Alex Jacobsen, LPC

I am an experience therapist that works primarily from an Existential-Humanistic perspective. I find this perspective to work with individuals who are feeling stuck, experiencing life changes, going through loss, feeling defeated by life, or otherwise struggling. Please consider reading more on my profile to find out about how I can help you!

Thank you for considering me as your therapist. By reading this profile I hope for you to walk away with three main pieces of information about me: my qualifications, my therapeutic perspective, and my overall vibe of what sessions with me might be like.

QUALIFICATIONS
I have two degrees: an undergrad in Psychology and a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. All said and done, I've spent about 7 years in school learning to do what I do. I won't pretend that I'm an expert yet but I do hold myself to a high standard and am constantly learning and changing every day to be my best in this field. I have been practicing therapy for about three years now and have loved every second of it. I have experience with individual sessions, couple sessions, group sessions, and currently also work at a behavioral hospital so I can confidently say that my experience is diverse. Less professionally, I have lived and traveled all over the world giving me a unique perspective on life and therapy which I believe to be incredibly valuable for my ability to be open minded, nonjudgmental, caring, and accepting of others.

THERAPEUTIC PERSPECTIVE
I work primarily from what is called the Existential-Humanistic perspective. I also pull from CBT, IFS, and Person-Centered therapies.
If you've never heard about any of these I can summarize it a bit like this: I believe people are incredibly powerful and, while recognizing that privilege and disabilities do exist, think that they can do anything they put their mind to within the confines of whatever life has given to or taken away from them. For example, a person with one leg may never be able to be a marathon runner (debatable, given current technology), but perhaps they can be an incredible rower. I know that's just a sports analogy but I think it gets my point across.
I treat my clients like the experts of their lives because no matter how long we see each other for there will always be things I won't know about you. To that extent, you will always know "what's best". I may simply be able to provide perspective and structure that you were previously incapable of seeing or applying in a positive way to your experience. I will never be able to tell you what the right or wrong thing to do is because you perspective is so unique to mine that it would be an insult to you for me to assume to know what to do better than you. Instead, we work together to decide: you bring the content and I'll provide the structure so that we can tackle your problems in a more realistic way.

THE VIBE
As a talk therapist I let my clients do most of the talking. You'll share about your life, experiences, or anything that really comes to mind for you. One of my favorite truths about therapy is that there is no such thing as a meaningless conversation or a waste of time. If we're talking about something then it must be meaningful to you and therefore is important to talk about. I've had conversations with people about their pets, hobbies, etc. that quickly, and without them being really aware of it, turns into a meaningful conversation about childhood trauma. Unexpected emotions lay in unexpected areas so I think it's important to explore all aspects of ourselves before we make assumptions about what's meaningful or not.
With that being said, there may be moments where I redirect our conversation to be more effective or to discuss something that comes up for me but ultimately there is a natural "flow" of things that, unless you've had therapy before, is honestly hard to describe. Ultimately we'll find a balance between conversation and "work" that (no pun intended) works for us. If every single minute of therapy is too serious it won't work; if every single minute is too lighthearted it won't work either.
Finally, I want to comment that I am comfortable with silence, non-judgmental, open-minded, and caring person. I want to help you discuss things that you find difficult to talk about but I also know that requires trust first. I would never expect you to be honest with me if I can't be honest with you so I always encourage questions, comments, or concerns about the way I'm doing things or about me in general. I find that "being real" is the best way to do what I do because this is a very human-oriented field. If we ignore the parts of us that make us human then I think we might be missing some of the point.

Thank you for considering my profile and reading through my wall of text. If you made it this far, congrats. You're cool. If you liked what you read and it resonated with you in a meaningful way then I would love to hear from you. Please don't hesitate to reach out via email or text and we can get something figured out.

I offer free 15 minute phone consultations so please reach out if you're even the least bit curious about my services.

Thank you!