Nicholas Prior (he/him)

One of the core beliefs I have about my therapy practice is that therapy should help encourage and drive an individual into becoming their better self. It is not my goal to mold you into what I believe you should be, but rather to help you find the best version of yourself. Everyone is capable of greatness, and my personal experience with depression and anxiety has led me to the professional career of helping children, adults, families, and couples overcome their own self-doubts.

Given my history in the foster care and adoption field, I have seen the full spectrum of family systems. While I understand families can be the pinnacle of support and love, unfortunately I've also learned unhealthy families can be the pinnacle of self-doubt and harm. While it is never my goal to break apart families, it is my goal to help individuals realize their self-worth and break apart from unhealthy dynamics.

My therapeutic background has been rooted in the foster care and adoption system. I have worked in residential treatment facilities and as a case manager before becoming a counselor, so I have received numerous trainings and had ample experience to focus on how trauma impacts us all. My main approaches to treatment often highlight this impact, and I believe that by resolving our traumas, other issues, like stress, depression, and anxiety, can be lessened.

I began integrating DBT into my treatment during the global pandemic of COVID-19. For my practice, DBT really shined in this time due to the roadblocks and barriers the pandemic placed on treatment, when it became more difficult for logic and reasoning (CBT) to prevail, and working through our deep emotions (EMDR) proved too difficult due to the current trauma we were all experiencing. DBT helps learn the distress tolerance skills needed to radically accept and navigate the world around us.

CBT was my original modality of treatment that helped me navigate the treatment of depression and anxiety. I believe a majority of our mental health concerns are derived from our core thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, so challenging these is a natural step towards overcoming them. The idea is that anything that has been learned can be unlearned, and that's true for our emotions too. Today, I use CBT as a grounded approach for a more logical processing style of treatment.

EMDR is arguably my primary treatment approach. I have seen, both personally and professionally, the impact successful treatment can have on an individual. Even when not using the bilateral stimulation to facilitate a reprocessing session, I have found the framework of EMDR has helped focus attention of the emotional processing of therapy.