Daniel Dyjak

LPC

San Antonio

About Me

I look at life in a different way than I did years ago. I like to think I learned a few things, mostly the hard way. That’s why I became a counselor. I was an air traffic controller for both the USAF and the civilian side but I never felt like I was truly making a difference until I started to work with people as a therapist.

Education and Certifications:

Degree: Master of Arts, Counseling
Institution: Waylan Baptist University
Graduated: 2015

Degree: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology
Institution: University of Maryland

Degree: Associate Degree, Applied Science ATC
Institution: Community College of USAF

Certification: Certified Clinical Trauma Professional
Issuing Organization: Professional Educational Systems Institute
Acquired: 2023

Tools and Techniques:

Brief psychoanalysis to help understand why or where behaviors came from.
Mindfulness tools for grounding and distress tolerance, practical skills.
Building from a client’s strengths and not just looking at limitations.

Specialties:

Primary

Client-Centered Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Mindfulness
Trauma

Secondary

Anxiety
Depression
Guilt & Shame
Grief

Personal Statement

I don’t know why it is but we have a problem when it comes down to seeking help for mental health issues, as if the brain is an infallible part of the body. We want to be able to drop our head off at the psych office and pick it back up at the end of the day, all better. The body and the brain are interconnected. There is dopamine that lives in your stomach and talks to your brain. A “gut reaction” is a real thing.

I approach counseling as the real thing. I have to be genuine, open, and honest to have the possibility that my client will be the same with me. I don’t like using a five-dollar word where a two-dollar word fits better.

I invest in my clients and believe we are not made to suffer or celebrate alone. We share the suffering and carry half of the pain dividing it by two and when we celebrate with someone else we multiply their joy by two.

Call to Action

If we keep doing that which we have been doing, we will continue to get what we always have gotten. It’s not always about asking why, it’s about asking why not?

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. You treat breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

If you apply this philosophy to yourself, it is a reminder that all those cracks, lines, chips, and breaks in your life are what makes you, uniquely you. It makes you an original, beautiful and valuable to yourself, your creator, and everyone else.