awareness of body, mind, spirit and heart
With distress in everyday life post-STE
Relationship issues post-STE
Witnessing or observing consciousness

I can help with these STE associated concerns
  • Acceptance of Life
  • Attitude Shifts
  • Changes in spiritual or religious values
  • Crisis of faith
  • Dealing with spiritual vs earthly realities
  • Feeling ungrounded
  • Finding life's purpose
  • "Homesickness"
  • Hypersensitivities
  • Integration
  • Issues related to sharing
  • Kundalini energy
  • Loneliness
  • Loss of faith
  • New goals, new directions
  • Psychic aftereffects
  • Relationship issues
  • Stress
  • Supernatural Gifts
My approaches
  • Expressive Arts
  • Bibliotherapy
  • Life Coaching
  • Spiritual or Religious Counseling
  • Dream Interpretation
  • Eclectic
  • Guided Visualization
  • Interpersonal
  • Meditation
  • Mindfulness
  • Shamanic Journeying
  • Spiritual Direction
  • Transpersonal
  • Other (please specify below)
Other approaches I use

Bereavement Counseling

Modalities
  • Individuals
  • Couples
Languages spoken
  • English
Years in practice

13

About me and my approach

 

How I can help

I partner with individuals who are seeking to awaken or enlighten themselves to self-truth and as a manner of being more positively and spiritually functional in their daily lives. More specifically, I will assist you with your unique, personal processes of spiritual emergence and emergencies or general life (past-, present- or future-oriented) experiences toward your optimal well-being. Acclimating to spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) typically involves integration and embodiment of all aspects of self-transformation. Some of the changes may naturally or unconsciously become integrated and embodied. Quite often this can occur seamlessly as you go about your day. Then again, STE changes can often be quite disruptive in relation to doing what one needs to accomplish daily.
How I work may differ from other life counselors in that each session will unfold as unique to your experience. At the same time, it may incorporate experiential learning of how to do your own integration and embodiment work. Integration involves recognizing and successfully adjusting to all inner and outer perceptual changes. Embodiment means that you have adapted in daily life to all perceptual and experiential self-changes.
I will guide you to do your own inner discovery and self-healing work through a process of self-inquiry and personal learning opportunities. With practice and by learning to recognize the mind and body signs of your unique inner self-transformative change processes, you may find that you can use what you’ve learned in sessions with me to enhance your spiritual and personal development!

My Spiritual/Religious Background

As a toddler I recall being able to feel Jesus’ love in my heart. As a child, I developed inner questions regarding the True nature of love and life versus reality. As a teen I attained sound, compassionate moral life principles through participatory Christian ceremony and service. Inner questioning continued through young adulthood. When I took my first course in World Religion, similarities among the major religious traditions were obvious, and I understood my viewpoint to be Interspiritual or Interfaith.
In adulthood, a shocking trauma stimulated a spiritual awakening. A month or so into healing from that event, my psychospiritual view of life had changed so much that it came to me I was in ‘Life Part 2.’ This was the beginning of a continuing process of inner transformation of self/ego toward God Consciousness. To fully understand what was happening to me, I pursued self-guided spiritual studies of meditation, yoga, Western and Eastern religions, chakra and healing energy work, holistic and healing methods, etc.
In 2001, I dedicated myself to helping people from all backgrounds in relation to spiritual emergence and emergencies. I sought and attained 3 graduate degrees to proficiently assist people on their life and spiritual paths. It is my pleasure to provide a caring, safe space for you to consciously explore your inner truth and to process through what is going on as you perceive it. Doing the inner work may stimulate your inner growth and learning, healing, and integration toward furthering positive functional psychospiritual development.

My Philosophy

During our sessions, you may sense my presence as a container of warm-heartedness and deep empathic and intuitive listening as a compassionate space for you to access your own innate wisdom.
As an Interfaith spiritual counselor, I work with people who hold a variety of perspectives: traditional, non-traditional, agnostic, atheist, or a blend of one or more of these perspectives. My purpose is to help you with your issues, goals, STEs, and concerns with open-mindedness and care. I support your right to have your own thoughts and feelings toward your empowering yourself to move to wholeness and wellness within your frames of reference.

My Personal Interest in STEs

Looking back on life, I recognized that a number of ineffable events experienced as a toddler, child, and young adult were STEs. The shocking traumatic event occurring in adulthood (mentioned above) turned out to be a true transpersonal experience—It propelled me beyond current sense of self toward more congruent Beingness and perception. Forces Greater than me were at work: An inner self-transformational process began and continues. Meditation led to the ability to witness consciousness while awake and asleep, which provides awareness of inner self-transformative cycles that continue to heal me on the levels of mind, body, spirit, and heart.
Since then I’ve had 5 major, life-transforming STEs plus a countless number and variety of STEs that stimulated spiritual and self-development along with inner growth and learning. Consciously having gone through all these transformations is significant with regard to my professional practice with you. This awareness provides me with experiential knowledge of cycles in the process of self-change toward Wellbeing. Day and night awareness of the cycles of integration and embodiment provides insight into cycles of self-change and contributes to informing how I assist people like you with STEs.

Higher Education
Degree School Year
PhD in Transpersonal Institute of Transpersonal Psychology 2009
MA in Psychology Institute of Transpersonal Psychology 2007
Master of Social Work University of New England 2005
Where to find me

 

I can meet the following ways
  • By mutual arrangement
  • By phone
  • By Skype
Availability

Weekly schedule varies. Please contact me to schedule a consultation during the day or evening.

Sliding scale

No

Insurance

No