Portland Therapy Center
Mitchell West

Mitchell West

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Supervisor: Fred Kane, LPC

Do you feel overwhelmed or held back? I'll help you navigate the road ahead and tidy the road behind you to confidently move forward.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $100

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2023

Services

  • Individual
  • Relationship

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network
  • Aetna
  • Anthem
  • Cigna
  • Optum
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My Ideal Client

I help people with a wide variety of challenges! If depression is weighing you down or you find that anxiety is keeping you from doing what you want to do, I've helped people like you, and I can help you as well. If workplace stress or a sudden change is getting in your way, I can equip you with tools to better handle what you can't change. If something intense happened in the past, I can help you process it and be free of its hold. And if you're engaged, I offer premarital counseling.

My Background and Approach

My education and experience are directly tied to what I treat, meaning I'm more familiar with how to help you. Prior to graduate school, my studies were largely on family and marital dynamics, and I am married with several children of my own. My graduate studies were spent at Harvard Divinity School and Brigham Young University, where—while battling my own identity crisis and trying to work through recent trauma—I learned how to provide both mental and spiritual counseling. I have further refined that through work with those facing traumatic events and by working on an additional clinical degree in counseling. To help you best, I use established, evidence-based practices. We work within your framework rather than me imposing mine on you, and we collaboratively get you to where you want to be, whether that's where you used to be or whether it's somewhere new. You are the most important person in therapy, so I work less as a teacher and more as a guide to honor your needs and wishes.

My Values as a Therapist

I value your growth and needs above all else in the therapeutic relationship. My core values as a therapist are all about your improvement and welfare, and can be embodied in these principles: 1) We work within your framework and paradigm. 2) Your personal values are central to the process. 3) You know yourself better than I ever could. 4) We collaborate to help you achieve your goals, or as close as you can get to them. 5) We are honest with each other and work to solve any personal issues that might arise. I became a counselor because of my own experiences with mental health and spiritual challenges and because of the fulfillment I find helping others on their own journey. My most central value as a therapist is to always put your needs first.

Techniques I Use

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Spirituality External link

    I originally studied as a chaplain at Harvard, where I gained insight into the interactions between daily life and our religious and spiritual identities. Many counselors specializing in spirituality are esoteric and mystical, but my education and experience means I can work with you to integrate your own religious or spiritual identity into clinical sessions while utilizing effective, validated therapeutic approaches.

  • Parenting External link

    My education in family systems, parenting research, and marital dynamics all give me a foundation to help guide you with your parenting struggles. My experience raising my children give me that extra insight into the open secret of parenting: that only parents understand what it's like. If parenting help is one of your biggest needs, we'll work together to better understand what might be causing hang-ups and what can (and what can't) be done about it.

  • PTSD External link

    I've experienced two events significant enough to lead to my own PTSD diagnosis in each case, and I've worked for several years with teenagers and adults who have battled their own traumatic disruptions. People I have helped through PTSD have experienced wrongful arrest and false imprisonment, sexual assault, neglect and abuse as children, had their life threatened, and many other events, and I have worked alongside first responders and military (though I was a civilian) in the past.

Contact Mitchell

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