THERAPIST

Gregory Blake, M.ED., Resident In Counseling

After a 44-year gap from the time Greg Blake graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he was accepted into that same institution’s Masters of Mental Health Counseling program, graduating in 2022. This new endeavor came after completing a 35-year career as an institutional bond specialist on the trading floor of a large national bank.

Why the drastic change in direction one might ask? It started soon after his wife of 39 years passed away from pancreatic cancer in late 2018. He explains, “even though this was a horribly difficult time for my wife and our family, it was during her protracted and courageous fight that I accumulated invaluable experience in learning how to care for a person with a serious illness and gained numerous specialist contacts and insights into the treatment of cancer.”

He eventually decided to put his extensive cancer “intellect” to good use based upon his long-term motivational belief that “out of bad comes good.” It was soon after that he decided to get the designation he would need—a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)—to be able to do therapeutically on a professional basis what he had been doing as a volunteer: counseling, guiding, and advocating for those with cancer and their caregivers as they navigated their way through their own journeys.

He has been a Resident Counselor with Resilience Counseling & Social Skills Center since graduating, and during this time has extensively broadened both his scope of treatment in the mental health challenges his clients face, and the expanse of the age group he treats.  His vast number of life experiences from being the leader of a large Boy Scout troop and a Dale Carnegie Public Speaking & Human Relations instructor, to currently being on the board of a large national cancer peer support group and a co-facilitator of a local Alzheimer’s support group, enable him a high degree of relatability and a wide breadth of knowledge from which to draw. 

Greg specializes in grief, caregiver and chronic illness challenges, trauma, depression, anxiety, chronic stress, ADHD, and issues involving a lack of self-confidence, communication, and interpersonal skills. 

If you see yourself benefiting from the type of client-therapist relationship that involves trust, empathy, and non-judgmental compassion, one aimed at maximizing your chances of becoming a better version of yourself, then you will appreciate the safe, nurturing space that will be specifically created for you to be able to do so.