Today we’d like to introduce you to David Schlosz, Ph.D., LPC-S.
Hi David, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and that early experience of culture, change, and belonging shaped me in ways I didn’t fully understand until much later. I eventually made my way to the U.S. and built a life in Austin, Texas, one rooted in two worlds: the grounded resilience I grew up with, and the wide-open sense of possibility I found here.
Before I ever became a counselor, I spent 12 years as a pastor in Cape Town and Austin. That season formed me in profound ways. I sat with people in some of the most tender moments of their lives: grief, marriage strain, addiction, identity struggles, and deep questions about meaning and belonging. I learned the power of presence, listening, and walking alongside someone without trying to fix them. At the same time, I also came to recognize the limits of what I could offer in a pastoral role when people needed clinical care and trauma-informed healing. That realization became part of what called me toward counseling.
I’m also gay, and I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and conversion therapy. Those experiences didn’t just impact me, they shaped my sense of mission. I know firsthand what it’s like to carry shame that isn’t yours, to feel split inside, and to spend years trying to become “acceptable” to other people at the expense of your own wholeness. I also know what it takes to reclaim your voice, rebuild trust in yourself, and learn that healing is possible. My lived experience influenced my decision to pursue formal training in counseling and became the foundation of how I show up with sensitivity, courage, and a commitment to creating safety and truth in the room.
Along the way, my personal life has also shaped me. I’m divorced and a father of three young adults. Parenting, especially through seasons of change, has been one of my greatest teachers. It’s kept me grounded, humbled me, expanded my empathy, and deepened my understanding of family systems, resilience, and what it means to keep showing up with love even when life is complicated.
Over time, I became a counselor, counselor educator, and supervisor, working across clinical practice and higher education. Teaching graduate counseling students became one of the most meaningful parts of my work because I love helping new counselors develop confidence, clarity, and presence, learning that the most powerful “tool” they will ever bring into the room is themselves. Alongside that, I built a private practice, Therapy with David, centered on deep healing, authentic connection, and helping men and women move through shame and relational pain toward freedom and restored potential.
As my work grew, so did my desire to make it accessible beyond the therapy room and the university classroom. That’s where my writing, podcasting, and training initiatives came in. I enjoy creating resources that feel human, practical, and hopeful. In my mentoring work and podcast, I focus on supporting counselors-in-training and early career professionals with tools, language, and encouragement that bridge the gap between theory and real life.
If there’s one thread that ties my whole story together, it’s this: I believe healing happens in relationship through honesty, compassion, and the courage to come home to yourself. Everything I’ve built, my practice, my teaching, my content, my mission, flows from my commitment to awakening and restoring wholeness, freedom, and potential in people’s lives.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. It’s been meaningful, but it hasn’t been smooth.
A big part of the struggle has been the cost of becoming myself. Living through childhood sexual abuse, and later conversion therapy, left deep imprints of shame and hyper-vigilance, and that internal pressure to perform “acceptable” in order to belong. Even after I was outwardly functioning and leading, there were still parts of me that were healing in private. Unlearning what I was taught about myself and rebuilding trust in my own inner voice has been lifelong work.
Another struggle was navigating the tension between faith, identity, and vocation. I spent 12 years as a pastor, and while that season gave me a deep love for people and the power of presence, it also came with complexity, especially as a gay man. There were moments of feeling unseen, misunderstood, or like I had to compartmentalize parts of my story. Eventually, I reached a point where I knew I couldn’t keep serving from a divided place. That led to some difficult transitions both personally and professionally but also to greater integrity.
I’ve also faced the normal challenges of building a career that spans multiple worlds: going back to school, doing the long hours of training and supervision, starting and growing a practice, and then layering in teaching, writing, and podcasting. There have been seasons where I took on too much, felt stretched thin, and had to learn the hard lesson that impact requires sustainability, boundaries, rest, and saying no.
And then there’s the human side: divorce, parenting three kids into young adulthood, and learning how to rebuild life and relationships in a new chapter. That’s been both painful and refining. It’s also made me a more grounded clinician and educator because I don’t speak about resilience, grief, or rebuilding from theory alone.
The thread through all of it is that the struggles have shaped my work. They’ve made me more compassionate, more patient, and more committed to creating safe spaces whether in therapy, in the classroom, or through my content, where people don’t have to hide who they are to heal.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Therapy With David?
Therapy with David is my private practice in Austin, built around one central belief: healing happens in relationship when you feel safe enough to tell the truth, be fully seen, and reconnect with the parts of you that learned to hide.
At a practical level, I provide individual therapy for adults, and my work often attracts people who look “high functioning” on the outside but feel exhausted, stuck, or disconnected on the inside. Many of my clients are carrying shame, relational pain, anxiety, trauma history, or the quiet weight of always being the strong one. I specialize in helping men and women heal shame at its roots, work through relational wounds, and build a more grounded sense of identity and emotional freedom.
What I’m known for is a style that’s deeply human and direct, but also gentle with warmth and depth. I bring a strong relational focus, trauma-informed care, and a mind-body lens that helps people understand what’s happening in their nervous system, not just in their thoughts. I pay close attention to patterns of protection: how we learned to survive, why certain triggers hit so hard, and what it looks like to move from coping to genuine healing. The goal isn’t just symptom relief, it’s wholeness: more self-trust, more authentic connection, and a life that feels like yours again.
What sets Therapy with David apart is the integration of three worlds that don’t always get brought together: clinical skill, lived experience, and educator-level clarity. I’m not only a therapist; I’m also a counselor educator and supervisor. That means I’m constantly translating complex ideas into language that’s practical and usable. I also bring deep respect for spirituality and meaning-making without using faith as a weapon or bypassing pain. For many clients, that balance matters.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud that Therapy with David has become a space that people describe as safe, honest, and restorative. The mission is simple and personal: Awakening, inspiring, and restoring wholeness, freedom, and potential in the lives of men and women all over the world. Everything I create (trainings, resources, podcasts, teachings) flows from that.
What I want readers to know is that this is therapy for people who are ready to go deeper, at a pace that still honors safety. You don’t have to be in crisis to start. You can come because you’re tired of carrying shame, tired of performing, tired of repeating the same relationship patterns, or tired of feeling disconnected from yourself. Therapy with David is for the person who’s ready to come home to themselves and have a guide who can hold that process with both compassion and skill.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
To name one quality is difficult. I would say resilience, the willingness to keep showing up, keep learning, and keep becoming, even when the road has been hard and there have been setbacks.
But if I could name another, I would also say presence, the ability to stay grounded, attentive, and emotionally available in the moment, especially when things are complex or painful. Presence has shaped everything: how I sit with clients without rushing to fix, how I teach and lead with clarity and steadiness, and how I keep returning to what’s true when fear, pressure, or old shame tries to pull me off center.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.therapywithdavid.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschlosz/
