Choose Heart: Counseling, Coaching, and Accompaniment - San Anselmo, California

Kasie C.

I cannot recommend Justin enough. He was an absolute lifeline during one of the most challenging periods of my life. He patiently helped me unpack my core issues, including deep-rooted childhood traumas and complex adult struggles. What stood out most was his ability to combine a holistic and logical approach, offering both validation and honesty when I needed it most.

Justin was an incredible listener, always receptive to my thoughts and feelings, and provided practical tools that helped me navigate my emotions and daily obstacles. His guidance during my existential crisis was nothing short of transformative, and I truly don’t know where I’d be today without his support. His sessions were not just mental health counseling —they were a roadmap to healing. I’m incredibly grateful for everything he’s helped me with and highly recommend him to anyone looking for a compassionate, insightful, effective mental health counselor and coach.

dante S.

Justin's ability as a counselor and overall life coach is incredible to say the least. The short of it is he has helped me immensely. Even that doesn’t grasp how impactful this work has been.

My anger and propensity to frustration with myself, others and the world overall was destroying my life. My relationships with those I loved and who loved me were deteriorating. My relationship with the world around me was deteriorating. To the point where I didn’t care and was on a fast track to making decisions in moments of anger or just moments of overwhelming emotion that would be unable to be taken back once done. I was unable to move forward in life or at a bare minimum have a joyful life. Everything needed to feel my wrath, it was awful.

Through my sessions with Justin I have been able to take this gigantic backpack off and gained a great understanding of what to do when I pick the pack up again. Because I do occasionally pick it up again, I'm human and I've come to understand it's okay to not be perfect. It’s just the imperfect parts of me that don't get to drive the car.

Before my sessions with Choose heart when I did have this metaphorical backpack on (it would only come off during escapism activities and I always put it back on the next morning). The pack was overwhelming and suffocating. And! Everyone around me needed to know that I was suffocating.

But now! I'm able to shoulder this weight more. The weight of everything just life itself and the natural trials that come with that are easier on top of all of my personal stuff. It’s all just so much lighter in my heart.

The tools, techniques and thought patterns I have learned through these counseling sessions have been life changing. I am so much more equipped to handle the waves of life and whatever may come with it through these counseling sessions.

Justin is extremely patient, knowledgeable and adaptable. He is incredibly squared away and always shows up for sessions ready to work! It's amazing.

His entire process from intake to onboarding to starting the work with a new life coach (which can be scary for me it was) is incredibly professional and stand-up. The whole communication processes with the front office and “housekeeping” items throughout is fantastic, easy and welcoming.

It's incredible to have someone like this in your corner. I can't recommend this counselor enough, changed my life.

Valerie L.

I needed someone to help navigate me through a difficult time in my life. I found Justin online and relied a lot on his reviews. I liked that he offered a free session to get to know him and get a glimpse into how his counseling sessions work before committing. I had 12 sessions with him. I found him to be a very good listener, which is what I needed. I also liked that are sessions weren’t centered around rehashing past stories as much as focusing on the here and now and learning methods and receiving guidance as to how to sit still with yourself and really learn to love all parts of yourself. I found Justin to be genuine and very focused in our sessions, which I appreciate. I can’t say that I don’t have more work to do because I do. But Justin was with me through a difficult time and provided the support I needed. Having a compassionate ear is sometimes what we need. I certainly did. I feel like he gave me a lot to work with on my own. I will always appreciate our time together and if I ever need more counseling sessions, I will surely reach out to him. Thank you Justin!

Kerrigan L.

Justin is a patient, passionate, and reliable relationship coach. His ability to listen and break through communication barriers seems to come naturally and he makes us feel comfortable and empowered during our sessions. My girlfriend and I started sessions with Justin in June 2023 with no end goal but we just knew that we needed help. We were fighting a lot over small things and really couldn’t have normal or tough conversations without it spiraling out of control. The sessions started out tough for me. I was resistant to the process and its effectiveness, but by starting the conversations and putting trust in Justin I opened to the process and it has been life changing. Justin has allowed us to create a space to talk about tough issues or feelings while feeling safe to do so which has deepened our communication and brought more stability to times when communication has broken down. The biggest positive change has come from the self-reflective work we have both done and how that has spilled over into our relationship. Justin has helped us to see things from a new perspective and has set a stage to focus on our own personal growth in order to thrive together in the “us”. Justin provides useful resources such as breathing work, reading materials, and most importantly he is available. Justin’s ability to listen fully and offer sound advice and understanding is incredible. He takes his work seriously and his passion for helping others is undeniable. Through the sessions with Justin I have found a new level of discipline, consistency, and responsibility in all aspects of my life. We continue to find immense benefit from our work with him in couples therapy as well as in one on one sessions and are grateful to continue our work with him.

Steve M.

Justin and I worked together through about 12 sessions. I was dealing with a very fresh tragedy and by chance, found Justin. I don’t know how I got so lucky because, in my own opinion of course, the things that are unique about him as a counselor and life coach, are not common and were very effective in helping me help myself. For example, he did not just listen, he actively gave me alternative ideas to consider, pointed me to various concepts, videos, talks, websites, books, and people of interest/inspiration. All these resources led to personal growth while experiencing the pain of fresh grief. I was not expecting more than objective universal/generic advice but he knew a lot about my culture and religion which I don’t believe are his own. He has a deep understanding of the history that is part of my identity, and even taught me things about my own culture that I was unaware of. I would not think of that as necessary, but I think it added a tremendous amount of value and made me feel very comfortable in sharing and getting out everything I was harboring. During my sessions, I made it clear that I was interested in strengthening my identity instead of running from it, so it was very effective that he understood cultural and historical contexts in addition to understanding my own emotional challenges. If you just need some to listen to you, I think he can be that person, but I was so glad that he could offer so much more value than just helping me get things off my chest. I very much felt like I had both a life coach and a counselor all wrapped into one. Ill also mention that he starts off with a process to make sure he is the right person for you before you commit to multiple sessions. That showed me he is dedicated to helping you even if that meant you find a different person or other resources instead. One way I would describe him is intellectual and well read, which I appreciated as I wanted to be able to learn as much as possible.

Cody L. F.

Justin’s ability to speak to us daringly and compassionately built immediate trust. We came to Justin at the lowest point and asked him to guide us and he did just that. His method of leading with the US and with heart at the center has allowed us to refocus on who we are as individuals and what being part of relationship means. He has guide us through calm and respectful conversations in many hard areas of our relationship. He has helped us as individuals face addiction and poor personal habits.

He is so much more than a relationship and couples counselor he is a life coach and wealth of knowledge in the space of spirituality and connection between two people and the world at large.

We are forever grateful for our on going time with Justin.

Sound O. Z.

Justin is incredible! I am grateful for the work we did together. I’ve had years of talk therapy and Justin is the only counselor whom I was able to see for a shorter period of time- because he dives right in to the work that’s needed to get you/me to a more aligned space. Within a few sessions, I was able to realign with my true self and really make changes in how I move about my life.
I’ve recommended Justin to many of my friends and family members because he lovingly guided me right to what I couldn’t see, while holding space and sharing insight. Grateful to have been connected to him and will continue to work with Justin as life presents it’s many chapters!

Bree &. M. M.

I stumble to find words powerful enough to encompass exactly the kind of human Justin is and the beauty of his approach. Maybe it's because the very essence of what he does are things that are not meant to be justified with words, and are only intended to be felt.

As someone who works in the mental health space, I have struggled to find a counselor that could offer new perspective while also feeling aligned. Before work with Justin, I was accustomed to leaning in to do the "hard inner work", but felt in my intuition that a big piece of my healing journey was yet to be discovered. Upon my initial conversation with Justin, he was lovingly able to bring awareness to the fact that I was still operating out of a place of survival; and while proven effective, could also feel exhausting and unsustainable. This deeply resonated, and although I couldn't fully conceptualize what our work would look like together, decided to take a leap of faith and trust him to guide me forward.

There were weeks in our work together where I wrestled with the process. It's an oddly scary and also liberating thing to realize that "healing" may not be my life's purpose. But by slowly surrendering this narrative, I felt myself making room for something deeper to emerge from within. A force that was so much more tender, joyful, expansive...ALIVE.

So what does life feel like after our work together? It feels a lot like returning home. I am learning to find unconditional stability in every facet of who I am. I am learning to find safety that expands beyond boundary keeping and over-intellectualizing my moment. I am learning to trust my heart and quiet my thinking mind. I am learning how to embody self-compassion in every fiber of my being.

Simply put, Justin has taught me how to honor myself and my moment in whichever way she chooses to present herself... the sun on my face, tears of grief, belly laughter with my people, the ease of contentment, the discomfort of the unknown... to be lovingly aware of it all and still trust the process; because it is within this process that I am becoming the truest version of myself that I've known.

Justin, I can't thank you enough. The way you coach is incredibly loving, vulnerable, tender, and intuitive. Who you are and what you do are a such a rarity in this world and I am forever changed because of it.