Counseling Intern: Currently in a graduate program for mental health counseling and under supervision with Clinical Director, Auriel Campbell, MA, LPC

PLPC: Provisionally Licensed Professional Counselor has obtained their Masters in Mental Health Counseling and are under supervision with a board approved supervisor (LPC-S) to obtain full licensure

LPC/ LCSW: a fully licensed counselor or social worker that obtained their Masters and licensure

Initial Session: In an initial counseling session, you will meet the counselor for the first time. This gives you a chance to tell the counselor about yourself, your struggles and your goals. You can ask the counselor any questions you may have about him or herself and what to expect in counseling. This session is also geared to set goals and to see if this counselor is the best fit for you.

Following sessions: You and the counselor will process current struggles, use different therapeutic modalities to help you reach your goals and decrease any distress in your life such as anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, addiction, etc.

The cost of therapy will depend on the counselor.

Counseling Interns: $45-$60/ hour Individuals | $60-$80/ hour Couples & Families

PLPCs: $80-$100/ hour Individuals | $100-$125/ hour Couples & Families

LPCs/ LCSWs: $130/ hour Individuals | $150/ hour Couples & Families

LPCs/ LCSWs: Accept BCBS, United Healthcare (UHC), UMR, and Aetna Commercial Insurance

If you have mental health benefits with your insurance, call your insurance to see what your mental health benefits are. Some insurance plans you have to meet a deductible prior to your mental health benefits kick in where you then have a copay or coinsurance.

For clinicians that do not accept insurance or are not in network with your insurance plan, we can provide you with a superbill to file with your insurance as out of network for potential out of network reimbursement.

The frequency of counseling is based on your goals and what you are coming into therapy for. Typically, a client will begin by coming weekly or every other week and then begin to move to less frequently as your goals are met.

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This type of therapy connects the way we think and act to feel better. Sometimes we feel disconnected from our thoughts, actions, and bodies and aren’t aware of why we feel so off. This therapy helps us to reconnect these things and grow to move past symptoms that get in our way.

We will explore thoughts, behaviors, and emotions and how they are influencing one another. Sometimes our emotions, behaviors, and thoughts are keeping us from progressing forwards in life. CBT Therapy is very logical and concrete by using Socratic questions and finding evidence to reframe distorted thinking.

Through CBT we can change our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions so we feel better and can move forward. Thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are so connected that thought changing one of them we can change the others.

Sometimes with extreme emotions it is important to balance the mind with the behaviors. Dialectical has a double meaning; firstly, it means a dialogue and conversation. Secondly, it means there is opposition. Therefore, dialectical means to use conversation to come to a balance between opposing forces. These forces can be emotions, thoughts, or opinions. A conversation can be inner dialogue (the conversation with yourself within your mind) or outer dialogue (like with a therapist). Behavior is where we look at our actions and determine if we can behave in a more productive healthy way. Therapy means a therapist is involved.

DBT has four main components utilizing distress tolerance, mindfulness, relationship skills, and emotional regulation. Within a DBT session, a counselor and client will collaboratively discern which area needs focus to begin strengthening these skills within these four principles.

DBT has been shown to be helpful in treating many different mental health diagnoses such as Bipolar Disorder and Personality Disorders. However, DBT can be helpful for all people wanting to grow in mindfulness, relationship skills, and emotion regulation during difficult times.

Play therapy is a way of using play (toys and games, etc.) to explore life problems and experiences.

It is mainly used with children since play is the language of a child. Children process and work through difficult times through play. However, play therapy is also effective for adults in bypassing the prefrontal cortex and helping work through childhood trauma stored in the sub cortex. Play Therapy believes for adults, we have to remember that if we experienced a trauma at 4 years old, then we will have to process it in a similar way a 4 year old would need to.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) was discovered by Francine Shapiro, PhD in 1987. EMDR is an evidenced based, bottom-up type of therapy utilized for all forms of PTSD. it has also been shown to be effective for phobias, OCD, addiction, depression, anxiety, grief, and more.

EMDR is based off the theory of Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) which believes our body and brain intuitively knows how to heal itself. However, when someone experiences a traumatic event, it is as if the trauma gets stuck in our brain and nervous system where it repeats itself in the present as if the trauma is still present. EMDR utilizes bilateral stimulation to help dislodge the trauma for it to flow through Adaptive Information Processing.

Within an EMDR session, a client will pick an area of focus/ target to process. The client will identify an image, a negative cognitive belief, sensation and emotion connected within this target and measurehis/ her distress level. The EMDR trained clinician will then perform bilateral stimulation whether visually, auditorily or kinesthetically with tappers to activate the AIP processing. The client will then perform free association from the target such as watching the images pass by as you riding on a train. The brain will then instinctively work through the connected neural memories with that specific traumatic target.

An EMDR trained clinician has undergone 50 hours of training, practicum and consultation utilizing the EMDR model. The importance of an EMDR trained clinician is preparing a client for EMDR therapy, discerning the readiness of the client, as well as gently guiding a client through and out of the EMDR process.

A client has full control within EMDR and alongside. Alongside the standard EMDR protocol, there are many other protocols for different areas of distress and focus for a clinician to utilize.

Research has shown it to be one of the most effective trauma therapies of our day.

Learn more about EMDR at EMDRIA.org.

Brainspotting utilizes eye positions to locate, access, and discharge stuck material held in the brain and body.

The eyes are the extension of the brain, specifically the subcortical part of our brain where we store traumatic events.

A brainspot is an eye position that correlates to a subcortical area of relevance, which can be found in the brain, and is elicited by bringing up a topic and its correlating somatic activation (how one senses what they’re thinking/feeling/experiencing in their body).

Once a brainspot has been located using a variety of techniques by a trained Brainspotting practitioner, the client is guided to keep their gaze on the brainspot/eye position, so that the brain can begin a self-scanning process. Focusing on this eye position allows the brain’s self-scanning capacity to engage in accessing the neural networks that are holding the somatic material/information that the client is wanting to work on. Once found and held, the brain can basically say “oh hey, here’s the location of this issue we have been dealing with for so long! Here’s all that stuck survival energy that we’ve dissociated from or had to avoid!” It then can engage it’s homeostatic capacity to discharge the held survival energy.

At this point in a Brainspotting session, clients will sometimes experience strong waves of emotions or somatic sensations, memories, and thoughts (sympathetic arousal related to the event/trauma) followed by parasympathetic activation which is the process of homeostasis (feelings of calm, groundedness, or relaxation). These waves of processing continue as the therapist holds space for the client in a deeply relational way and gives the client space to allow their body to unfold and unload the trauma as it needs to.

Trauma is a stuck or frozen survival response that is trapped in the body. It can be a condition that results due to too much, too soon, too fast, or not enough. If the nervous system does not have the ability to discharge the survival energy, it can become stuck in the body and cause a variety of ailments ranging from depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, illness, dissociation, and disconnection from oneself.

Why would the nervous system not be able to discharge this stuck energy? Perhaps it wasn’t safe to. We live in a world where it’s not socially acceptable to discharge trauma- stigma, narratives around being weak, belief systems that teach us to suppress, and as a result of living in a fast-paced society focused on consumerism, avoidance, and distraction.

Perhaps we didn’t have enough support or acceptance. Being able to experience safety allows us to have a place to begin to discharge trauma, which can look like crying, shaking, tingling, twitching, yelling, breathing, or moving our bodies. This is why the presence of an attuned, caring person or therapist is crucial to emotional healing and trauma processing- to allow for the body to move the charge of the survival energy in the way that it needs to so it can return to balance. The therapist acts as a secure attachment to reconnect with that sense of safety that wasn’t present prior.

We are group counseling practice made up of Christian faith based individuals.

We respect all beliefs and walks of life and believe each individual’s journey is unique and to be honored. For those seeking faith within their therapeutic practice, we are able to incorporate this in the way our client requests. This may include discussions about God, religion, religious experiences, prayer, scripture, meditation, healing attachment with God, etc.

Each clinician is sensitive to those that have experienced spiritual abuse and incorporating faith based counseling will only take place if a clients requests it.