MASTER’S LEVEL COUNSELING INTERNS

Jacob Williams

Master’s Level Mental Health Counseling Intern
(he/him/his)

Specialties: Individuals, Emotion Focused Therapy

Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul, be just another
human soul.

-Carl Jung

For as long as I can remember, I have been a person whom others are comfortable sharing their
personal struggles with. I am still surprised when this sharing seems to happen spontaneously,
and I am delighted when my response seems to be helpful in a meaningful way. Whether it’s
close friends, new acquaintances, or even complete strangers, people seem to naturally trust me
to share their deepest personal struggles with. I take others’ trust and vulnerability as great gifts
and receiving them as an immense responsibility. But why do people trust me?
Being a counselor is who I am.

Long before I considered becoming a professional, I was doing
counseling intuitively. People would tell me things like, “you really listen…,” “you really get
me…,” “you really accept me for who I am…” These are my gifts to others. When people are
allowed to be who they are, and when their true self is listened to, understood, and accepted, they
naturally become more of who they want to be! When I became a student of counseling, I
learned that these gifts have real names, “congruence,” “accurate empathy,” and “unconditional
positive regard,” and that they have real results.

Since then, I have learned and continue to learn many ideas that change me as a person and
change my approach as a counselor. My primary approach is Emotion Focused Therapy or EFT.
In EFT, we focus on relationships and emotions. However, I do not limit myself to a pre-planned
approach. I take ideas from many different theories and integrate them into my own approach
that is both authentic to myself and adapted to individual clients. I am also influenced by
cognitive-behavioral approaches such as CBT and DBT. Here, we focus more on clear thinking
and healthy behavior/skills.

To summarize my philosophy of counseling, I view you (my client) as a unique, whole person
and as a fellow traveler in the journey of life. We share many challenges such as the desire to
connect with others, think clearly, feel fully, and act authentically. Yet, we are all unique
individuals in how we relate to these challenges. My job is to understand and accept you as you
are and help guide you toward your mental health goals in the way that is most authentic and
helpful to you. We will do this in the present-moment of session, as equal collaborators. I would
be so glad to work with you; I really mean that.

Education
 Master’s in Mental Health Counseling, Duquesne University (August 2025)
 B.S. in Psychology, University of Pittsburgh (2022)
 B.A. in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (2020)