Courtland Douglas, Ph.D.

It’s fair to say that life is tricky. What we go through can leave us struggling with sadness, anxiety, anger, confusion, and more. Maybe you are…

• Struggling with difficult emotions born from tough or traumatic experiences in the past and/or messy circumstances in the present
• Unhappy with how you view yourself, other people, or even the future
• Frustrated with how your relationships with others are going, noticing that the same unhelpful pattern continues to emerge
• Struggling with executive functioning (planning, organization, task completion, etc.)
• Finding it difficult to get through daily life because everything feels heavy, effortful, or devoid of joy
• Finding yourself frequently worrying about seemingly everything or anxiously avoiding interactions with others
• Someone who simply knows something has to change

If you fit one of these, some of these, or all of these, I feel you. Again, life is tricky. However, we weren’t meant to tackle the struggles of life alone. With that said, I invite you try something different: therapy.

Let’s be honest: Therapy, like all forms of coping, is something you have to experiment with to know if it’s helpful for you. What I can tell you is that therapy is a place to explore thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as well as develop a greater understanding of yourself, change patterns which no longer help you in the way you would like, address the influence of harmful systems, and grow in new ways. Can you imagine how your life might be different if you could overcome the challenges you’re wrestling with? What would it be like to…

• Make sense of complicated and painful experiences?
• Change your view of yourself, others, and the future?
• Show up differently in relationships with others, interacting in ways you didn’t think were possible for you?
• Implement new strategies to aid with planning, organization, task completion, and more?
• Engage with and find joy in life?
• Better manage anxiety
• Experience less distress when engaging with others?
• Have solutions to months-long or years-long problems?

Years of research and therapeutic practice have produced approaches aimed at addressing depression, anxiety, trauma, interpersonal difficulties, executive functioning difficulties, and more. I speak from experience when I say that clients surprise themselves with the changes they make while working through their challenges in therapy. I encourage you to take the first step.

I use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, and interpersonal approaches. While operating from these frameworks, I aim to be mindful of your values and identities as well as systems in which you exist. As such, our work towards your goals will be informed by these factors. Therapy with me can look like…

• Exploring, questioning, and modifying thoughts
• Learning helpful strategies, skills, and and behaviors to improve your life
• Exploring your experiences
• Examining your ways of thinking about and relating to others
• Developing insight into how you interact with others and what leads you to interact the way you do
• Experimenting with new or desired ways of thinking and relating to others
• Collaborating to help you make decisions about your life

My role as your therapist is to…

• Listen with empathy
• Guide exploration to increase your awareness about yourself and your life
• Provide education on concepts
• Challenge you to take steps just outside your comfort zone
• Point out your successes and changes
• Gently challenge unhelpful thoughts and behaviors
• Collaborate with you to identify interventions and integrate new skills and behaviors into your life

I ask that you…

• Come as you are
• Be open to exploration and experimentation
• Share your honest feedback with me
• Give your best effort with what you have to give

In our work, you can look forward to developing…

• New ways of thinking about yourself and situations
• Various methods to question and challenge unhelpful thoughts
• Strategies to change unwanted behavior and improve mood and emotional regulation
• Different ways to relate to others to improve your relationships
• Greater confidence in your decisions based on your values, goals, and circumstances

If my approach sounds like a good fit, give me a try!