Hicksville native and relationship consultant, Annie Zirkel, LPC (licensed professional counselor) has made it past over 15,000 other applicants to become one of 20 finalists from around the country for Good Morning America’s new position of Advice Guru.
Zirkel, who currently lives in Michigan, came a long way to get on this short list. Growing up in Hicksville, and earning an Associates degree from Nassau Community College, she is now making a bid to give advice to America on topics ranging from parenting to marriage to work dilemmas and friendship woes.
The Advice Guru’s job will be to answer Good Morning America audience questions on-line and do on-air segments for the show.
Zirkel states that she initially earned her wisdom the hard way by struggling in her marriage, early parenting, and with the challenges of raising a severely disabled son. After getting excellent advice for these relationships, she went back to school to earn a master’s degree in counseling from Eastern Michigan University at the age of 41 and set up shop.
Zirkel currently sees clients and runs workshops on parenting, couple-hood, bullying prevention, conflict resolution, optimism and gratitude. Her clients include University of Michigan, many area schools, non-profits and businesses. She has an on-line advice column at www.anniezirkel.com called Ask Annie and is author of You’ll Thank Me Later ~ A Guide to Raising Grateful Children (& Why That Matters).
Zirkel is also founder of the newsletter A Different Path for families raising children with disabilities and the 30 Days of Gratitude Project, an online international community experience in the practice of gratitude and even wrote a book on cheap living.
Before NCC, she attended St. Ignatius Loyola Elementary and Holy Trinity High School, both in Hicksville. After NCC she attended the University of Hawaii before moving to Michigan to be with her future husband. If she is offered the position she plans to commute and looks forward to spending time with many of her family who are still in the New York area.
Now comes the hard part: staying in the competition. The 20 finalists are answering questions on the GMA website with readers weighing in by voting, commenting and sharing with their social networks. Good Morning America expects to cut the finalists to 10 within the next few weeks with the winner being offered the position in early 2011.
To read Zirkel’s advice along with other finalists go to www.goodmorningamerica. com.
