Alec Wilson, PsyD
Psychologist Resident

A good working relationship is the foundation for successful counseling.

Here are some elements of a strong therapeutic relationship between client and therapist:

• They develop trust—the client feels personally understood and is safe to share vulnerability, anger, disagreements with the therapist, etc.
• They talk about the basic goals of the therapy.
• They talk about the course therapy will take, in other words what the approach will be and what the sessions will look like.
• They have a shared understanding of the timeframe for the therapy.
• They have the ability to backtrack and repair the therapeutic relationship when misunderstandings occur.
• They are able to honestly negotiate breaks or other changes in the therapy when appropriate.

Starting off on the right foot—with openness and honesty—is the foundation of my practice.

My style is forthright and interactive—I don’t “just listen”, I will give you feedback and let you know what I think about the issues you bring in.

Often, my work with clients includes a balance of "depth work" (an exploration of personal dynamics with roots in the past) and "active work" (concrete game-planning that results in relief from present-day problems and provides an immediate focus for therapy).

In our sessions, we will orient to the issues that you find important.

I will encourage you to stay active in your own counseling by stretching yourself to express how you feel, by asking me questions, by challenging my ideas, and by doing your own research and reading outside the therapy room. Likewise, I will sometimes challenge you and ask tough questions.  I will always support you and encourage your unedited expression of honesty. I enjoy the process of counseling and I strive to keep learning and to keep my perspective open.

My work with relationship issues spans a broad spectrum:  I help people with communication, breakups, single life, successful dating, affair recovery, heartbreak, divorce, fear of intimacy/commitment, new love, and more.

I help many people with personal growth work.  Self-actualization, better assertiveness, better boundaries, more awareness of values and feelings, and building more rewarding connections with others are all issues I enjoy working with.

If a change in your life (or lack thereof!) is causing you to feel stuck, depressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, I can help you work through it.  We will team up to help you cope with your feelings and develop a gameplan so you can take the next steps in your life.  I help people recover from job loss/change, divorce, affairs, moving to a new town, etc.  I support people toward finding their purpose again.

I use an integrative approach in my work—I’m trained in several major counseling theories and I find it helpful to draw upon elements of each in order to keep counseling fresh and preserve the complexity of the people I work with.

Here are the main theoretical orientations to counseling I use:

Gestalt

Gestalt therapy helps people get in touch with and talk honestly about their unfulfilled needs. It raises awareness of the protective patterns people have established in their lives—patterns that often end up playing a restrictive, deadening role. Gestalt is a strengths-based perspective that does not pathologize people by reducing them only to a diagnosis or set of issues. It’s a creative, expressive approach that results in an expanded, more confident sense of self.

ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

One linchpin concept of ACT is experiential avoidance. People spend a lot of energy trying to avoid and deny the unpleasant parts of their lives. ACT highlights the benefit of leaning into your fears and emotions so you can acknowledge what needs change and can continue to act in your life despite suffering. If you wait until everything in your life is perfect before you choose to move forward, how long will that take?

Collaborative Couples’ Therapy (CCT)

CCT helps couples talk about what they really want in their relationship. We have all heard that relationships take compromise, but CCT starts with the idea that it is healthy to share your unedited, uncompromised needs and dreams with your partner. Couples infuse their relationship with honesty and spark when they express their ideal wants with each other, rather than their usual “fallback position.” I help couples work toward taking the risk of free expression. This process helps bring you and your partner closer to fulfilling the dreams you each keep inside. In my experience, most couples find CCT refreshing and beneficial, especially if their communication is shut down and they find themselves playing out painful, emotionally distant patterns with each other.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)

It is well accepted these days both in popular culture and in the field of mental health that expressing and experiencing your emotions is associated with relief. EFT helps people come into contact with their feelings and explore the totality of that experience. Emotions are important because they are the body’s signal that something in our environment needs our attention. Something is going on—good , bad, or otherwise—that requires action. Learning to recognize primary and secondary feelings is a huge benefit for many people. For example: For women, how often does sadness mask your anger? For men, how often does anger mask your fears? When we recognize our primary emotions and feel them, we free up energy that was being used unproductively—typically to avoid something unpleasant. The outcome is that we are able to acknowledge, experience and then move on from unresolved emotions that were holding us back.

I have specific training and experience in Gestalt, ACT, Emotion-Focused, and Collaborative Couples’ therapies. In addition I have trained in and used effective, holistic, and wellness-based approaches for treating sadness and worry.

I'm a Psychologist Resident with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from Pacific University. I've worked as a counselor with adults of all ages at organizations approved by the American Psychological Association (APA): Portland State University, Central Washington University, Lifeworks NW (Beaverton), Pacific University’s Psychological Service Center (Downtown Portland), and Pacific University’s Counseling Center (Forest Grove).

I'm entering my 9th year as a counselor and my 3rd year in private practice.  Being a counselor is a great job. I enjoy bringing my energy, vitality, and sense of ground into the work I do.

If you have any questions about my approach to therapy or my credentials please don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone or email.

Thanks!

Alec

(503) 757-6259
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3430 SE Belmont Ave, Portland, OR

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