3 Chairs Counselling & Consulting

About Michael Schaefer

I'm a psychotherapist and trainer committed to strength based change. The particular area I've come to specialize in is supporting Christians to utilize the resources available to them: tapping into the strengths they already have. The most significant one being the ability to attune with and interact with Immanuel, the God who is with us. The name I have coined for this is Immanuel Focused Therapy. It is a marriage of traditional psychotherapy and the "Immanuel Approach" devised and taught by Christian Psychiatrist Dr Karl Lehman and Dr James Wilder. It is a spiritually assisted psychotherapy which includes optimizing brain, mind & spirit for connection, then establishing and utilizing an interactive connection with Immanuel. It proves to be quite an effective means of memory reconsolidation (i.e. changing deeply embedded emotional learning such as in the complete resolution of trauma).

My other passion is training - particularly in areas where right brain relational skills are pivotal. How often staff wish they, or the staff they supervise, had the skills and understanding of a trained counsellor. The fact is we are all neurobiological regulators of each other and the skills to do that well are quite learnable. As we get better at enriching the human environment around us we normally facilitate growth, maturity and efficiency in those we interact with and what's more - it is fun. People enjoy contributing in that space.

I love creating non defensive group environments in which participants become self motivated to pursue their own growth, maturity, healing and competence. You may have guessed that turning up for group facilitation is on my "love going to work for" list.