Telephone Counseling with Robert Burney
Telephone counseling (which I started offering in March 2000) has proven a powerful method for helping people implement the blueprint for inner child healing that I have developed. The various aspects of the work are known to most everyone who has been working on these issues at all - what is unique about my approach is that all of the tools are brought together in a focused system for achieving integration and balance. I describe my approach on the pages of this web site - but the leap from reading about it to implementing it can be difficult. Even someone who has a very good therapist right now, can still find it very beneficial to do some phone sessions with me to learn this approach. (And hopefully spread the word about it to therapists and counselors out there.)
Here is an excerpt from my August 2001 Newsletter (which included quotes from two other pages) in which I talk about the phone counseling. (In August of 2002 I made a change to the Referral page - to the second quote within this excerpt - which adds a link to the CoDA page to that quote.)
"Now almost a year and a half later the phone counseling has proven very successful, . . . . .
The reality is that inner child healing and codependency recovery are still pretty new - and many very well meaning professionals out there do not know a lot about this work. My approach to the work is unique and pioneering, and no one out there is doing exactly what I do and describe. You will find very few counselors and therapists who define codependence in as large a context as I do; many who do not see it as a Spiritual disease; many who have not done their own emotional work. I do not know of anyone who combines developing internal boundaries with doing the grief work as part of building an ongoing relationship with different ages of the child within - the framework that I developed for integrating knowledge of healthy behavior and Spiritual Truth into one's emotional relationship with life. That is the most powerfully life changing and transformational aspect of my approach to the work. Your chances of finding someone who does exactly that kind of work are almost nil. - Choosing a Therapist or Counselor with Discernment . . . . . . . As I say in the quote just above, no one out there is doing exactly the work I do, because there are not yet any therapists or counselors who have studied my method so that they can help others to learn it. My approach to the work is unique, powerful, and very effective - and has been accurately described as "taking inner child healing to a new level." One of the reasons that Co-Dependents Anonymous has declined greatly during the last 7 or 8 years is because people did not know how to take the healing to the next level. (I include an excerpt from the Joy2MeU Journal in which I talk about this decline on the Finding Co-Dependents Anonymous meetings page.) The inner child healing paradigm that I have developed is that next level of recovery from codependency that so many people have been seeking. Hopefully, one of these days I will be able to offer training to other healers so that they can learn it for themselves - and be able to teach it to others.
- Referral Page - to Local Therapists/Counselors/Healers
The phone counseling has proven very effective for the people who are at a place in their process where they are willing to apply the tools and techniques that I share with them. Of the people who have been open to changing their perspectives, and willing to do at least a little of the work, most have changed their relationship with self and life profoundly within a matter of 6 to 8 weeks. My goal in working with people is to empower them to be in-dependent. To teach people how to have internal boundaries so that they can separate the messages coming from the old tapes and old wounds from the messages of intuitive Truth from their Spirit - so that they can start learning how to relax and trust their Spirit to guide them.
"By learning to set a boundary with and between our emotional truth, what we feel, and our mental perspective, what we believe - in alignment with the Spiritual Truth we have integrated into the process - we can honor and release the feelings without buying into the false beliefs. The more we can learn intellectual discernment within, so that we are not giving power to false beliefs, the clearer we can become in seeing and accepting our own personal path. The more honest and balanced we become in our emotional process, the clearer we can become in following our own personal Truth."
- Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls
A normal kind of pattern is for someone to do a session weekly for 4 to 6 weeks - then go to once every two or three weeks for a few months. Eventually, maybe once every couple of months - or perhaps some more weekly sessions during a time of growth and challenge. There is no right and wrong way to do recovery as I say in many different places, and everyone's path is different, but generally people have been experiencing a significant shift within a fairly short period of time."
The dynamics of the phone counseling process are: once you take care of payment we set an appointment for a time and day that works for both of us, and then you call me at that time. I prefer to work out the logistics of setting the appointment by email (rather than long distance phone tag) - and once payment has been made and an appointment time set, I will email you the phone number on which to call me. If someone doesn't have e-mail they can call (805-203-5875), but I do prefer to work things out by email whenever possible.
Payment can be made through the secure credit card links or PayPal (which allows people to pay out of an account that can be drawn from either a credit card or checking account) - or by mailing me a check (Robert Burney PO 1028, Cambria, CA 93428). If someone mails a check, I will need to wait until I receive it before setting up an appointment. Once payment is made by either by credit card or PayPal, the appointment can usually be set up within a couple of days.
In revising this page in May 2004, I made it mandatory to do an hour and a half session for the initial session. It really takes a full hour and a half initial session to give an explanation of how the process works - and to give you the beginning of an understanding of what actions are necessary on your part to facilitate the transformation. (I did change this requirement somewhat in November of 2006 ) Once a person has had several sessions to start understanding the process, the difference between the 1 1/2, 1 1/4, and hour sessions is simply a matter of getting a feel for what fits you personally.
The rates for the package deals of multiple sessions range from around $58 per hour (for 6 one hour or 5 hour and a quarter sessions - or the first offer on the Special Offers page) up to the $70.00 per hour price for a single hour session. When added to the cost of the phone call (what with such cheap long distance rates in effect now, can be $ .05 a minute or less - and this is true in many countries in Europe and Down Under also these days) still comes out to a very reasonable rate. To find quality counseling anywhere for these kind of prices is an almost impossible task these days. There are not many places to get counseling for less than $80 an hour - and $125 to $150 is probably more normal in many places. So even at $70 per hour this is a real bargain. And since my approach is focused on helping you transform your life into an easier, more enJoyable and Loving experience in a short period of time, this may be the greatest bargain you will ever encounter in this lifetime.
Normally after the initial session, an hour session is sufficient although some people will prefer the hour and 30 minutes or hour and 15 minute sessions.
