Meet Alan Chirino: Your Guide to Holistic Healing

I was born and raised in an urban neighborhood in Hudson County, NJ where I lived in a multi-generational household, compartiendo (spending time) with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, and being taken care of by my Abuelita while my parents worked all day. My parents immigrated from their respective countries of Cuba and Argentina and Spanish was the only language of choice at home.

I learned early on the importance of community and coming together for helping each other grow and progress. A community where there is love, support, and respects the interests of each individual can achieve great things.

Community can mean a lot of things to different people. I like to think of community in an archetypal sense in which the community doesn’t dictate the individual. Instead, it’s about a group of people coming together to help one another and everyone has a function and role. It appreciates and respects the distinct personalities of each person that it’s composed of. It understands that all individuals involved are equal and have something to teach one another through their stories and experiences.

This idea, along with my professional career in working in outpatient community mental health settings, has shaped how I do therapy. As a seasoned clinical counselor, I have learned to assess and provide successful interventions for my clients that work for them and have a lasting impact.

I received my degrees in General/Theoretical Psychology as well as Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I have also completed certification requirements for providing clinical supervision to partially licensed counselors completing their training for full licensure. As I help train future clinicians, I strive to instill in them the skills for bringing mental health matters into a more accepted place and approach issues through a balanced holistic and clinical framework.

When a client comes for services, I look at them with compassion, listen to them with genuine curiosity and attention, and consider them as collaborative, equal participants in their own healing.

I myself am just a person who is also a part of community: having my role and also healing. When doing therapy, I bring my openness, curiosity, humor, and empathy into the room (or trail!) as I help clients in sharing their stories, developing insight, and gaining the skills needed for their own healing process.

My goal for each session is to always hold sacred space for clients that promote feelings of security, are affirming, and encourage growth as we delve into what brings them in for services.

Work with me

My Approach

 

My approach to healing and therapy is holistic. I use a variety of different modalities from traditional psychotherapy you might find with other therapists, to involving tarot and Chinese Qi Gong exercises. It all depends on the needs of my clients. I’ll also tend to conceptualize clients as individuals (with their unique, inner world complexities) interacting with the many systems around them (like family, work, government, society, etc.)

All these systems can impact us either directly or indirectly. I believe part of the work is understanding and managing how these influences affect us in how we view our own realities. Ultimately, I strive to understand a person in how they operate in all aspects of wellness: emotional/mental, financial, environmental, intellectual, social, occupational, physical, and spiritual.

Everyone has their own story to tell and live their reality through their own lens. These narratives are vital to how we go about healing, since the meaning we derive from what’s happened, is happening, and what will happen can determine what role we play in our own lives.

Thus, my foundational goal is to help clients understand and change their narratives, strengthen the link to their inner and outer worlds, and believe in themselves as being the protagonists in their own story.

 

Psychotherapy Modalities

  • Grief Therapy

  • Nature-based Therapy

  • Narrative Therapy

  • Person-Centered

  • CBT

  • Existential Psychotherapy

  • Trauma Focused/Informed Therapy

  • Somatic Therapy 

Additional Modalities

  • Tarot

  • Meditation

  • Visualization/guided imagery

  • Breathwork

  • Qigong

 

Issues I work With:

  • Grief/Loss

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Trauma

  • Life Transitions

  • Self-esteem

  • Stress

  • Spirituality 

  • Coping Skills

  • Intergenerational trauma

 

Education and Credentials

 

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology/Master of Arts in General/Theoretical Psychology 

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ

​Master of Arts in Counseling 

Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ

NJ Licensed Professional Counselor # ​37PC00730100

Approved Clinical Supervisor # 4097

Certified Grief Counseling Specialist