Lysle Betts, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor

Life is moving fast these days, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed juggling relationships, work or school, family, and the constant noise of the world. If you've been feeling a pull toward change, toward more calm and clarity, toward a lifted spirit despite life's challenges, or just to a life that works better, good therapy is a place to start. I've been in the private practice of depth psychotherapy for 30 years. It would be an honor to help you move into greater life satisfaction and joy. I approach therapy from a perspective of growth and wholeness, despite the fact that it may be problems or emotional pain that bring folks to therapy. The Chinese word for "crisis" also means "opportunity." Problems contain disguised keys to create positive change. My job is to be with you as you seek and find keys hidden in life's challenges that open doors to growth, healing, resolution, and transformation. I like to tell my clients that they are the best and only experts on themselves, and that my role is to facilitate the growth and deepening of their self-expertise. In therapy lingo, this is called a "client-centered orientation". Specific techniques I might use are always held with this basic context, with the comfort and the quality of the relationship being foundational. As the poet Rumi put it, "When someone asks what there is to do, light the candle in their hand."

Research shows that positive therapy outcomes have less to do with method or type and more to do with two things: 1) the therapist having certain qualities like authenticity, caring, carefulness, deep listening, empathy, and unconditional positive regard for the client, and 2) a good therapist-client match. I often tell people that interviewing several therapists before you pick the one you feel is best suited to you is a fine thing to do. That being said, sometimes you will be fortunate enough to find someone you feel is a great match for you with your first try! I continue to be amazed and delighted at how the just-right clients seem to find me at the just-right times. If you resonate with my practice description, feel free to reach out. I'll be happy to hear from you. And you are welcome to read more about my practice and my approach to therapy at my website. Thanks for your interest, and best wishes!

In case you are interested, my undergraduate double major prior to graduate school was in Philosophy and Religion. Therapy paradigms that have had special influence on me are those of Carl Jung (archetypal psychotherapy), Victor Frankl (existential psychotherapy), Carl Rogers (person centered psychotherapy), and Virginia Satir (family systems therapy), as well as psychodynamic psychotherapy. Special interest areas of work with clients are in the areas of strengthening self-esteem, creating and sustaining healthy, loving relationships, finding or deepening meaning and purpose in life, spiritual growth, and adoption issues and dynamics. I am an adult adoptee, and have worked with clients who are adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive and prospective adoptive patents.