Portland Therapy Center
Steve Harper

Steve Harper

Professional Counselor

LPC, MCOUN, MED

Accepting new members for Fire Talks (online men's group) Summer 2025! https://steveharpercounseling.com/firetalks/

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

541.777.7526

P.O. Box 70 SW Century Drive

Suite 106

Bend, 97703

4423 NE 30th street

Portland, Oregon 97211

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $$175

Provides free initial consultation

Provides telehealth services

Practicing Since: 2020

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual
  • Group
  • Relationship

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network
  • OHP CareOregon/HealthShare

My Ideal Client

Addiction recovery group: Male clients, 25 and up, not presently using or ready to stop using. Meaning and purpose as a pathway out of addiction. General social and self improvement group: Male clients, 25 and up. A desire for self-development and to connect with other men beyond the superficial.

My Approach to Helping

My approach is client-centered, warm, earnest, and outcome oriented. I hold MA's in educational leadership and clinical counseling. Prior to counseling, I worked in education in Chicago and San Diego for 12 years, and enjoyed working with students from a variety of backgrounds in public education and online charter schools. While in Chicago, I also spent 4 years in professional sales, where I developed a deeper appreciation for corporate culture and job burnout. I am the contributor to the national-selling book “Beyond Burnout.” In addition to my credentials in counseling, I hold a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and Bachelor of Education from the University of Oregon (‘02). I currently live in Bend, Oregon with my wife and our dog, Gus. I enjoy skiing, fishing, and appreciating all Central Oregon has to offer.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

All too often, clients walk away from counseling not certain they are getting closer to their desired outcomes. I work with clients with the intention of making lasting changes in life. My group approach is person-centered. My hope is that this group offers you a valuable community to work through challenges and uncover a deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment in your life.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Addiction Therapy External link

    Together we will plan a framework for recovery that identifies your goals and readiness for change. Even with mutual accountability in session, behavioral change often takes time. A deeper connection with your own states and felt experience can give you the pause required to make more intentional choices. Distinctions in awareness of your own experience will improve how you relate to ourselves and others. Reclaiming meaning and purpose are the foundation for learning how to thrive in recovery.

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) External link

    Dialectical Therapy can explore the margins in between your thoughts and feelings. Uncovering these distinctions can help you find motivation for the change you are seeking. Balancing the head and the heart is essential to becoming more engaged and effective in every aspect of our lives.

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) External link

    Identifying your own sense of internal coherence begins with helping you connect with your essential 'self'. A whole-self approach will offer you practical tools for identifying and understanding your different "parts". This coherent framework can help you more accurately identify the changes you seek, while getting better at an acceptance of life on it's own terms.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Personal Growth External link

    Changing life circumstances often begins with changing the relationship with our internal selves. This involves a cultivation of our inner resources, intuitive abilities , emotions, and experience with our past. We become better at accepting our shortcomings when we are also in connection with our strengths. This is the base from which we can deepen our conscious selves.

  • Men's Issues External link

    Men's issues are often commonly misunderstood because we have our own evolutionary wiring. Becoming the man we want to be is not as easy as simply choosing a singular path. Changing behaviors from the inside out is a process. Validating your own experience, life purpose, and sense of dignity is crucial. Uncovering the mental, emotional, and intuitive obstacles is often a matter of establishing deeper internal commitments to growth. This is a matter of process over perfection.

  • Drug Dependence / Abuse / Addiction External link

    A deeper connection to ourselves can reduce our need for immediate gratification. Dialectical therapy explores the margins in between our thoughts and feelings. Gaining new awareness will help you work with challenges, and allow you to consider more intentional behavioral adjustments. Increasing awareness to our own experience has everything to do with how we relate to ourselves and others.

  • Relationship / Marriage Issues External link

    We are all unique in our expressions, and also follow predictable emotionally driven behavioral patterns due to our evolutionary wiring. Women and men can have similar needs while also perceiving and experiencing each other very differently. Uncovering this together can have profound improvements in reinforcing a foundation of trust and closeness. Improved communication begins with better connecting to ourselves.

  • Anger Management External link

    The realities of life, intersecting with our past, our beliefs, and others' expectations of us can cause unnecessary pain, fear, and pressure. This collective burden inevitably turns into frustration and anger. If we don't feel we have acceptable outlets for these emotions, we may feel trapped within our own experience. Learning how to untie ourselves from these 'emotional knots' is an achievable goal while working together.

Contact Steve

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