Jeffrey Ing,LMHC

Are you a non-traditional person looking for a non-traditional therapist? Maybe one that looks like you or that they can personally understand what you are going through, maybe that is me. I am a member of the Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities and am familiar with non-traditional lifestyles. I am kink, non-monogamy, LGBTQ+ friendly, and friendly to both traditional and non-traditional faiths and spiritualities. I specialize in working with relationships and families in particular relationship issues, life transitions, family conflict, and opening up previously monogamous relationships.

My biggest focus and approach is a person-centered approach. I often liken myself to a guide in helping you, the client, on your own journey of self-discovery and understanding. I take this into my practice as well when addressing issues that my clients may face and what is considered ethical and helpful for my clients. My goal is not to force clients to adhere to my own ethical standards but to look inward about their own values and ethics, and the driving forces in their lives. I feel this will help them achieve both positive results in therapy and positive changes in their life outside of why they may have come to therapy as well.

The type of clients I work with can be varied. I am both sex and kink-positive and strive to be an unbiased source to talk and share information about. Typically, many clients come to me due to having a hard time relating to other therapists or trouble finding one that they feel can truly relate to them. Coming from very non-traditional backgrounds clients in the LGBTQ+ communities and non-monogamous communities find it helpful that they won't have to educate me about these things prior to receiving therapy.

I like to create a very collaborative environment for my clients. I consider myself being on this journey of therapy, andor self-exploration with the client. At times acting as a guide, at times letting the client freely speak and see where we end up. I am okay with assigning take-home work for clients that do find that helpful as well. The goal is tuning the therapy to what works for you as each client is unique in that regard.

I was always told that I have a very calming voice and that I am easy to talk to. I've always had a drive for helping people and seeking social justice causes that are important to me. I enjoy the control I have over my life as a private practitioner which allows me to pursue other passions as well. I find psychology and understanding oneself to be very fascinating and I truly enjoy seeing clients learn how to do this for themselves.

I like to set up some concrete goals with the client in the beginning on what they want to get out of therapy. It is good to allow some sessions to be more free-flowing but also comes back to these to address if these goals are being attained.

Clients should expect a lot of open-ended questions and get a feel for each other. I like to take the first session to allow the client to talk about and get out whatever is on their mind as I kind of absorb a lot of new information before commenting to see what direction or directions we can take therapy in.