Author: cristóbal

Chris views his vocation as a blend of ‘wounded healer,’ story farmer,’ ‘psychonaut’ and ‘shadow boxer’. He approaches the craft of counseling as applied language arts concentrated in the ‘cure of souls’—melding soul care, psychotherapy and spiritual direction. This unique role provides him sacred opportunities to empower clients in becoming their true selves in Christ by the Spirit, and discern their Kingdom purpose as salt and light within their particular context of relationships. His work is focused in the areas of addiction recovery, trauma recovery, sexuality and mental health issues. His therapeutic practice has been shaped by narrative therapy, existential therapy, depth psychology, contemplative spirituality, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindful self-compassion (MSC), internal family systems (IFS), attachment-based therapy, somatic therapy, expressive arts therapy, transtheoretical model (TTM) stages of change, motivational interviewing (MI) and solution-focused therapy (SFT). Chris and Ashley Rea live with their two pups (Rusty Ray and Keller Bear) in West Seattle. He is a devoted, third generation Boston Red Sox fan, and an avid re-reader of his textual mentors—Saint Augustine, Meister Eckhart, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint John of the Cross, James K. A. Smith, Hans Boersma, Charles Taylor, Henri Nouwen, Gerald May, David Benner, John O’Donohue, Rainer Maria Rilke, Carl Jung, Simone Weil, Albert Camus and Hannah Arendt. He's particularly fascinated by belonging, memory, sacramentality and absurdity.