Rell Spickerman

Rell Spickerman is a licensed master social worker with four decades of experience combining pastoral care and mental health counseling. He has worked as a parish pastor, hospice chaplain, and divorce mediator while maintaining a counseling practice. He brings a practical, down-to-earth approach and aims to guide people toward workable solutions rather than stand apart as an expert. Rell draws on long experience supporting people through grief, life transitions, relationship strain, and questions about identity. He has a strong interest in LGBT issues informed by family experience, and he offers bereavement counseling shaped by hospice work. He also has a background helping people with career planning and decision making. In sessions he favors straightforward methods. Cognitive-behavioral ideas and rational emotive techniques shape how he helps people reframe thoughts and behaviors. He also uses narrative ideas and client-centered listening to help people tell their story and find what matters next. Rell describes himself as a non-judgmental listener who uses humor and steady support to lower resistance to change. He aims to blend theory with practical steps such as anger management skills, career planning, and strategies for coping with stress and addiction. He notes modest experience with Ericksonian hypnotherapy and healing storytelling, and he frames therapy as collaborative work that asks people to take manageable risks toward growth. His practice style emphasizes clear guidance, respect, and helping people find truths that set them free.

How these approaches can work in online care

Trauma-Focused Therapy focuses on understanding how past harm affects daily life and helps people develop ways to manage distress and feel safer in their day-to-day routine. It can be useful for people coping with past abuse, loss, or ongoing trauma responses.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, teaches practical skills for noticing painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and for taking actions that match personal values. It often helps with anxiety, depression, and major life changes.

Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and respect. The therapist follows the person’s lead, offers empathetic reflection, and helps people discover their own solutions to problems like relationship strain or low self-esteem.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. This is a joint process that can shift as concerns change over time.

If you plan to use online sessions, confirm which formats are offered before booking since the biography does not list specific options. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. It also lets people continue regular work on trauma responses, mood, and life planning from wherever they are located within the therapist's service area.