About Kevin FitzMaurice

Whether as a person's counselor or as a founding member of facilities for the homeless, Kevin Everett FitzMaurice, M.S., NCC, CCMHC, LPC, seeks to make others' lives better by helping others improve how they function. As a volunteer, he supports community services to improve others' living conditions. As a counselor, he "counsels" in the traditional sense: advising, directing, and nudging--or pushing--others into facing and resolving their issues.

Mr. FitzMaurice has a variety of formal and advanced training in counseling, which includes Addictions Counseling, Family Therapy, advanced Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Transactional Analysis (TA), and over 1,650 hours of diverse training for continuing education units (CEUs). To make the best use of that extensive training, he takes an integrative approach, grounding himself in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and using the other theories to build upon that one core theory, rather than focusing on multiple theories and mastering none of them.

After more than twenty-five years in counseling, Mr. FitzMaurice has worked in the substance abuse field, directed two community mental health programs, and spent fifteen years counseling in private practice. In that time, he has refined many principles for and methods of counseling. He now puts those principles and methods into book form to share them with a wider audience, so more people can benefit than he can reach in person. Currently, he has more than forty books written, most of which are available worldwide as e-books from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Google, Kobo, and Apple.

The philosophical odyssey of Mr. FitzMaurice began in the late '60s. It has remained a mostly self-taught pursuit, with little formal training or education in philosophy. The odyssey started with Western philosophy and a study of pragmatism and atheism. For example, he read every work of Nietzsche that had been translated into English at that time. From there, he moved to the study of Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism, and a misguided experimentation with psychedelics to achieve states of superconsciousness. He continued into Eastern philosophy, pursuing Taoism and J. Krishnamurti. Next came a study of Christianity that started with seven readings of the Old Testament and nine readings of the New Testament from cover to cover. This was followed by a formal study of Western psychology. The ongoing influences for FitzMaurice's thinking continue to be Christianity, General Semantics, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and an Eastern combination of J. Krishnamurti, Taoism, and Zen.

Academic Credentials: Master of Science (M.S.) in guidance and counseling, with a specialization in agency counseling, from the University of Nebraska. Associate of applied science in human services - chemical dependency counseling (with honors), from Metropolitan Community College.
National Certifications: National Certified Counselor (NCC); Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC); Family Certification in REBT; Primary Certification in REBT; and Advanced Certification in REBT.
State Licensure: Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Oregon; previously Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner (LIMHP) in Nebraska; previously Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Iowa.
Community Service: One of the original founders of the Francis House, Siena House, and Stephen Center homeless facilities still in operation in Nebraska. Supporter of the following charities: OxFam America, Amnesty International USA, Habitat for Humanity, and Green Peace. Also developed a community free yoga program from one class and thirty-two members to over 4,600 members and more than a dozen free yoga classes.

Books recommended for your step by step progress to reawaken: 7 Steps.

Note: You can move around the steps and work on any one; however, progress does depend on doing each step.

STEP 1: Discover & Practice Emotional Responsibility

The first step on the path to sanity is emotional responsibility.

* To begin your understanding of emotional responsibility, read "The Secret of Maturity, Third Edition".
* To advance your understanding of emotional responsibility, read "Garden".
* If you want to focus on your attitude and emotional responsibility, then read "Attitude Is All You Need! Second Edition".
* If you are stuck in drama games as a lifestyle or if your family is stuck in a cycle of dealing with social services or the criminal justice system, then read "Garbage Rules". This book is also appropriate for those in early recovery, self-help, and 12-step groups.
* Professionals who want to advance their counseling skills regarding emotional responsibility should read both "Garden" and "Not".

STEP 2: Upgrade & Practice Coping Skills

Coping and problem-solving skills are needed at every stage. We are not born with these skills and few of us have been formally taught them. Therefore it is logical and practical to pursue a more complete understanding of coping skills.

* "Stress for Success, Second Edition" will help you to learn how to make stress work for you instead of against you.
* "Breathe" will give you easy and simple exercises to instantly calm and center yourself in any situation.
* "Garden" will teach you advanced coping skills that you can practice until they become habits.
* "World Within: The Inner Life" will teach you about your inner life and how to make it work and keep it working positively and productively.
* "Not" addresses the underlying problem why coping and problem-solving fail.

STEP 3: Discover & Reduce Ego

The third step is to recognize ego as the problem in all things.

* To begin to understand how ego is your problem, read "Ego". This book requires you to be aware of your self-talk (inner dialogue).
* To become more aware of your self-talk, first read "Garden".
* To support and reinforce the work you learn to practice in Ego read both "What's Your Story?" and "Journal Journey from Ego".
* To understand ego in social relationships, read "Games Ego Plays".
* To develop insight into ego and skills in spotting ego, read "Ego Playground".

STEP 4: Discover & Increase Authentic Self

The fourth step is to make contact with and to continue in your original nature.

* Learn how you are not your self-talk by reading "Ego".
* Strengthen your understanding of your original nature by reading "Self: Who Am I?"

STEP 5: Upgrade & Practice Thinking Skills

Thinking skills are needed at every stage. We are not born with these skills and few of us have been formally taught them. Therefore it is logical and practical to pursue a more complete understanding of thinking skills.

* "Attitude Is All You Need! Second Edition" will help you to develop thinking skills in relation to your attitudes.
* "Garden" will teach you thinking skills from a CBT perspective.
* "Not" addresses a specific and pervasive thinking problem.
* "We're All Insane! Second Edition" will help you to understand and apply General Semantics principles to the development of your thinking skills.
* "World Within: The Inner Life" will teach you about dialectics, duality, triality, The 5 Thinking Positions, and advanced thinking skills.

STEP 6: Keep on the Path of Less Ego & More Truth

These books support and reinforce your learnings about emotions, ego, and self in various ways.

* "We're All Insane! Second Edition" will help you to understand and apply General Semantics principles to your practice of recognizing, removing, and replacing your ego.
* Other titles are collections of ideas and sayings that help you to understand all of these principles from different perspectives and through different expressions. These include "Acid Test", "Anything Goes", "Something For Nothing", and the "3D: Daily Dose of Discernment" series.

STEP 7: Improve the World & Improve Your Counseling Skills

* "Planet Earth: Insane Asylum for the Universe, Second Edition" will help you to face and surrender self-esteem faulty belief systems, thinking errors, and games.
* "How To Govern Anything" is for those who want to discover and practice a saner system of governing any size organization or country.
* "Carl Rogers, Control Freak" is for professional counselors interested in applying Carl Rogers's main technique.
* Share, Encourage & Support: Please help others to recognize and walk the path of emotional responsibility and ego reduction by recommending our books and practices. Thank you.