My name is Ryan McCune and I am a licensed clinical social worker who can potential be your future therapist.

The idea of seeking out therapy is already scary for most people. You are trying to find the right person who you can be vulnerable with and grow in areas where you need some guidance. My approach to therapy can be summarized with a “home analogy".

Imagine you have a “home” which is an analogy for your life. Our lives have thousands of areas that influence us such as your family, friends, childhood experiences, hobbies, and more. These are like different rooms of your life. A therapist comes in and checks out your home in whatever rooms you would like to talk about. There are usually three types of rooms (strengths, mutual exchanges, and scares).

• Strength Rooms: These are where you shine! If you are great at cooking, you’ll have beautiful utensils, state-of-the-art appliances, and tasty treats for everyone to enjoy. Your therapist might even need to take notes and learn from you.

• Transactional Rooms: We all have rooms in our life where the connection is mutually exclusive. This could be exercising because it’s healthy, but not because it sparks joy. You could have a parent you' talk to because they listen and no one else is available to hear you out, but you have a complicated relationship with them. This is similar to a classroom where there are white walls and a teacher who you get a grade from to pass the class after turning in the assignment. These rooms are not terrible but could use some work.

• Scary Rooms: As your therapist, I might pass by and ask about these rooms that have padlocks, chains, and caution tape that says “DANGER” across it. You might tell me the room does not exist or tell me quickly what it is about such as being abused, having great shame about a past choice, an addiction, or something else scary. If you opened the door, you maybe would not even know where to start. It would be as if it was a door to the outside. Where do you even start building that room? You are not a mental health carpenter and do not have tools that are effective for that relationship, trauma, or experience. That’s where a therapist comes in.

Therapists do not help you build rooms. We provide tools to help you build your own life. We are not expert about your home (your life), but you are. We are trained in providing mental health tools to help emphasize your strengths, build up areas of opportunity, and process scary rooms that make our lives feel sad or uncomfortable. Depression is sitting in your living room and being sad about your home. Suicidal thoughts are about wanting to burn the house down because the scary rooms took over. Whether it’s anxiety, trauma, depression or something else; feel free to fill out the information below and I will let you know if there’s anything we could do together. You got this!