Banner image with "Helping you gain self-acceptance to transform your personality, improve relationships, reduce anxiety and depression, and gain contentment" and pottery bowl

About Harper West, Mindful Self-Compassion Therapist

Harper West is a licensed psychotherapist and expert in improving relationships with yourself and others through self-acceptance. She is an expert in recovery from relationships with narcissistic or abusive partners or parents. Trained in Mindful Self-Compassion and Compassion-Focused Therapy. Providing relationship therapy using Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and attachment-focused child and family therapy.

Harper West is a contributing author of #1 Amazon and #4 New York Times bestselling “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and award-winning “Pack Leader Psychology.” Appointed to the Michigan Board of Psychology.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, resulting in something more beautiful than the original. In celebrating a history of imperfections, the art form reminds us to embrace our own flaws, perhaps even finding the shining beauty and value in our healed scars.

Peter Mayer’s song Japanese Bowl (on YouTube) explains this philosophy beautifully.

Photo courtesy www.lakesidepottery.com

The ability to handle shame, imperfection and failure with equanimity is self-actualization and enlightenment.

Hands making a heart shape in front of a sunset

The Power of Self-Acceptance

Do you want to feel more calm, contented and fulfilled? Be truly self-confident? Learn how achieving self-acceptance permanently frees the mind from low self-worth and self-blaming thoughts that lie at the heart of many experiences with anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and other struggles.

Improve Your Relationships

What emotion is most harmful to relationships? The answer may surprise you. Read a real life example of a rocky marriage and learn the root cause of most relationship difficulties, including high-conflict marriages and family relationships, domestic violence, abusive parenting, substance abuse and more.

Contemplative man looking at city skyline, words "Stop Stigma" stamped over image

An Outraged Psychologist Speaks Out

Why are normal human reactions — fear, shame, self-criticism — incorrectly labeled as “mental disorders?” The “disease” model promoted by pharmaceutical manufacturers and our mental health system discourages people from seeking therapy that can lead to solutions to anxiety, depression and more.

Individual, Couples & Family Therapy

As a licensed psychotherapist, Harper specializes in helping adults and teens improve self-compassion and self-acceptance, strengthen self-worth, regulate emotions, and develop mindfulness.

In-person counseling appointments are available in the Great Lakes Psychology Group office in Clarkston. Michigan residents throughout the state may schedule online therapy through Telehealth. Learn More about therapy with Harper West.

Schedule an Appointment

Recent Blog Posts

Now Blogging for Great Lakes Psychology Group

Communication Skills to Build Secure Attachment in Romantic Relationships

What Defines Self-Acceptance and Emotional Health?

What constitutes an emotionally healthy and mature, fully functioning, psychologically sound human being? I achieved self-acceptance, or self-actualization or enlightenment through self-compassion concepts and practices and discovered that healthy shame tolerance leads to healthy self-acceptance. Learn the traits of self-acceptance: equanimity, compassion, decreased approval seeking, acceptance of imperfection, wisdom, intuition, true empathy, accountability, flexible social hierarcy skills, healthy humility and pride, integrity, values, character, resilience, self-discipline, hard work, frustration tolerance, persistence, likeability, open-mindedness and curiousity, and prosocial behaviors.

Psyche Article Spreads Misinformation on Depression

Well, the pro-drug forces are at it yet again. The website psyche.co just published an extremely biased and misleading article raving about the supposed benefits of anti-depressants (ADs) by a psychiatrist in Scotland. There are so many problems with this article I...

I write often on topics related to human behavior including self-acceptance, anxiety, depression, shame, trauma, relationships, parenting, mindfulness, and more.

Read my Blog