What Is Spiritual Counseling with a Cantor? (And When to Choose Pastoral vs. Clinical Help)

When people first meet me, they often ask, “So… are you a cantor or a therapist?” 

The answer is: both!

I live and work at a beautiful intersection: I am both a cantor and a licensed therapist (LCSW). I sing ancient melodies and guide families through weddings, baby naming ceremonies, and funerals; and I also sit with individuals in the quiet of a counseling room and listen deeply to their stories—the lived experiences that brought them to this moment. Spiritual counseling, in my practice, weaves those two identities together.

Spiritual counseling combines psychological insights with spiritual guidance, helping you align your strengths and values while addressing your struggles and hopes.

Pastoral vs. Clinical Support: Understanding Your Needs

Here’s an important distinction:

Pastoral counseling is spiritual support that meets people in moments of spiritual yearning, transition, and exploration. Pastoral counseling draws on ancient wisdom (e.g., lessons from the Torah) and other spiritual resources such as prayer or Jewish philosophy to keep our lived experience grounded in something special, something holy, and to our ancestors’ sacred journeys. It’s about making-meaning, finding hope, drawing on tradition, and aligning your present life with your deepest and most ultimate concerns as you interpret them through a Jewish lens.

Clinical therapy, which I also provide, focuses more on navigating emotional, relational, and behavioral challenges to improve well-being and foster personal growth in the here and now. It follows evidence-based modalities and has its own distinct (and secular) frameworks. Clinical therapy deals more with real-life stressors, and explores the past and present to increase self-understanding, goals, and how to move forward with personal choices that align with who you want to be.

Spiritual counseling sits between pastoral and clinical support. While it may not require a clinical diagnosis, it focuses on providing compassion, presence, and a safe space to explore your life story in light of your faith, doubts, and dreams.

When I work with you, I can offer both spiritual practices like blessings and rituals, and therapeutic techniques such as grounding exercises or cognitive re-framing. Often, a combination of both is beneficial. For example, let’s say a couple is navigating a wedding process but finds it stressful to manage the input, and sometimes conflict, among their family members. My dual-approach helps us come up with strategies to manage relationship dynamics while keeping you grounded in what’s important to you on your wedding day. My role in situations like these is two-fold—helping the couple to stay connected to the sacred parts of this process while also tending to the complexities of the here and now.

What Do People Bring to Spiritual Counseling?

The range is wide, but here are some common situations:

• Conversion: Exploring Judaism, asking big questions, and navigating the emotional and spiritual steps of becoming part of the Jewish people.



• Bereavement: Grieving a loss, seeking comfort in ritual, and learning how to carry memory forward while healing.



• Interfaith relationships: Harmonizing two traditions. For example, an interfaith couple may want to celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah in their home. I utilize my expertise in intercultural competency to help them honor both traditions with respect and joy.



• Family dynamics: Navigating tensions during life transitions, like welcoming a baby, sending a child to college, or caring for an elder.



• Healing from trauma in religious spaces: Many of us carry wounds. Together, we explore ways to reclaim faith and self, ritual and practice, and place and belonging in ways that feel safe and empowering.


In every case, we explore not only what’s painful but also what’s possible. What values do you hold most dear? What psychological strengths do you already possess? How can we bring them together to move you toward the life you long to live in a way that’s authentically you?

How the Process Works

Sessions: We meet one-on-one (in person or virtually) in a confidential, non-judgmental space. 

Confidentiality: Just like clinical therapy, what you share with me will be held in strict confidence. You can bring your questions, your doubts, your grief, your stories, and know they will be received with respect.

Fees & Insurance: Because I am also a licensed therapist, many of these sessions can be billed through my therapy practice and are often reimbursable by insurance companies. I’ll help you understand how that works before we begin.

Intake Checklist: Before your first session, I’ll ask you to reflect on a few simple questions:

1. What brings you here at this moment?



2. What is most important to you—your top values or spiritual commitments?



3. What do you hope to take away from our work together?



4. Are there particular challenges (e.g., family, work, faith, relationships) that feel most pressing?

5. How would you describe your current support system?



This gives us a shared starting point and a foundation off of which we can build. 

Why Spiritual Counseling Matters

So many of us carry questions we may not take the time to answer: What do I believe? What do I want to pass on? How do I make peace with my past? How do I live my values today?

Spiritual counseling gives you space to explore those questions with both compassion and depth. It honors your story, your faith, and your doubts (because in Judaism, uncertainty and questioning are not only acceptable but encouraged!). It helps you link the threads of your life into a tapestry that feels whole.

For me, this work is about being a witness, a guide, and sometimes a translator, between ancient tradition and modern life; between pain and possibility, between the human heart and the sacred.

When you enter into spiritual counseling with me, you’re not just sitting with a cantor. You’re not just sitting with a therapist. You’re sitting with both; with someone who, herself, has been through it, and who believes that your life, your values, your questions, and your dreams are worthy of sacred attention.

Together, we’ll do the holy work of linking psychology and spirit, healing and hope, and memory and meaning, so you can live more fully into the life you long for.