Are you a mental health professional disillusioned with an antiquated system that’s creating more harm than healing? We’re in the midst of a mental health epidemic, yet standard training programs continue to inadequately prepare clinicians for the complexity of real-world practice.
First, do not harm. It is possible to help the majority of people in psychological distress with least restrictive, least risky, and least harmful interventions.
Vitalism / Innate Intelligence. A life worth living is not merely the absence of disease but a fully functioning, vital, optimized, harmonized flow of all systems in body, mind and spirit. The level of health and fulfillment one wishes to experience is up to the individual. We promote the highest goals for building a life worth living that are achievable. We believe in the resiliency of the human mind, body, and spirit, including in the adaptive power of emotions.
Emotions Are Not Symptoms—They’re Signals. In a culture quick to pathologize discomfort, we believe something radical: emotions have meaning. They are not errors to be fixed or symptoms to be silenced—they are messages, pointing us toward unmet needs, unresolved wounds, and hidden truths. Grief may speak of love. Anger may reveal injustice. Anxiety may signal disconnection or fear of loss.
When we listen to emotions rather than numb or dismiss them, we create space for self-understanding, healing, and transformation. At the heart of our practice is this belief: emotions are windows to wisdom.
Holistic/Interconnected. We respect and understand human experience as a complex symphony of interrelated components that are greater than the sum of its parts. There is a complex interplay between one’s internal and external realities from birth to death that contribute to an idiographic complex human experience.
Contextual and Individualized. It is best not to reduce complex human behavior into symptoms. Habits and emotional suffering do not just live in our minds, they are strongly influenced by environment and context, and the function they might serve that “works” in some way, even if they cause long-term problems.
We look at all aspects of the person: their background, experiences, genetics and temperament, spiritual and emotional state, the way they see and interpret their inner and outer reality, physical health and lifestyle, social interactions and communities, the influence of cultures and sub-cultures, interaction with technology etc. There is no standard protocol or pre-determined regimen that everyone must abide by. Intervention must match the person’s singularity.
Integrating research and clinical experience isn’t about choosing one over the other—it’s about holding them in dialogue. Research gives structure and accountability. Clinical wisdom provides flexibility and human sensitivity. Together, they support therapy that is both scientifically grounded and personally meaningful.
Seeking true knowledge and understanding considers all resources available. We do not blindly follow popular opinion, culture, and public policy which can often be misleading, misinformed, and subject to influence. Rather, we adhere to the best that science has to offer, while being critical and aware of the corruption and biases within even that literature base. We allow emerging, cutting edge research, ideas and theories to be integrated into everyday clinical practice. This includes seeking expertise in the core mechanisms for resiliency from the best available evidence—cognitive behavioral therapies, third wave behavioral approaches, trauma-focused approaches, eating disorder treatments, functional nutrition, behavioral sleep medicine, etc.
We do not forget common sense and critical thinking when it comes to interpreting research! Our work is grounded in science, but guided by compassion, context, and ethics.
Flexibility with Fidelity. While there is no pre-determined regimen, there are multidisciplinary areas of research and interventions that have been developed over time. From both research and clinical experience, these provide insights into core mechanisms of change that promote healing and resilience. These mechanisms are transdiagnostic, not model specific, and explain how and why change occurs. When understood, they can be applied most powerfully and flexibly based on an individual case conceptualization.
Here are a few examples of core transdiagnostic mechanisms of change:
Real Human Connection
A radically genuine relationship in therapy refers to a therapeutic stance where the therapist brings authenticity, transparency, and emotional honesty into the relationship—while still maintaining professional boundaries. Particularly because change is hard and often involves facing difficult emotions, it is essential for the therapist to use their full selves to care and motivate in meaningful ways.
Paying Attention to Our Lives
Where our energy goes, our emotion flows. Mindfulness and attention are central to psychological well-being because they shape how we relate to our experiences—internally and externally. They’re not just techniques; they are fundamental processes that influence our ability to flexibly think, feel, and behave.
Emotional Processing and Regulation
Emotional processing is important because it allows us to make sense of, integrate, and respond to emotional experiences in ways that are flexible, adaptive, and consistent with one’s goals and values. It means being able to feel emotions without being overwhelmed, controlled by them, or acting impulsively in response. Otherwise, emotions often get stuck, suppressed, or expressed in ways that interfere with mental health, relationships, and functioning. It’s not just feeling emotions—it’s making sense of them and moving through them in a constructive way.
Taking Charge of the Narrative
Cognitive defusion and reappraisal are mechanisms that involve stepping back from the stories and narratives we construct and seeing them as thoughts, not absolute truths or commands. When we can free ourselves from being stuck in stories that imprison us and learn to be more flexible, there can be both profound shifts in emotions and perspectives.
Getting Active
When people feel better, they do more. But also—when people do more (of the right things), they start to feel better. Lifestyle changes including being active, exposure to sunlight, interacting with loved ones, and regulating sleep are essential. Getting stuck in ruminating and inactivity can start as a way to protect and heal, but in excess, can contribute to stuckness.
Doing Hard Things
Doing hard things—whether emotional, physical, or mental—is uncomfortable, but it offers deep, lasting benefits for personal growth, resilience, and well-being. When we don’t allow fear or anxiety to control our lives through avoidance, it frees us up to pursue meaningful goals, to learn what we are truly capable of, and to experience real, earned confidence. Doing hard things isn’t about suffering for the sake of it—it’s about choosing challenge in service of growth, values, or healing.
Knowing What Matters
Values clarification is a process of helping individuals identify, connect with, and commit to the things that matter most to them—what they want their life to stand for. It’s a central process because it provides both direction and motivation, especially when facing discomfort, uncertainty, or change. It is about so much more than “symptom management.”
Getting Connected
Humans are inherently social beings, and our connections shape almost every aspect of our lives. Having a sense of belonging and being a part of something bigger socially and spiritually can meet core needs.
Take Care of the Body, Take Care of the Mind
The body and mind are inseparable. Sleep is foundational to almost every aspect of mental and physical health. There is a wealth of information from behavioral sleep medicine on how to promote restorative sleep rather than reliance on sedation.
Functional nutrition is an approach to eating and dietary care that looks beyond just calories or basic nutrients—it focuses on how food affects the body’s systems, gene expression, inflammation, gut health, and overall function. It emphasizes personalized, whole-food-based strategies to promote optimal health and prevent or manage chronic illness. In a landscape full of fast food and misinformation, functional nutrition is a beacon toward food as medicine and prevention.
Many may have tried various prescribed and non-prescribed drugs that alter normal brain functioning in response to emotional suffering. Unfortunately, despite possible short-term relief, most experience an exacerbation of suffering, as well as both physical and psychological serious adverse effects, symptoms of dependence, and withdrawal. These can include emotional numbing, brain fog, mood destabilization, suicidality, metabolic effects, neurological effects, sedation and fatigue, GI problems, hormonal imbalances,
It is essential for the therapist to be well-versed in the literature on drug dependence, withdrawal, and deprescribing (tapering). Therapists must work collaboratively with medical professionals to help go through the gradual process of tapering safely, and to restore optimal mental and physical health.