Ryan Barton

Socratic Counselor
Co-Founder, Socratic Counseling

About Me

I love sitting with people in the messy realities of their inner life and their outer life.  It is my joy to see, care, and help to unlock what is stuck. I experience a session as being one half of a tuning fork - it is only with two prongs on a tuning fork that a note can sound out clearly. By joining deeply, giving language to what is unformed, noticing what comes up in both of us, and offering inquiry, we can explore, midwife the life within, and find new perspective.

I have started and led multiple organizations, including Mainstay Technologies (a ~100 person tech services firm that focuses on a business model aligned to long-term good and a genuine care of people) Orchestrate AI Labs (an Artificial Intelligence integrator and thought leader), and the Vervaeke Foundation (a nonprofit that surrounds the work of one of the world's leading cognitive scientists and wisdom researchers, Dr. John Vervaeke).

It is precisely where business success was unable to answer the true needs in my own life (including my deep pain and existential questions) that my own inner journey deepened, and my journey into Socratic Counseling began.  Carl Jung wrote of the analyst that “It is his own hurt that gives the measure of his power to heal."  It has been my suffering, and the journey it has occasioned, that grants me anything I have to offer with clients in Socratic Counseling. 

For many years, I have coached leaders in the business world. As my own pursuit of transformation took me through much practice, many modalities, and numerous teachers, that coaching began to shift and include more and more aspects of the psyche and of philosophy. Through practice, training, and feedback from clients, it became a formalized approach of Socratic Counseling. My own continual pursuit of wisdom now also serves for the clients I'm honored to join in the questions of their life.

I continue to move through life as an entrepreneur, a creative, a strategist, a counselor, a student and practitioner of philosophy and psychology, a husband, and a father of three.

 

My approach

I seek to draw close, understand my client's experience from the inside out, and offer myself as partner in their inquiry. I revel in complexity, delight in that which cannot be categorized, and love to join clients in places where they feel most alone, most stuck, most unsure how to proceed.

One of my greatest joys is "holding" someone who rarely experiences the sense of being seen, understood, and properly named - giving them language and understanding for that which is yet unformed.

Over time, the movements of a session with me tend to be through three layers:

  • The present: surveying life, pausing at important areas, helping us both understand your experience, understand you, name more accurately, and gain conscious understanding of what's occurring. Sometimes all that’s needed is practical ideas in the here and now.

  • The within: Exploring the depth of emotion, identifying patterns, exploring hidden beliefs, and surfacing that which is stuck within, to be examined and brought into dialog.

  • The source: Connecting to the deepest places within us through the inner journey, and without through philosophical inquiry - to connect that infinite source which always renews, heals, and draws us up, further on our path of individuation, of wisdom cultivation, of wholeness, and of transformation.

 

Fields of Particular Interest

  • Vocations, and the pursuit of unlocking skills and finding deeper vocational paths

  • Ecologies of practice (meditation, contemplation, yoga, depth therapy, psychedelics, dialectic-into-dialogos, lectio divina, etc.)

  • The Meaning Crisis and the Metacrisis

  • Attachment theory and attachment work

  • Cognitive Science (and the work of Dr. John Vervaeke in particular)

  • Jungian depth psychology and the path of individuation

  • Internal Family Systems and its intersection with the pursuit of wisdom

  • Story work (informed largely by Allender Theory / Narrative Focused Trauma Care methodology)

  • Leadership development, with a pursuit of meaning and excellence

  • Business and capitalism that is aligned to the Good

  • Practical wisdom in business, finance, career, leadership, family, and life's hard choices

  • Philosophy as a way of life

  • Gender and sexuality

  • Spirituality and religion

  • Technology and artificial intelligence

  • Deep Philosophy (as of 2024, in training with Ran Lahav)

 

Stories from Clients

“Working with Ryan Barton has been an extraordinary journey of self-discovery, personal and professional growth. Ryan has a unique ability to bridge the gap between professional coaching and personal therapy, offering something truly transformative. He listens well and motivates me to be better in clear and kind ways.  Through our work together, Ryan helped me to hone my wisdom practices that have not only enhanced my understanding of myself but also significantly improved my overall life.  I wasn’t seeing all my strengths, value and past my obstacles prior to working with Ryan and I am forever grateful.

His approach to Socratic Counseling, rooted in philosophy and psychology, has empowered me to engage deeply with my life’s challenges and aspirations. I am more self-aware, more resourced and I’ve gained clarity and insight that I didn't know were previously possible. Ryan's guidance has been invaluable, and I wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone seeking to live a more beautiful and meaningful life.” -Client

“Working with Ryan has been transformative and deeply meaningful. He has helped me shape major life decisions in life in general and also in business. Ryan has an intuitive sense for how to hold a caring and nonjudgmental space for your feelings and thoughts. He validates them and helps you understand that there is wisdom in them. He then helps you get to the core of the underlying feelings and draw the insights they hold. I am deeply honored and grateful to spend time with Ryan and I wish to continue to do so for a very long time. It's also a pleasure.
The highest praise I can give is I can't imagine working with anyone else.” -Client

 

Intro sessions

There is no cost for an initial introductory session.  Contact us to schedule.

Sessions offered online or in Charlotte, NC, USA.