Virgilio Sklar

Vigi believes that a supportive therapeutic relationship can help facilitate the inner wisdom for wholeness and self-actualization that resides in all people.  The quality of the relationship between counselor and client is of primary importance, and Vigi brings to it genuine presence, energetic openness, and humor.  His hope is to develop trust so that your authentic self can have room to breathe and feel safe.

Whether looking to get unstuck and make change, to gain insight into relational patterns, or to process and transform the effects of trauma, clients do their best when they are empowered with a sense of agency.  His approach is therefore collaborative in that therapeutic goals will be identified jointly and in that you will co-create meaning for your experiences and emotions as they unfold. 

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For all his clients, Vigi will help build agency by connecting with present moment awareness and acceptance of mind, body, and emotions – the breath and the body are simultaneously signifiers of distress and portals to healing.  For some clients, working toward a sense of agency may mean exploring how self-talk and core beliefs affect emotions and behaviors, with the goal of impacting change by reframing one’s understanding of a situation.  For others, it might involve gaining acceptance of the difficult parts of self and helping the real Self take the lead through connectedness, compassion, and confidence.  To achieve these outcomes, Vigi relies upon an integrative approach that draws upon Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Person Centered Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and somatic-mindfulness techniques.

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​While achieving a sense of agency can be incredibly transformational, Vigi is also aware that oppressive systems often play a central role in the difficulties that bring a client to therapy.  He is therefore proactive in using an anti-oppressive lens to validate the impact of systems on clients, and to approach the therapeutic relationship with cultural humility, knowing that his own intersectionality can bring the power of systems into the counseling room.  Vigi is a gay/Queer and Latine-identified therapist.  His eye toward increasing agency is focused on empowerment rather than on placing the responsibility for dysfunction on the client.

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