Jacob Reese

Self-esteem is often misunderstood as a simple decision one makes about the worth and value they have in the world. While this is a big part of self-esteem, I have come to understand how someone views themselves as deeply interrelated with every aspect of their life; social, individual, familial, and so many others. Self-esteem is only as good as the foundation of self understanding that one has to support it. Through therapy, you can discover who you are and who you wish to be.

Spirituality is so much more than the religion to which one subscribes. While these two often affect each other, spirituality is much more individual and has it's roots in your own understanding of the world around you. As a counselor, I believe my role is to endeavor to understand how you view your relationship with the spiritual and help you understand what that means for you in your every day life. I love exploring spirituality as a route of meaning, so I would love to explore this with you!

Having worked in a clinic that exclusively treats treatment-resistant depression for a good handful of years and having had personal experience beyond this, I would like to say that I have a deep understanding of depression and the treatment thereof. This includes an understanding of the nuances of suicidal ideation, the pain of emotional numbness, and the bleak isolation that depression brings with it. Through therapy we can explore your depression and illuminate new paths for getting past it.

Existential therapy is one of my specific interests and specialties. With a foundation in phenomenology and existential thinkers such as Nietzsche, Beauvoir, Camus, Sartre, Arendt, and many many others, existential psychotherapy takes a uniquely philosophical approach to the therapy encounter. Combine this with some psychodynamic elements from the likes of Jung, Freud, and Adler and you have a philosophical approach that is built to wrestle with the human condition.

There is a common sentiment within the counseling/psychology community that ACT therapy is as if you took Buddhism, westernized it, turned it into a therapeutic approach, and set it off the leash. While I would say this is a vast oversimplification, it may explain why ACT therapy is so endearing to myself. ACT therapy is all about acceptance of the self and empowering you to reach the potentials you were meant to. As an "evidence based" therapy, you are getting verifiable results.

I have a concerted interest in philosophy, and it shows through my practice as a psychotherapist. I truly believe that, at its core, psychotherapy fuels the innate desire towards self-actualization--becoming the person you were meant to be. Utilizing existentialist, phenomenological, hermeneutic, and Socratic philosophies (along with everything in between) helps me better understand who you are as a human and what I can provide as a fellow human who happens to be your therapist.