Brendan McDonald

Hey! I'm Brendan (he/they), a licensed professional counselor, living and working in Richmond, Virginia. I will be offering in person appointments starting in August. My goal, in every session, is to help you reach a point of empowerment and acceptance with yourself through compassionate and playful work together. You are the expert on you, I will follow and walk along this path with you. I want to help you better understand yourself and how you wish to be. Through understanding there is compassion, through compassion there is liberation. Tsi-Ya (ᏥᏯ) means "otter" in the Cherokee Language. In life we may feel our emotions and stress in such profound ways we struggle to tread water and may find ourselves drowning and overwhelmed. Like otters, we must learn to float.

I primarily practice Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you identify your values and explore ways to become fulfilled in your life. I also pull from Motivational Interviewing and CBT to explore what skills may be relevant to help you. I find great power in challenging our own bias and worldviews and exploring new perspectives to help you find ways to be more effective in how you want to show up. We cannot change what we do not know, we cannot change until we see how or who we want to be. I am here to help point out new paths or alternative routes with you.

In our first session, we will spend the bulk just getting to know each other. What do you do for fun; what do you want to be doing; what brings your joy; how can we build more joy and fulfillment for you? I want to explore what your goals are, what you have tried, and how you want to grow.