Hadley Fitzgerald, MA, LMFT

My experience as a licensed psychotherapist for 30+ years and a professional astrologer for four decades has taught me that we each have a deep internal archetypal ecology to establish, maintain, and nourish. The birthchart provides a multi-dimensional illustration of that ecology. It also shows our soul’s best intentions for this incarnation, the ways we can resonate consciously with those intentions, and how we might thoughtfully deal with the inevitable challenges to our earthly progress and our spiritual evolution. Yes, “it’s complicated,” but by staying mindful of the soul beneath the symptoms, it’s also possible to make different choices which lead to very substantial and observable changes. As we do this more and more consciously, we make our own personal contribution to sanity, kindness, and wakefulness on this planet which is in dire need of all three qualities. I say “we” and “our” because I’m traveling Eternity Road, too, and I’m familiar with “complicated.”

Whether you and I work in person here in my office near Los Angeles, on the phone, or online, our personal contact and dialogue is essential to helping both of us best understand how the archetypes—these various kinds of intelligences we can see in your birthchart—are actually operating in you and in the world around you. Whether we’re working in ongoing psychotherapy or specific astrological sessions, I speak in plain English, not in astro-jargon. And, rather than being “right,” I focus on finding the words and images that most deeply resonate with you.

The merging of depth psychotherapy with archetypal astrology not only helps accelerate the therapeutic process, it also gives us a unique perspective on how to evolve most specifically in the direction of our particular life’s calling. When psychotherapy is the primary focus of our work together, I use the horoscope’s ancient symbols alongside traditional therapeutic methods to explore individual and family dynamics and the emotional issues, choices, and opportunities for expression that can aid the evolution of your soul as it continues its journey through this life. Problem-solving is essential, of course, yet there are times when finding ways to manage the many paradoxes of our lives is equally important. When appropriate, I also bring in a wide variety of tarot and other images to explore the mythic dimensions of your life. Again, there’s a soul beneath the symptoms. When our time is used primarily for one or more astrological consultations, the focus is somewhat different, but my therapeutic experience always informs my view of your chart.

Learning how to shift old patterns, imagine yourself differently, and thus alter the trajectory of your life story is no easy task, but the astrological perspective ensures that it can be a meaningful one. James Hillman’s “acorn theory” poses the question: “What does your soul want of you, want with you?” and is at the heart of my training and my work.