Phillip Castaneda Bio

Phillip Castaneda, Executive MBA, is ICI's Director of Operations, a Pastoral Counselor Supervisor, and a Level 4 Certified Pastoral Counselor at the Integrative Counseling Institute in Salem, Oregon. Phillip owns his own private practice, Salem Integrated Pastoral Counseling LLC, where he offers individual counseling, marriage counseling, and one-on-one Boxing Therapy with counseling. Phillip currently oversees the ICI clinic in its various branches, applying his business background to the day-to-day operations and long-term vision of ICI.

Phillip is passionate about the Manock Integrative Method and has been instrumental in shaping the MIM into an accessible training program. He is convinced of the value ICI offers both to the therapeutic and pastoral worlds and to the direct needs of persons seeking help.  As a committed researcher, Phil has spent many years alongside Dr. David Manock researching neuropsychology and counseling theory. Simultaneously, Phil has served as a pastor for over 35 years and as a business consultant for Fortune 500 software and telecom companies for over three decades. His entire career has been bi-vocational, producing a deep understanding of  the joys and challenges of both ministry and the business world. He has a Pastoral Ministries degree from Corban University and an Executive MBA degree from the University of Houston, and currently serves as the Pastor of Congregational Care at Salem Ekklesia in Salem, Oregon.

Phillip's passion for counseling was birthed in part out of his own experience as a client in a counseling room. Through a season of deep pain he experienced the transformative power of attachment-based counseling that addresses the vertical reality of person-to-person relationship, as well as the horizontal reality of person-to-God relationship. The safe haven offered by his therapist helped him "go beneath the water line" to what stirred in his heart, provided the security to learn to hold his pain rather than run from it, and created space to experience the healing presence of the Holy Spirit. Phil is overjoyed to provide the same profound ministry to his clients when he serves as their counselor. In addition to personal transformation, Phillip and his wife Jocelyn know first-hand what it is to forge a deep, joyful, secure marriage bond through their 32+ years together, sharing the joys and painful sorrows every marriage experiences and the committed faithfulness to walk through life not as two but as one. In addition to Phillip counseling couples one-on-one, he offers two-on-two couples therapy together with Jocelyn who is also an ICI Certified Pastoral Counselor.

Phil, why are you a counselor?

"I get incredible joy working with people. I love experiencing the Lord's presence when people open their hearts to the Lord; when this happens I experience a profound sense that I am doing what I am called to do. I believe deeply in my heart that I was created for this, and when I say I was created for this, that's not a boast. I really wrestle with continually increasing efficacy in the counseling room and my desire to be really good at this propels me to consistently try to get better;  but at the end of the day, it's something I really love doing and feel like God has put in my heart to do."

You really light up when you talk about counseling, and you light up even more when you talk about boxing therapy. What is boxing therapy and why do you love it?

"Boxing Therapy is quite literally counseling taking place while boxing. We have a great space for boxing plus all necessary gear and I coach the client step-by-step through it. Boxing Therapy is a way of building an attachment relationship with a client; it's a backdoor approach to the heart. In a very beautiful way the disarming that happens through the physicality of boxing helps a client access what is going on inside of them, and helps the heart to open. The physicality at some level represents for me a father or an uncle or a brother wrestling with a son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, a brother, a sister. Something about it builds security and attachment. It just seems to bring people alive. I've experienced the Lord's presence more with boxing than I have with just counseling alone. The clients I work with tend to appreciate being able to be physical; they say they appreciate the non-threatening approach that boxing therapy provides, noting that it builds safety and trust, and makes room for the presence of Christ who is ultimately the Great Healer."

Phillip is a lifetime learner who loves to play, hike, explore, discuss in tandem philosophy-theology-psychology, and claims to be at least 50% geek. His passion is to connect with people's hearts and help them experience God's transformation from the inside out. He has been married to his college sweetheart Jocelyn since 1990 and currently resides in Salem, Oregon. They are blessed with three wonderful adult children and three "perfect" grandchildren.

Phillip counsels clients in-person in Salem, Oregon or online from anywhere in the world.