Portland Therapy Center
Dave Hires

Dave Hires (he/him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

CADC II

Hi! It would be an honor to walk with you toward healing.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

9713178631

610 SW Alder St #320

Portland, 97205

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $185

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2021

Services

  • Individual

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Aetna
  • MODA
  • PacificSource
  • Providence Health Plan
  • Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield
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My Ideal Client

We're born inclined towards love, connection, and meaning, but then life happens. We survive, we adapt, we protect, we shut down in ways that keep us safe while cutting ourselves off from vital, loving parts. Over a lifetime, this can lead to out-of-control experiences like depression, numbness, anxiety, rage, or substance use. You are strong - you have survived - and I would like to help you heal and get you back to (or create for the first time) the life that you deserve.

My Background and Approach

I graduated with a Master of Arts in Professional Mental Health Counseling—Specialization in Addictions from Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling in Portland in 2021, where I also lived for about twenty years. I am trained in EMDR as well as the Flash Technique. I am a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (II), a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and Advanced Grief Counseling Specialist.

My Approach to Helping

It depends on what’s feeling important! If you'd like, we could explore the role of trauma and wounds in your life and work together to gain a sense of safety and agency around these feelings. If you are then interested in deeper work, we could do some processing via EMDR or the Flash Technique, both evidence-based interventions that can heal wounds in a way that talk therapy alone can't do. Regardless - you set the pace. If your substance use is a concern for you, we could get curious about the needs you are meeting through your use, and whether you would like additional ways to get those needs met. We could work with your grief, working towards ways to remain connected to what you've lost, navigating feelings you're not sure if you're supposed to feel ("I feel sadness - and relief" or "I just feel angry"). Or maybe you're like most people - our grief, our trauma, our tendencies toward compulsive or addictive behaviors - are all interwoven. We can work on that too, at your pace.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • EMDR External link

    I am a trained EMDR therapist. EMDR is a process that works on a neurological level - while talking is a part of it, the healing is largely happening beyond the verbal level. It is perfect for anyone who anyone who has experienced the phenomenon of "I know that I am safe, that it's over - but my body doesn't believe me". EMDR helps your body "believe" - which is to say, integrating our verbal / narrative memory, with our sensory / somatic memory.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • PTSD External link

    Unhealed wounds can seep into your day-to-day in a way that feels out of control, e.g. lashing out, anxiety, self-loathing, substance use, numbness. I am a Certified Clinical Trauma professional, and in my training I've learned that "safety is the intervention" - that is, we will gently explore what trauma even means, how it shows up in your life now, and how to move towards healing, but only at a pace that feels safe - right on the edge of discomfort, with lots of time for breaks.

  • Drug Dependence / Abuse / Addiction External link

    I am a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (II) and I am happy to walk with you as we identify the role substance use is playing in your life, the valid needs it is meeting, the weight of negative consequences you experience along the way, and, taken together, what the value of seeking change might be. I hold a non-pathologizing, trauma-informed view of substance use - it is, like many "problem" behaviors - a solution, a way we survive, but maybe you feel ready to do more than survive.

  • Loss or Grief External link

    I am a Certified Advanced Grief Counseling Specialist. I would be happy to walk with you as you courageously navigate this deeply emotional, unavoidably painful experience. At no point will I suggest that grief is "worth it", part of a "plan", but we can work together to honor the whole picture: that the experience of loss is like no other - eviscerating, unyielding - and yet it can also remind us of our capacity to feel loved, embraced, happy, connected, and the value of holding onto that.

Contact Dave

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