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A psychotherapy practice and training institute. The Institute does not provide emergency or crisis services — if you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services..
ABOUT
One institute,
three integrated
activities.
The November Institute is a psychotherapy practice and training institute working in the family systems tradition. Three activities — clinical practice, clinical training, and the development of new work in the field — happen under one roof and inform one another.
OUR ORIENTATION
Family Systems Thinking
Family systems thinking is the recognition that personal distress unfolds within relationship patterns over time — shaped by family history, current demands, and the emotional climates of the systems we live in.
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This is a clinical and intellectual tradition with a long lineage. It does not reduce human suffering to diagnosis alone, and it does not pretend that suffering can be solved by technique. At the same time, it takes seriously the need for clear, responsible clinical care when psychotherapy is indicated.
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What this means in practice: we are not a brief-treatment practice. We work over time. We work with the systems a person is part of, not only with the person in isolation.
"To develop the self in relationship is to strengthen the ability to remain present when tension rises — and to act from a clearer inner position."
SELF IN RELATIONHSIP
What we mean by self in relationship
To develop the self in relationship is to strengthen the ability to:
Remain present when tension rises
Take ownership of one's own participation
Speak and act from a clearer inner position
Stay connected without fusing, pleasing, controlling, or cutting off
Tolerate difference without requiring agreement
This is not a quick fix. It is a long practice. It is what we work toward with our clients, what we develop in our trainees, and what we ask of ourselves as faculty.
OUR COMMITMENTS
What Guides Us
We value the ability to speak and act from a clear position more than the ability to feel or express strongly.
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Clarity over intensity
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Development over quick relief
Lasting change is slow. We are oriented toward building capacity, not managing symptoms.
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Presence over performance
We are more interested in how someone actually functions than in how they present.
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Connection without loss of self
Genuine relationship requires two differentiated people. We work toward contact that doesn't require one person to disappear.
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Self-definition without disconnection
Holding your position doesn't mean cutting people off. The work is to do both at once.
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Practice and insight
Understanding a pattern is not the same as changing it. We are committed to the discipline of practicing something different.
ORIGIN
How we came to be
The November Institute began as an intuition. That a larger platform for understanding human life through a family systems lens — broader than any single practice could be — would serve practitioners and clients alike, and might contribute something to the wider public conversation as well.
The work was also personal: an effort to build a community rooted in curiosity and in the pursuit of wisdom as it is actually lived, not merely studied.
And it was meant to stand for something solid. Much of the counseling field has felt, in recent decades, like it was building on shifting sands — new techniques, new acronyms, new certifications arriving and departing with the cycles of fashion. The Institute was conceived as something different: a structure that could hold its ground because its foundations were old and well-laid. What it has become, and what it continues to become, is the working out of that original intuition.
FOUNDER
Guillermo M. Cancio-Bello, PhD
Guillermo Cancio-Bello, PhD, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of The November Institute. He works with individuals, couples, families, and professionals navigating the relational pressures of adult life — including leadership, family transitions, and the long work of clarifying who one is and how one wants to participate in the world.
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His clinical approach is grounded in family systems thinking, with particular attention to how patterns formed in one's family of origin continue to shape behavior, decision-making, and relationships over time.
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His emphasis is on formation rather than optimization — not making people perform better, but supporting them in becoming more settled, clear, and genuinely themselves. The November Institute is the home for that work.
SEES
Individuals · Couples · Families
LANGUAGES
English