About Empowered Relationships Counseling & Wellness

Founded in 2021 (as Empowered Communication), Empowered Relationships Counseling & Wellness was created with a single goal in mind: to help individuals and families stay connected and feel respected despite the inevitable challenges that so easily strain all relationships. How so, you ask? By combining research-supported skills, age-old wisdom, nearly 20 years of counseling experience, and practical skills to foster greater connection with healthier boundaries and compassion in relationships - starting with the individual.

Our relationships greatly impact overall mental and physical wellness - a direct factor in how well we managing life’s inevitable stressors. As Bullies to Buddies creator, Izzy Kalman, NCSP put it, “once I know how to respond when people don’t treat me well, I don’t have to worry about whether or not they will.”

Between various research and therapy approaches (Pragmatic-Experiential Method for Improving Relationships - PEX, Bullies to Buddies, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and years of experience with teens, couples and families, a common thread emerged: we can influence people far more than we think, and it’s not “rocket science” either. While the skills needed for healthy intimate relationships don’t come naturally for around 75% of us, they’re very learnable. And our survival-focused brains are also tremendously adept at learning.

Knowing how to navigate our relationships can have a tremendous impact on our lives. We are inherently social beings who rely on connection and cooperation for survival, and it turns out this has very real implications for the developing mind and body. Yet there are few places to learn how to do it.

For those of us trying to understand our adult relationships, we know there are hundreds of opinions and resources out there and it can be exhausting to try to weed through it all. The good news is that decades of research have been devoted to understanding intimate relationships, and the science is pretty clear - there are well-defined habits and skills associated with healthy relationships. So no matter what you look into, make sure it’s based on these solid scientific findings.

As we grow, Empowered Relationships will develop content for all kinds of relationship skill building, from parenting and family communication to intimate relationships and co-parenting after relationships end.

About DJ

DJ has been a practicing professional mental health counselor since 2007, working with individuals of all ages, families, intimate relationships, and co-parents. His work with adolescents inspired him to create a workshop for parents based on a decade of navigating parent-teen relationships. The main goal: help parents become more effective and more influential with their teens while avoiding common pitfalls along the way.

DJ has extensive training in relationship methods, attachment, and interpersonal neurobiology. He has trained personally with the creator of the Pragmatic Experiential Method for Improving Relationships, Brent Atkinson, PhD as well as Bullies to Buddies creator and Kalman Bullying Institute founder, Izzy Kalman, NCSP.

For more than a decade, DJ has created and led educational workshops and professional trainings, has held in-service trainings and assemblies for schools (for teachers, student services staff, parent organizations, and students) and for other mental health professionals.

To learn more about DJ’s counseling practice, click here.

Licensure

Washington Licensed Mental Health Counselor LH61537580

Wisconsin Licensed Professional Counselor 4410-125

education & training

BA, Speech Communication, University of Minnesota - Morris, 2003

MSEd, Counseling & Counselor Education, Indiana University, 2007

Bullies to Buddies™ Certified Trainer 2013

Pragmatic-Experiential Therapy for Couples, Intensive (2015) and Advanced (2017) Training with Brent Atkinson, PhD, The Couples Clinic, Geneva, IL

Certified Sex Therapy Informed Professional (2024), with Tammy Nelson, PhD, Board Certified Sex Therapist

DJ lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife and their dog, Marshall. He is an avid traveler and experience seeker, finding great meaning and reward in pushing past personal limits and comfort zones, including mountaineering, trekking, backpacking, scuba diving, and endurance sports. When sticking close to home, the kitchen is his happy place.