--- title: "How I Work | Rodric McClain Counseling" url: https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work description: "DBT as the primary method, with CBT and mindfulness alongside it. Plain, practical therapy in Omaha, Nebraska." lang: en --- Skip to content How I work # Plain talk, real skills, and goals you actually chose. Therapy starts with a conversation. What follows it is practical work, done as a team, aimed at a life worth living. Image: A warm counseling room with two chairs and afternoon light (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/assets/office-B2GfHFKB.jpg) ## What is a session like? We talk. I ask about what is going on and what you want to be different, and I say what I think rather than nodding for fifty minutes. If I have a hunch, you will hear it, and you are free to tell me I have it wrong. You set the pace on anything heavy. Nobody gets pushed into telling a story they are not ready to tell. ## How do we decide what we are aiming at? Together, early, and in plain words. We work as a team on goals that are specific and achievable, because a goal like feel better has nowhere to put your feet. Sleeping through four nights this week does. We check them as we go. If something is not working, we change it rather than keep going out of politeness. ## Do I have to believe in a particular method? No. The methods are tools, not doctrine. DBT is my primary approach, with CBT, mindfulness, trauma focused work, grief work, and couples counseling alongside it, and what we use depends on what you are dealing with. Two things are true: you know your life better than I do, and I know some things about how people get unstuck. The work happens where those meet. ## The methods, in short - DBT (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/dbt)My primary method, and the idea the whole practice is built on. - CBT (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/cbt)Looking at what you think, what you do, and how the two keep each other going. - Mindfulness (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/mindfulness)Being here, in this hour, instead of in the replay or the forecast. - Distress tolerance (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/distress-tolerance)Getting through the worst hour without saying or doing what you will regret tomorrow. - Emotion regulation (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/emotion-regulation)Naming a feeling, finding what set it off, and steadying the basics underneath it. - Interpersonal effectiveness (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/interpersonal-effectiveness)Asking for what you need and holding a no, without burning the relationship. - Validation (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/validation)Understanding someone's experience without automatically agreeing with it. - How we set goals (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/goal-setting)Goals in plain words, sized for this week and checked as we go. - Dialectical thinking (https://rodricmcclaincounseling.com/how-i-work/dialectical-thinking)Trading either/or for both/and, one sentence at a time. ## Also part of the work - Trauma focused therapy For the things that still land in the present. Paced carefully, and never faster than you want to go. I am also trained in EMDR. - Grief For a loss that has not finished asking anything of you, whether it was last month or years ago. - Couples counseling For two people who want the same thing and keep arriving at it differently. Communication, trust, and the repair after the argument. ## Ready when you are. Therapy starts with a conversation. Send a short message and tell me what is going on, in your own words. We meet in person in Omaha, and online across Nebraska and Rhode Island. 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