Individual Therapy
Add Up What Getting Through the Day Costs You
By the time most people call me, just getting through the day has been draining them for years.
The anxiety gets handled.
The anger gets bitten back on the drive home.
The grief gets put off until later, and later never comes.
All that handling burns energy.
Run at that rate long enough and worn out starts to feel like your personality.
One Door for Whatever You Bring In
I work one-on-one with adults and teens 14 to 17, and people come in with all of this and more:
- Anxiety that’s been running your schedule
- Trauma
- Grief and loss of every kind
- Relationships that wear you out
- Big life changes
- A brain that seems to work differently from everyone else’s, and years of wondering why
- Whatever first responder or military work has left behind
Trauma Therapy, Grief and Loss, Men’s Mental Health, and First Responders & Military each have their own page.
Teens who feel misunderstood can find more on my Teen Therapy page, and so can their parents.
Leave Each Session with Something You Can Use
My style is active, direct, collaborative, and built around you.
We’ll work out practical ways to respond differently to the patterns that have stopped doing you any favors, and I’ll name those patterns as I see them.
Some weeks that means catching the thoughts that run your life without your permission and checking whether they’re true.
Other weeks it’s a plan for when a feeling hits harder than the moment calls for, so you ride it out without blowing anything up.
The point is tools that work in your actual life, on the days you’re nowhere near my office.
The First Few Conversations, Realistically
Our first conversations cover three things: what’s happening, what you want to be different, and what getting there can realistically look like.
That middle question is harder than it sounds when nobody’s asked what you want in years.
This work usually takes a while, and I’ll say so from day one, because trust builds slowly and the deeper stuff surfaces once it’s there.
For that hour, you come first, which for a lot of people is the hardest adjustment.
A Fair Warning Before You Call
If you want someone soft and careful, I’m honestly not the greatest at that.
If you’d rather hear what I actually see and do something about it, we’ll get along fine.
Honesty runs both ways here, because if you’re not straight with me, you’re not being straight with yourself, and we won’t get anywhere.
Over time, that buys you a clearer read on yourself, more say over your life, relationships that cost less to keep up, and some energy left over for you.
Helping You Learn You Matter.
Spend Some of That Energy on Yourself
That first conversation is a free 15-minute phone call.
Call (518) 608-2912 or email mjohnson@mejcounseling.org.
I see clients in person in Schenectady and virtually throughout New York.
Ready When You Are
You don't have to have it all figured out before you reach out. You don't need to know exactly what to say, what kind of therapy you need, or even where to begin.
That's what the first conversation is for.
If something you've read here feels familiar, trust that. Reach out, ask your questions, and see if MEJ feels like the right fit for you.
You've spent enough time carrying everything on your own.
You matter. Your healing matters. And when you're ready, I'm here.
That first conversation is a free 15-minute phone call.
Call (518) 608-2912 or email mjohnson@mejcounseling.org.