Graham Maxey
Biography
Graham A. Maxey
Licensed Professional Counselor
Graham Maxey was born
in Forth Worth, Texas. He graduated from Texas Christian University
with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Religion and minoring in
Philosophy. He also
received a Master of Divinity
degree from T. C. U. through Brite Divinity School with emphasis in
Pastoral Counseling. He was
ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and was the pastor of two congregations in the greater
Houston area for a total of six years. While in Houston, Graham worked on a Master of Arts degree in
Behavioral Science at the University of Houston at Clear Lake City.
He graduated
there in 1982, and was licensed by the State of Texas as a Licensed Professional
Counselor in 1983. Since then, he has worked in almost every
venue of mental health and chemical dependency treatment--from
outpatient
marriage and family clinics, to hospitals, to geriatric and adolescent specialty
units. Graham is also trained
in using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) techniques
to treat trauma, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
Graham has always seen
mental health
and spiritual growth as two sides
of the same coin. Spirituality
is, at its heart, a quest for our ultimate identity.
Emotional wellness is
greatly effected by identity. We know what to do to be well when we
know who we are. Conversely,
we find clues to who we are when
we find ourselves acting authentically
and not just out of habit or compensation. Mind, as science
is beginning to realize, is not something that the brain produces--it is
something that the brain receives. As such, consciousness is a “non-local,”
on-going phenomenon. Thus, mind and soul
have many attributes that are the same.
They may together be descriptions of a continuum of existence--one subjective and particular, the other
omnijective and unified. Religion
is a technology for talking about things that can not have names, and participating
in a reality that pours through the screen of the physical universe we found
ourselves a part of when we were born.
All
this informs the counseling process that Graham engages in with his
clients. He understands that the present
difficulty they find themselves a part
of is actually a way in which life is seeking to reveal to them a bit more about the
mystery and wonder it is.
Merely taking the problem away would be a means of short-circuiting the
growth that needs to happen. On
the other hand, most problems that
people encounter are the results of not seeing a “big enough
field.” The possibilities for doing something
different, for finding new meanings, or for experiencing new realities just
don’t seem to exist in the view of people who are locked in a problem.
Expanding the field of possibility is usually the
“cure” and the event that allows the needed growth to take
place.
Graham is an accomplished speaker, presenter, and writer. At this time his first book, Seasons of the Soul: The
Repeating Stages of Life’s Inner Journey, is being considered
for publication.
He has spoken twice at the yearly Holistic Bazaar event at
the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas, and has twice been a
featured speaker at the Holistic Networker’s Wellness Expo in
Addison, Texas. He and his
wife, Shannon, have presented many Connecting With Spirit seminars in
the metroplex over the last two years, which features Shannon’s mediumship
with random audience members and Graham’s presentations on the process of
grieving.
He and Shannon live in Arlington, Texas
in what they affectionately call “the cat ranch” with two tabbies, a gelical
cat, and a coal-black kitty nicknamed Pookey Bear. Graham is an avid husband
and devoted golfer.
