Welcome to Green Counseling Services
About Our Practice
Our practice relies upon leading research-based approaches to most effectively treat mental health concerns. Our interdisciplinary team of skilled professionals address many issues and presenting concerns via psychological assessments, individualized treatment plans, and individual, family, and couples psychotherapy. We have many convenient practice locations across the State of Iowa to offer services either in person or via telehealth.
Our mission is to treat our clients with the highest level of care, compassion, and professionalism while simultaneously integrating research-based approaches to promote highly effective treatment outcomes.
We look forward to the possibility of working with you!
Are you interested in joining our team? Click here to view and apply for our current job postings!
What Therapy Approaches Do We Utilize?
Our professionals invest a considerable amount of time and effort into ongoing continuing education and training in order to learn the newest and most effective treatment approaches. Feel free to read more about those different treatment approaches here!
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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. Numerous research studies suggest that CBT leads to significant improvement in functioning and quality of life. In many studies, CBT has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications.
Source: American Psychological Association
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The exposure component of ERP refers to practicing confronting the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make you anxious and/or provoke your obsessions. The response prevention part of ERP refers to making a choice not to do a compulsive behavior once the anxiety or obsessions have been “triggered.” All of this is done under the guidance of a therapist at the beginning — though you will eventually learn to do your own ERP exercises to help manage your symptoms. Over time, the treatment will “retrain your brain” to no longer see the object of the obsession as a threat.
Source: International OCD Foundation
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Interpersonal psychotherapy is a time-limited, focused, and evidence-based approach to treat mood disorders. The main goal of IPT is to improve the quality of a client’s interpersonal relationships and social functioning, it aims to help reduce overall distress.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Dissonance-based interventions (DBIs) generally aim to induce cognitive dissonance with respect to the thin-ideal standard of female beauty by having participants speak and act against the thin-ideal during a series of small group activities and homework assignments.
Source: Journal of Eating Disorders
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Feminist therapy is an integrative approach to psychotherapy that focuses on the challenges that women face as a result of bias, stereotyping, oppression, discrimination, and other factors, and how those stressors can negatively affect their mental health. It is based on the belief that wellness is inextricably linked to an individual’s social and cultural identities and the political environment in which they live.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is one of the world's most widely used therapeutic treatments (De Shazer, 2007, Hsu, 2011). Unlike traditional forms of therapy that take time to analyze problems, pathology, and past life events, SFBT concentrates on finding solutions in the present and exploring one’s hope for the future in order to find a quick and pragmatic resolution of one’s problems. This method takes the approach that you know what you need to do to improve your own life and, with the appropriate coaching and questioning, are capable of finding the best solutions.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Family therapy is a type of psychological counseling (psychotherapy) that can help family members improve communication and resolve conflicts.
Source: Mayo Clinic
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Motivational interviewing is a counseling method that helps people resolve ambivalent feelings and insecurities to find the internal motivation they need to change their behavior. It is a practical, empathetic, and short-term process that takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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EMDR is a psychotherapy technique designed to relieve the distress associated with disturbing memories. Short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, it involves recalling a specific troublesome experience while following a side-to-side visual stimulus delivered by the therapist. The resulting lateral eye movements are thought to help reduce the emotional charge of the memory so that the experience can be safely discussed, digested, and stripped of the power to trigger anxiety and avoidance.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives and how they feel about it.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a structured program of psychotherapy with a strong educational component designed to provide skills for managing intense emotions and negotiating social relationships. Originally developed to curb the self-destructive impulses of chronic suicidal patients, it is also the treatment of choice for borderline personality disorder, emotion dysregulation, and a growing array of psychiatric conditions.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Gestalt therapy is an approach to psychotherapy that helps clients focus on the present to understand what is actually happening in their lives at this moment, and how it makes them feel in the moment, rather than what they may assume to be happening based on past experience. Along with person-centered and existential therapy, it is one of the primary forms of humanistic therapy.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Adlerian therapy, also called individual psychology, is a short-term, goal-oriented, and positive psychodynamic therapy based on the theories of Alfred Adler—a one-time colleague of Sigmund Freud. Adler focused much of his research on feelings of inferiority versus superiority, discouragement, and a sense of belonging in the context of one’s community and society at large. According to Adler, feelings of inferiority can result in neurotic behavior but, in the right setting, can also be used as motivation to strive for greater success. Adlerian therapy focuses on the development of individual personality while understanding and accepting the interconnectedness of all humans.
Source: PsychologyToday.com
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Psychodynamic therapy is derived from psychoanalytic therapy, and both are based on the work of Sigmund Freud. Psychodynamic therapy is an in-depth form of talk therapy based on the theories and principles of psychoanalysis. In effect, talking about problems in a therapeutic setting can be extremely valuable for the individual. Comparatively, psychodynamic therapy is less focused on the patient-therapist relationship and more focused on the patient’s relationship with their external world.