A Chaplain, a Counselor, and a Fellow Traveler.
I’ve spent most of my adult life doing some version of the same thing: sitting with people in hard moments. As a parish pastor, as a Navy chaplain on deployment, and for the last 13 years as a licensed therapist. Different titles, same work. I’d be honored to do it with you, too.
Peace and Safety, First. Everything Else Follows.
I believe therapy works best when the room — even a virtual one — feels safe, unhurried, and free of judgment. When someone walks into a session carrying something heavy, the last thing they need is to be evaluated before they’ve been heard.
My job, as I see it, is not to fix you. It’s to help you re-connect with the parts of yourself that already know what you need — the hope, the clarity, the strength — that got buried under everything you’ve been trying to manage alone. I have a working theory about how we should treat each other that I come back to in the room, which I’ll just lay out plainly:
"Do no harm to yourself. Do no harm to others. If you break one, you've broken the other."
That’s more or less the whole framework. It’s also a surprisingly durable one. Most of what we end up doing in sessions is looking at where one or both of those have gotten tangled and figuring out how to live a little closer to both.
I draw on a few specific sources for this work:
- Marriage and Family Therapy training — seeing people in the context of the relationships and systems they live in, rather than as isolated problem sets.
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based therapy — teaching the skills of breath, attention, and presence that help regulate the nervous system in real time.
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — a well-established, evidence-based approach for helping the nervous system process trauma that’s gotten stuck.
- Logotherapy (in training) — Viktor Frankl’s framework for finding meaning, especially in suffering that can’t be ‘solved’ away. Often the meaning is where the relief lives.
- 31 years of pastoral and chaplaincy experience — sitting with people in grief, crisis, deployment, hospital rooms, and ordinary Tuesdays. It shapes how I listen.
"I don't fix people. But I do help people find the inner hope and strength to make the changes they need."
Heinz Malon, LMFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist · Retired U.S. Navy Chaplain · Retired Lutheran Pastor
Heinz Malon is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), a retired United States Navy chaplain, and a retired Lutheran pastor. Over 31 years of combined pastoral ministry, military chaplaincy, and clinical mental health work, he has developed a deeply collaborative approach that meets people in the middle of their real lives — not at some idealized version of them.
He spent 21 years as a parish pastor and Navy chaplain — much of that time overlapping — which means he’s carried both the quiet pastoral work of a congregation and the high-stakes presence work of military service. That includes accompanying service members and their families through deployments, losses, and homecomings. For the last 13 years he has practiced in community mental health, where he has worked with children, teens, adults, couples, and families navigating the full range of what makes life hard.
Heinz grew up in Staten Island near New York Harbor and spent his Navy career on and around the water — which is part of why he ended up on the Key Peninsula in Washington State. His practice is now fully telehealth, based in Gig Harbor and serving clients across Pierce, Kitsap, Mason, and the rest of Washington.
Education & Training
- Master of Divinity (M.Div)
- Master of Arts (MA) in Marriage and Family Therapy
- EMDR training (trauma reprocessing)
- Child Mental Health Specialist certification
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) — integrated into practice
- Ongoing training in Logotherapy (Viktor Frankl’s meaning-based approach)
Credentials
- Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)
- EMDR-trained (trauma reprocessing)
- Child Mental Health Specialist (CMHS)
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) practitioner
- Logotherapy training (in progress)
- Tricare-paneled
- 31 years in practice & ministry
"Therapy is not a performance. I'm very interested in your story — all of it, including the funny parts. Laughter belongs in this work, and so does grief, and there's usually more room for both than people expect."
The People I Walk Alongside
I work with a fairly wide range of people, which reflects both my training and my background. The largest part of my practice is individual adults, but my full client list looks something like this:
Individual Adults
This is the heart of my practice — adults across the lifespan, from their early twenties into their seventies. Most come in working through anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, burnout, or the creeping sense that something in life has gone off-track. Some have done therapy before; some haven't. Either is fine.
Couples & Partners
Couples work is a significant part of what I do. I bring MFT training to the work, which means I'll be looking at the relationship as a system — not just at who is 'right' in a particular argument. We'll work on communication, repair, and the underlying patterns that keep showing up.
Veterans & Active-Duty Military
As a retired Navy chaplain paneled with Tricare, I understand the culture, the rhythms of deployment and reintegration, the weight of moral injury, and the particular silences that come with service. I work with active-duty service members, veterans from every branch, spouses, and children of military families.
Teens & Adolescents (12–18)
As a Child Mental Health Specialist (CMHS), I work with teens navigating anxiety, depression, identity, school stress, family conflict, and the regular-but-not-easy business of becoming a person. Telehealth often works especially well for teens, who tend to open up more readily on their own turf.
Survivors of Religious Trauma
As someone who spent decades inside the church and still claims a faith tradition, I'm especially glad to work with people who've been hurt by religious communities, leaders, or theology. I won't try to talk you back into anything. Your relationship with faith — or lack of it — is yours to define.
Families
I work with families as systems — not just collections of people. If you're stuck in the same fight, living as roommates, or trying to help a kid through a hard season, we can work on that together.
LGBTQ+ Affirming
LGBTQ+ clients are welcomed and affirmed here. My practice is explicitly a safe space — your identity is not a problem to be solved or a theology to be debated. It's simply part of who you are, and you are welcome exactly as you are.
A Few Things You Should Probably Know
31 Years of Listening
Three decades of pastoral care, chaplaincy, and clinical practice isn't just a resume line. It shapes the quality of presence I can bring to a session — less hurry, less reaching for the nearest tool, more room for what you're actually trying to say.
Real Military Experience
I served as a Navy chaplain. I know what a deployment cycle does to a marriage. I know the particular texture of moral injury. I know what it's like to come home to a house that kept going without you. You won't have to translate your experience for me. (I'm also paneled with Tricare.)
A Story-Centered Approach
I think of therapy as part of a longer conversation — yours, mine, ours. I'm genuinely curious about how you got to be who you are. Most weeks, we'll spend time in your actual story rather than in a worksheet.
No Judgment. Seriously.
After 31 years of this work, I don't get shocked easily. When people have been hurt or have hurt others, they usually already know — they don't need me to pile on. My job is to hear you where you are. If I can't do that, I probably shouldn't be your therapist.
Laughter Is Allowed. Actually, Encouraged.
Therapy does not have to be a solemn performance. Some of the most important breakthroughs I've witnessed came right after someone laughed at how absurd their situation actually is. Humor is a legitimate part of healing, and it's a big part of how I work.
Faith-Informed, Not Faith-Required
My training includes an M.Div and two decades in Lutheran ministry, so I'm comfortable with spiritual material if that's part of your life — including religious trauma. But nothing about therapy here requires a particular belief. This is a judgment-free space whether you pray, meditate, deconstruct, or none of the above.
Ready to Talk?
The first call is free, can run 30 to 60 minutes, and comes with zero pressure. If we’re a good fit, we’ll book a session. If we’re not, I’ll help you find someone who is.