Charles Cresson Wood is an empathetic and patient listener. He genuinely desires to bring significant help, meaning, purpose, and happiness, to those people who now find themselves in a stuck place, wrestling with a serious problem, an on-going issue, or a crisis. The people who he works with often are seeking to recover from, or adjust to, a big event in their life, such as a marriage, divorce, death of a loved one, bankruptcy, or loss of a job. They often wish to come out of depression, melancholy, a life that seems without meaning, or some repeating pattern of self-destructive behavior. They seek a counselor who will respectfully and attentively go where they need to go, and who will walk their personal evolutionary path with them, but also provide a grounded and truthful mirror in which they can clearly see themselves.
Charles works with deep story-telling, dream interpretation, thought experiments, role playing, and invitations to adopt a different viewpoint. He also employs step-by-step maps of the terrain for personal process work (see the books described on this web site) that can be used when a client needs help to get back on track. These methods collectively provide a more empowered frame, a new vista about the client’s situation, and from that place, previously unknown solutions emerge. He seeks truth, love, balance, self-awareness, and an objective perspective, informed by Divine guidance, a place from which previously-unappreciated strategies to problems, issues, and crises come forward.
Charles approaches sessions with his personal coaching clients as an equal, a fellow-student of life, another imperfect human being who is stumbling along, groping for meaning and direction, and attempting to find the deeper all-encompassing-truth of life. Supporting him in this process is the profound background of the Pathwork lectures, which he has intensely studied since 1991. He is certified as a Pathwork “Helper,” which is a type of personal psycho-spiritual counselor, a designation that takes nine years of intensive work to achieve.
In addition to being a Pathwork helper and personal coach, Charles is an author, a licensed attorney in both California and Washington, and a management consultant specializing in information security and privacy. He has published nine books and over 375 articles. Although he admittedly has workaholic tendencies, Charles works on living a balanced life, by for example working on the establishment of a residential spiritual community, assisting his partner Peggy with the establishment of an animal sanctuary, co-leading a spiritual leadership support group via Zoom with his friend Bonnie, cultivating his permaculture garden, and singing call-and-response with the frogs in his stream.
Charles has repeatedly noted that many of the serious big changes that people now need to make are being blocked by their personal issues. This has been perplexing to him because even when people readily admit that they must now change -- and even when the evidence clearly, unequivocally, and indisputably indicates that they must now change -- they are still unable to proceed with the required change. To assist people in shifting away from these painful stuck places, and away from similar blocks to their unfolding personal evolution, he provides the Pathwork helper and personal coaching services described on this web site.
He provides confidential personal services via Skype, Zoom, WebEx, WhatsApp, and other on-line conferencing programs, as well as by phone, or in-person meetings (the latter for those who visit the farm where he lives in the State of Washington). For those who visit the farm, there is an additional option, and that involves processing and doing personal work while working-in-the-garden. People interesting in these services should contact Charles via the contact form provided on this web site, to schedule a free no-obligation thirty-minute consultation. This consultation is intended to give Charles a chance to answer the questions of potential clients, give Charles an opportunity to explain how he could be of service, and to give both parties a chance to assess whether it is now right to work together. As a personal process guide, facilitator, and mediator, Charles works on multiple levels (with individuals, couples, families, and organizations). He invites you to contact him to explore how he could be of support and inspiration to you and/or your group.