Jack Betancourt

Many of the people I work with come to therapy feeling frustrated with patterns they cannot seem to think or work their way out of. You may be experiencing anxiety, emotional overwhelm, relationship difficulties, grief, a breakup, or a major life transition and wondering, “Why do I keep reacting this way?” or “Why does this keep happening?” I believe symptoms are often more than something to eliminate—they can be our mind and body’s attempt to adapt, protect us, or make sense of difficult experiences. Rather than focusing only on symptom relief, I help clients better understand what their emotions, reactions, and patterns may be trying to communicate so that meaningful and lasting change becomes possible.

I work with adults, teens, and couples using a trauma-informed, strengths-based approach that emphasizes curiosity, choice, and collaboration. My style tends to focus on the here and now because the present moment often reveals patterns we don’t always notice in everyday life. Together, we’ll explore not only what is happening, but how it is happening—looking at thoughts, emotions, relationships, body awareness, and experiences that may be contributing to distress. I tailor therapy to each person, but clients can expect thoughtful questions, active engagement, and an approach that helps deepen understanding rather than staying only at the surface level.

We’ll get started by getting to know you and the symptoms, life events or challenges that brought you into therapy and your expectations for the work. From the first session, I work to establish trust and safety to cultivate the conditions for deeper understanding, exploration, and change. In our first session, I will ask thoughtful questions and get a history of where you’ve been and experiences/history/relationships that may inform what brought you into therapy. From here, we will collaboratively explore current challenges, symptoms and the underlying relational and unconscious dynamics that maintain them. I emphasize client agency and choice in my work as well as active engagement from myself in order to undo aloneness experienced from the first session.