Hello and welcome to The Metaforest! My name is Brent Henrikson. I’ve been a licensed therapist since 2013, and studying therapy and psychology since 2007. I am licensed as both an LMFT (Marriage and Family Therapist) and LPCC (Professional Clinical Counselor) in California. My academic background is somewhat unconventional for a therapist. I studied cybernetics at UCLA before finding my way into psychology, which is one reason that I’m drawn to systems thinking within and between people and across societies.
Beyond seeing clients, I spend a significant amount of time exploring these ideas through creative work. I write and produce videos on psychology, relationships, philosophy, and what it means to live fully, paired with nature footage that I’ve filmed mostly in the mountains and wilderness areas near where I’ve explored. My writing is my own way of sharing what I’ve learned in life and through my work with clients, while also deepening my own understanding of wisdom and insights by teaching them. You can find that work on my YouTube channel.
I’ve lived in Spain, Mexico, and New Zealand, but have spent most of my life in California. I spend as much time as I can outdoors hiking, trail running, backpacking, cold plunging in lakes and rivers, and just quietly contemplating in the sacred cathedral of wild nature.
I have a deep interest in all aspects of human health in addition to my therapeutic focus of mental and emotional health. I believe that physical exercise, good nutrition, contact with nature, quality sleep, meaningful relationships, a sense of purpose, and spiritual connection are all pillars of flourishing for our minds and bodies.
I decided to become a therapist for many reasons, but a central one is that I realized in my 20’s that I needed to go on my own “hero’s journey” of psychological healing from the all-too-common wounds of childhood, in order to realign my relationship with myself, to find my own center of inner peace, and to have more authentic and connecting relationships with others. The presence and peace that I have found during this decades-long and continuing journey of healing is the gift I want to share with the world through seeing clients and sharing what I’ve learned through writing.
What’s The Metaforest?
The Metaforest is a name that popped into my head about three years ago on a beautiful hike. It is a made up word that has multiple embedded meanings:
- Metaphor. We think and make sense of existence largely through the use of metaphors. Language itself can be looked at as a series of old and new metaphors. Delve into the etymology of a word and you’ll typically see metaphors at its roots. For example, the word metaphor derives from roots that mean “carry over”. I use metaphors in work with clients to explain and reframe ideas. This website is a “garden” of metaphors.
- Meta. The prefix “meta” means “beyond” or “transcending”. I spend a lot of my time in actual forests and mountains, largely to tap into peace and presence, which is a psychological “place” that transcends the forest itself. The Metaforest is my metaphor for the present and peaceful state of consciousness that we’re all ultimately seeking, and which has myriad paths to it, specific to each of us.
- Forest. Forest trees are stronger together than they are separately. When one tree is weak, the others often help it through their root system, their chemicals, and their physical bodies. Humans are also relational beings that function and survive through cooperation and synergy. Like trees, we take turns caring for each other, which allows us to take risks, stretch ourselves, face challenges, and realize our potentials. Building and restoring trust and authentic relating is a common goal of therapy and coaching.
- Rest. Rest can refer to allowing our mind and body to be still in order to heal, restore strength, and gain clarity of purpose. It can also refer to the cessation of resistance of “what is”, which is widely believed to be the singular source of true suffering.
Simply put, The Metaforest is my metaphor for happiness. And as the Dalai Lama has said, we are all ultimately seeking happiness, although we take different roads to fulfillment. My favorite portal to happiness is often a forest, but yours could be a desert, the coast, a city, a sport, a craft, a hobby, a career, volunteer work, a meditation practice, a relationship, a family, a community, or any combination of these and other routes to your peaceful center.
There is a lot of psychological and spiritual suffering today. In many parts of the world, our physical needs are met but our emotional, social, and spiritual needs are not. This has created confusion and guilt. We think we should be happy, because in many ways we have so much. But many of our hearts and spirits have been neglected in order to pursue security and comfort, at the expense of relationship, connection, love, inspiration, purpose, and transcendence.
Many are hearing a hero’s “call to action” to face their “dragons” of repressed pain and fears in order to obtain the treasure of greater happiness — to revive their emotional vibrancy, to expand into a larger purpose for their life, to connect genuinely and deeply with others, and to wake up from escapist trances and be more alive and engaged in life.
Such hero’s journeys are often best undertaken with a guide who has been on similar voyages of adversity, danger, doubt, pain, desperation, and ultimately triumph and transformation. I am one such guide for those who feel a resonance with me and are ready to chart new paths in their mind and explore their emotional heart to find their own treasures of peace, inspiration, connection, vitality, wisdom, and purpose.
