Tyler Gulyas

This work is my abiding passion and I am proud to state that I am a good counselor who is always eager to learn and grow.

I am Tyler Thomas Gulyas from Redwood Valley, California. I have been in the helping profession since leaving my undergraduate studies in 2008 at the University of Portland, Oregon. I've worked with unhoused men in early recovery in Nashville, Tennessee; with unhoused teens in San Diego; with youth exhibiting severe behavioral challenges in Ft Collins, Colorado. While working with young folks, I recognized a calling toward teaching. I taught high school from 2014 until 2022 in the East Bay Area, California. Following this, my family relocated San Diego and I worked, returning to clinical mental health, with students who had mental health counseling on their special education programs throughout rural San Diego County.

My graduate degree was in Pastoral Care and Counseling. I understand counseling through bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective. I treat the whole person and appreciate how every aspect of our lives interact with one another. This perspective has made me effective with folks struggling with depression/anxiety, identity, adjustment, grief, ADHD, PTSD, and addiction recovery. My diverse experience has made me radically accepting and open to anyone looking for healing. The struggles of this work is where I find my joy and I am eager to be of assistance.

In my counseling program, I gravitated toward Existential-Humanistic Theory. I was heavily influenced by Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Irvin Yalom, existential philosophy, and Christian liberation theology. My Master’s qualified me as a pastoral counselor but I am licensed as a clinical counselor. This has inspired my practice and has provided me the professional capacity to be radically accepting, giving unconditional positive regard to those with whom I work. Building strong, non-judgmental, accepting, affirming, and challenging rapport is crucial for the method of treatment I bring to my practice. I deploy the thoroughly tried and tested interventions drawn from Cognitive Behavioral Theory, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. As a Humanist, I work within the biomedical model but fundamentally, I see mental health treatment as client directed healing from the traumas of living in an ill-fitting world.

I do not trouble myself with expectations. I hold myself to professional and personal standards and I invite my clients into their agency to establish their own standards of mental health. Once the cornerstone therapeutic alliance (an effective rapport) is established, it's all about setting goals and looking for the practices and habits that will achieve those goals.