Portland Therapy Center
Andrew Griffes

Andrew Griffes

Professional Counselor

MA

I offer you support in living courageously. Grounded presence is the basis of my work, as I help you cultivate your innate wisdom. I work with Individuals and couples to transform through self awareness - finding healing in areas of pain, and integrating your insights with how you live.

Client Status

waitlist

Contact

5104805876

1312 E. Burnside St.

Portland, OR 97214

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $250-$400

Provides free initial consultation

Provides telehealth services

Practicing Since: 2015

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual
  • Group

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket

My overall approach is transpersonal, meaning we work with your life in a holistic context - weaving together aspects of your ‘personal’ experience with collective, ancestral, and spiritual influences. I find somatic work, including body awareness and movement, to be incredibly effective at tapping into healing and vitality, since it is direct and non-conceptual. This also supports you in building the tools to continue your healing work between sessions. Because relationship shapes so much of who we are and how we live, I work extensively with attachment work, both with individuals and couples. Understanding how you relate, how neurobiology informs relationship, and how you can transform patterns of disconnection to ones of health sets you up for fulfilling connection. Lastly, and most importantly, there is the unique alchemy of our counseling relationship. In listening to you and coming to understand you, I animate my approach with a living knowledge of your needs and gifts.

I received my MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, a program which integrates Western psychology with extensive training mindfulness practice. I have spent several months in silent retreat, cultivating a meditation practice that informs my work. Additionally, I have trained in the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT), The Sensorimotor approach to working with trauma and regulation, and Brainspotting. Prior to entering the counseling field, I was a youth development volunteer in Morocco with the Peace Corps, and before that I worked in socially-responsible investment in Boston. Being a husband and father is a huge influence in my work, as it shapes all I have studied with the nitty-gritty reality of bringing transformation to modern day living, and passing on a world of beauty and health to coming generations.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Couples Counseling External link

    I work with couples to build love and resilience into your everyday experience of relationship. Whether you are looking to deepen your sense of intimacy or heal pain steering you toward splitting up, I can support you transform inherited relationship patterns to a basis of connection and understanding. My work is based in attachment neurobiology, clear communication, and mindfulness.

  • Sensorimotor External link

    Trauma is a common issue in today's world, where events that threaten our life or our sense of self are met with a quick-fix culture that overlooks the body's natural healing capacity. In this approach to healing, I work with you to develop body awareness and allow your body's impulse toward completing the interrupted fight/flight response at the root of so many symptoms associated with trauma.

  • Transpersonal External link

    Our individual lives are the conduit for the big stories of life spanning across generations and continents. Both the challenges and the gifts you bring tie into patterns in ancestry, spiritual tradition, and cultural mythology, and must be worked in relation to these contexts. In my work with you, we view your experience as the process of healing and wisdom finding expression in the world.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Men's Issues External link

    Traditional gender roles have become outdated in many ways, leaving men without a rooted sense of healthy manhood. I work with men to strip away remnants of a culture of oppressive 'manliness' to find authentic power, sensitivity, and expression.

  • Family Conflict External link

    I see conflict within families as a natural impulse toward eventual health that can get stuck in patterns of pain and blame. With attuned facilitation, strife that may reach back generations can point toward the healing and connection which is the birthright of every family. I emphasize the formation of healthy boundaries and clear communication to support you to build a family culture of health.

  • Career Counseling External link

    Whether it is finding your vocation as an adolescent, navigating a mid-life career change, or bringing new life to your existing career, I can work with you to bring self-awareness and authenticity to your work in the world. Contemplative career counseling takes a whole-life perspective, allowing you to integrate your soul's expression with your livelihood.

  • Relationship / Marriage Issues External link

    Relationship is a path that demands humility and courage. Because the oldest and deepest wounds tend to surface in connection with a committed partner, it is here that you have the opportunity to bring deep healing. I have trained in the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT), incorporating attachment work with functional neurobiology to offer you support toward healthy relationship.

  • Depression External link

    What is often viewed as pathology in our society, I work with as a natural 'gravity' calling us deeper into self awareness. Working with you to bring compassion into the heart of where depression leads you, I supporting you in befriending your fears and finding the medicine hidden within your suffering.

Contact Andrew

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