Getting to know June’s Featured Therapist, John R. Hill, M.Div., MFT

Every month, Council for Relationships highlights one of our staff therapists on the blog. Read our interview below with June’s Featured Therapist John R. Hill, M.Div., MFT. 

What makes you unique as a therapist and person?

I am unique as a therapist because of the many life experiences I have had. These have included extensive education and many different cultural influences. I have lived in rural, suburban and urban communities. Professionally I have worked as a laborer, business professional, clergy person, and therapist. I have been a husband and a father.

Over the years I integrated my education and these many experiences to become the person and therapist I am today. These qualities and others help me to relate to a wide range of individuals and the many different circumstances they bring to me.

What is something your clients would say about you?

The feedback I receive from my clients is mostly positive and very often has affirmed me in the work I am doing with them. One client said this about me:

“John Hill is an empathetic insightful, knowledgeable clinician who truly treats his clients as individual human beings with unique qualities. He is willing to draw upon the depth and breadth of both his intellectual knowledge and his life experiences to get positive results in therapy. I had been seeing therapists for many years before I happened upon John by fortuitous accident and he has helped me gain insights into my thoughts behaviors feelings and actions that have helped me to move on with a better understanding of myself and what I needed to do to change my life for the better.”

– Anonymous

Is inner peace real? If so, how can one work towards this?

Inner peace is real, and we can achieve substantial inner peace. One can do this through the process of integrating spiritual practices, self-reflections, life experiences, being open to new ideas and allowing oneself to recognize that our lives are complex but not unmanageable. The more we work to reduce those aspects of ourselves that produce chaos and rigidity within, the greater inner peace and security we can experience.

What advice would you give someone who is struggling and wants to seek to counsel but doesn’t feel ready?

Often we can find ourselves in places where we feel overwhelmed, not knowing where to turn or what to do. We struggle with emotions we may not understand. Therapy, talking to someone else is a big step, whenever you are ready to take the risk of confiding in a professional find someone who you feel you can trust and begin the process. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

What makes CFR special?

CFR is the oldest relationship counseling agency in the country. There are many experienced clinicians here who have devoted their lives to training other therapists, providing administrative services and seeing their clientele. It is truly an agency that has helped many make positive changes in their lives, both clients and therapists in training.

Favorite artist, musician, or famous actor and why?

Well, what can I say? Having grown up in the seventies and the early eighties “There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.” I am an admirer of the arts in general and enjoy many different genres of music. I like many types of artistic expressions and can often see art where others may not. Art is something that helps make the world a beautiful and inspiring place.

John Hill, M.Div., MFT