Psychotherapy and Counseling
We offer compassionate and effective therapy for older adolescents and adults. We believe that therapy is a highly collaborative process and enjoy engaging each person within the context of his or her own priorities and needs. Therapy is not always easy – sometimes it is hard to change, no matter how much we might want to. At the Metis Center, we commit to working hard alongside you to find the lasting and meaningful changes that therapy can offer.
Therapy can have many helpful components. Sometimes, learning new information can be important and empowering. Often, part of our therapeutic work is to discover the important motivations that drive behaviors to become repeating patterns in your life. In some cases, the work of a therapist is to gently confront you with difficult truths. In all cases, the job of a therapist is to support you as a person and your therapeutic work steadfastly and with confidence in your own wisdom and strength. Whether we are doing the difficult work of healing after a traumatic experience, the exploration of career focusing, or the discovery and transformation of personal goals for change and growth, therapy is a place to be heard in a deep and meaningful way.
Therapeutic Approaches
Our team members each have advanced education and years of experience and training devoted to helping you unravel the knots in your life effectively to support your positive transitions and personal growth. As a group practice, we have backgrounds in multiple therapeutic approaches designed to maximize the benefit you receive from your investment in therapy. We look forward to learning more about you and your needs.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically based therapeutic approach that uses mindfulness strategies to increase psychological flexibility. One aspiration we hold for each of us is to experience more confident and conscious choice in each moment. ACT emphasizes helping you to identify your core values and goals and working together to align your behaviors with those values and goals.
Our implementation of ACT is informed by extensive study and practice of Buddhist wisdom traditions as well as principles from humanistic, gestalt, and psychodynamic psychology. We bring a sophisticated understanding of the functioning of the mind in both sanity and confusion. From a place of openness and non-judgment, we use a precise awareness of the present moment to work with you through obstacles to flourishing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of healing that focuses on the interaction between your behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. By developing a greater understanding and awareness of the connection between these mental and behavioral aspects, individuals can learn to alter their psychological well-being and better adapt to their environments.
CBT has been empirically validated as a successful treatment for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, ADHD, eating disorders, and other significant issues. This form of therapy tends to feel more structured in session and involves the client being active and practicing CBT techniques between sessions with the therapist.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy is an adaptation of standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)practices and has been shown to be successful in helping people cope with some of the worst traumas that humans can be faced with. Issues stemming from sexual and personal violence, traumatic accidents, PTSD, distress caused by military service and more can all be helped through this method.
Coherence Therapy
Coherence therapy is not an approach that seeks to diagnose you with one condition or another. It is a method that can help you navigate the resolution of tough situations you might face in life. It has been used successfully to relieve participants of a variety of psychological struggles, including anxiety, depression, feelings of under-achievement, relationship troubles, difficult life transitions, and even phobias.
Couples Therapy
Couples or partner therapy enables two or more people in an intimate relationship to meet in a neutral setting and explore conflict, problems, or difficulties. For some couples, this therapy is beneficial to learn more about each other and how to navigate difficult or painful discussions, even when the relationship is predominately healthy.
Couples often seek therapy due to communication problems, sexual dissatisfaction, or infidelity. Some couples use therapy to support an amicable separation if they have already decided to divorce or split. We focus on assisting couples in understanding the deeper patterns in their relationships that contribute to their distress, discomfort, and arguments. Clients are encouraged to understand both their own roles and emotions and their partner’s roles and emotions in the relationship. This allows us to work collaboratively to reshape interaction patterns and expectations in order to create a more fulfilling relationship.
Eye Movement (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is widely recognized as an effective form of treatment for anxiety and trauma-related issues. The focus of EMDR is to deal with difficult experiences from the past, the current situations that trigger them and the positive experiences necessary to adapt to future change.
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of humanistic and existential psychology initially created in the 1940s. This form of therapy can support individuals experiencing symptoms from depression, anxiety, relationship issues (friends, family, and romantic), attention problems, chronic pain, and many others.
A central aspect of this therapy technique is the belief that people are constantly striving to achieve some form of balance, or homeostasis, through their behaviors. These actions can include seeking rewards or diminishing suffering. Many of us are not even aware of what our bodies and minds are focused on and discover ourselves trapped in a pattern of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that cause pain and difficulty.
Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy
In this approach to therapy, we work together to investigate your present moment experience. Awareness is just like a muscle that can be built through exercise. Mindfulness-based psychotherapy involves bringing attention to what is happening right now – thoughts, feelings, physical sensations – with an attitude of friendliness rather than judgment.
When our habitual reactions are held in our awareness with an attitude of loving-kindness, we begin to have more choice about whether we want to continue engaging in these patterns of emotion and behavior. As this happens, a sense of confidence, freedom and joy begins to emerge.
Neurofeedback
Simply stated, neurofeedback is training your brain. Neurofeedback can have a positive effect on brain health and cognitive flexibility. It may increase self-awareness, enhance learning, balance emotions, and reduce pain through the use of EEG technology and practice. Breaking down the word “neurofeedback” gives us “neuro-” and “-feedback.” Neuro refers to the nerves or the nervous system, and feedback is medically defined as a control or modification to a process as told by its results. Therefore, neurofeedback is the guided control of the nervous system to train the brain based on its current functioning.
Telehealth Online Therapy
Telehealth therapy is online video-based counseling with a trained psychotherapist over your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
The Metis Center has been providing telehealth therapy and counseling since 2016. Our staff are trained in online counseling, and can provide a full range of counseling services as well as many clinical assessments online.
