Dr. Bruce Buirkle

Each person’s story is unique and deserving of quality therapeutic support that fits their individualized needs. I welcome the opportunity to be a support to you on your journey. Counseling is a way to promote growth and healing as you explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in this nonjudgmental space where you can learn how to change in a productive way. My most frequently used approach is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which explores your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which are all related. The process involves changing your thoughts your feelings and ultimately your behaviors. There are variants of this approach such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which focuses on mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotional regulation. These approaches are easily compatible with other approaches so the treatment can be very individualized, thus made for you.
My Experience
I have been married and divorced, suffered deaths in my family, and have had many wonderful life experiences and some incredibly difficult ones. In addition, I have worked with a wide variety of clients in a wide variety of situations. I believe you can benefit from my extensive life experiences and from my comprehensive training. My constant motivation is to use myself as a vehicle through which we can work together to resolve whatever it is you are trying to work through.
Clinically, I have extensive experience going back over 20 years with a wide variety of clients. Some areas I have worked in include anger management, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and PTSD, both individually and in groups. Other areas include working with families, including children engaging in inappropriate or self-destructive behaviors. I enjoy working with couples for pre-marital, marital, and post-marital counseling. Issues here include conflict about money, parenting, sex, infidelity, in-laws, chronic health issues, infertility, gambling, substance abuse, emotional distance, and frequent conflict, including domestic violence. I have conducted groups for BIPP (Batterers’ Intervention Prevention Training) and worked individually with men who are violent towards women. I have experience helping with substance abuse recovery both individually and in groups.
As a Certified Vocational Evaluator and with years of involvement in work-hardening facilities, pain management, and the Workers’ Compensation system. I have led groups and individual counseling for those with chronic pain to help them cope with the pain and the ripple effect throughout life. Although you can learn to live with a disability, it may impact your enjoyment of life, finances, marriage, and career prospects. Part of this process involved performing a vocational assessment to uncover transferable skills so as to recommend what type of work and/or training would be most advantageous for someone to continue to live and thrive while keeping in mind their skills and interests.
Outside of my counseling work, I earned a Juris Doctorate in Law and am licensed as an attorney with significant experience as a Mediator, including divorce mediation. In my clinical role as a therapist, I can offer clinical consultations regarding issues related to custody agreements applying, creating, and appropriately following them. Additionally, domestic violence issues such as getting a restraining order, how to regain custody of your children, and many other family law issues. As legal issues sometimes arise, I am happy to give you legal advice but will not be your representing attorney outside of our counseling or consultation sessions.
My Education
I am currently licensed as a Professional Counselor (LPC #67092) and Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #201725). I am also certified as a National Certified Vocational Evaluator (002033) and hold certifications as a General Mediator and Divorce Mediator. I have a license as an Attorney in the State of Texas, I am proficient in Spanish, and am currently pursuing my doctorate in Clinical Psychology.