Therapy Services in the Gorge
Individuals & Couples
Is pain from your past, or worries about the future, making it hard to enjoy the present?
Learn MoreDo you find yourself on the brink of separation, wondering if there's any hope at turning your relationship around?
Learn MoreAre you struggling to deal with overwhelming emotions in yourself or those around you?
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I provide a comfortable, non-judgemental, safe environment to build a relationship based on trust, non-violence, and unconditional friendliness. From this place, I help you change your way of being in the world through working with core material, such as feelings, beliefs, and memories. It is down here, deep in your subconscious, that I can help you discover the full expression of who you are and what is possible in your life. This process can be difficult at times, which is why I offer specialized training in the branch of psychology concerned with the alleviation of human suffering.
I am a level 1 PACT trained therapist—a transformational approach to couple therapy. Learn more about this method at PACT. This is a very practical, effective, and dynamic approach that applies the latest research in interpersonal neurobiology, the biology of human arousal, and attachment theory (how we form bonds with other humans), which teaches couples how to become experts in each other and their relationship. This is why it is called a psychological and biological approach—we use the all the information from the mind and body to foster connection.
Relying on love and good feelings about each other in a long-term primary attachment relationship will not work. Why? Because love is a feeling, and all feelings come and go, and are therefore unreliable. In PACT, we build your relationship based on shared values, shared ideas, and shared principles for how to govern your relationship when difficulty arrises. Rather than “we love each other” as a response to the question “why are you together?” we might say “in this relationship, we strive to do loving-acts towards each other every day, and if we forget, we acknowledge the impact of not following through with our shared principle”.
Ready to meet in person? Use my online calendar to find a time that fits your schedule.
BOOK NOWAugust has counseled me on nearly every aspect of my life. His ability to see through my facade of coping mechanisms and suggest another way is a gift that will serve me for a lifetime. I encourage you to take the leap and go develop a relationship with August. You, and everyone else in your life, will be grateful you did.
~ James J.
August has that unique quality in a counselor — you feel totally seen and accepted for who you are (including all the not-so-likable stuff) yet are immediately challenged to change your old ways of being. We highly recommend a session with him so you can see for yourself.
~ Trout Lake Abbey
August’s wholeheartedness allows his clients to feel supported and safe. I highly recommend him for couples looking to grow through the difficulties of long-term relationship and children dealing with trauma.
~ Brieanna J.
August is one of those people that you immediately feel safe with. He is lighthearted, caring and has worked with his own mind long enough to be a worthy guide for others.
~ Claire F.
As a graduate of Naropa University, I offer a compelling approach to therapy that draws on traditional western psychology, as well as the eastern practices and philosophy of Buddhism.
However, while therapy methods and skills are useful to have, nothing is more important than the counseling relationship. I don’t have any magic tricks or miracle cures — I just really care about helping people live more fully in their body and mind.
“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been given to us, the ultimate, the final problem and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Communication, intimacy, parenting, personal values. These are just a few of the areas of difficulty that arise in committed relationships. At some point, all relationships reach a critical stage, when something different must be done. Sometimes it looks like separation is the only way, but the truth is, we just go and repeat our old patterns with the next person.
I can help you develop better communication skills, manage conflict, and renew your commitments to one another.
All major life transitions have 3 stages — an ending, a middle transition period, and a beginning. Most of the time we try to go right from the end of an event, to the beginning of something new. This middle stage is very important, but reaching it requires going very deep into ones self, and residing in many psychological unknowns.
No matter the stage of your transition, I can help bring attention to areas that are often overlooked, and create meaning and intention through ritual and ceremony.
“If your everyday practice is to open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that — then that will take you as far as you can go. And then you’ll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught.”
~Pema Chodron
Sometimes we need a place where we can voice our feelings, have them heard, and reflected back in a meaningful way.
Learning to identify, express, and regulate your emotional experience is one of the more advanced developmental stages that is not taught to us.
“All addictions — alcohol or drugs, sex addiction or internet addiction, gambling or shopping — are attempts to regulate our internal emotional states because we’re not comfortable, and the discomfort originates from somewhere.”
~Gabor Mate
I can work with you to see where your addiction comes from, and we can begin to develop new ways of relating to yourself and others, in a way that gives you the same rewards that your addictions do.
Sometimes there’s not at easy way to describe your current situation in life, or maybe you know a little about all of these issues. Or maybe you are thinking this whole therapy thing is a sham. It definitely couldn’t hurt to try. Or would it.
Grief, and the intense suffering that it brings, is an essential component of being human — of being born, living, and dying. How we meet the death of those around us will determine how we meet our own death. Yet grief can remain such an intense experience that we pass it up and just try to get on with our lives. Not only is this a form of self-hatred, but it’s also denying many amazing gifts that can come from the grieving process, such as learning to face the fear of our own mortality.