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.

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Recent Blog Posts

Toledo Blade Article on Yawning

Sharing an article that quoted me on the psychological implications of yawning, of all things! We yawn for many reasons, not all of them known, but many people don't know that it can be in response to the anxiety of others and as a signal to try to get them to feel...

7 Ways Parents Create Childhood Emotional Neglect

I often recommend Dr. Jonice Webb’s books and blogs, because she writes about the important topic of Childhood Emotional Neglect and its impact on emotional development. I thought I’d highlight and expand on the subject of a recent video blog she posted on “4 Subtle...

How Narcissistic Siblings are Created and How they Harm Their Siblings

How the interactions within a family, especially between siblings, can create or exacerbate shame intolerance patterns. How parents discipline or fail to discipline children and how they protect or fail to protect abused siblings impacts all of the children in the family and may lead children to develop shame intolerance patterns that can affect them throughout their lives.

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

Read my Blog