Justin Friel (he/him)

My therapeutic style is highly relational, grounded in psychodynamic, family systems, and attachment theories, focusing on establishing and maintaining a robust therapeutic relationship as the crucible for change. While experiencing success with brief courses of therapy, I have primarily offered long-term psychotherapy, which, due to a high rate of client retention, has allowed me to see clients grow and change over years of work.

Clinically, I have worked with a diverse client population and a wide range of concerns, with most falling within four broad areas: general areas of practice, sex and sexuality, attachment, and spirituality and religion. That first category of general concerns is often those clients who know something isn't going well but aren't exactly sure what it is or what might be causing it. In cases like that or those where the client may have a clearer picture, my goal is ultimately to focus on helping with symptom relief while also helping the client address the underlying causes. Often, I've had clients who were satisfied with therapy after symptom relief and our work wrapped up there – other times, in exploring the deeper roots of what brought them in, they move into one of my other areas of experience.

Part of why I pursued my training in marriage and family therapy was because I knew from my own experience how our early life and familial relationships shape and affect us well into adulthood. I wanted to help clients explore those historical dynamics and see how that plays out today. Many clients have expressed that understanding how they show up in relationships today was formed by the past has helped them press into new ways of relating. I believe that one of the most essential parts of therapy is helping clients experience what a healthy relationship feels like, but also practicing new ways of relating that they can then translate to the rest of their lives.

While I have training and experience as a generalist and am happy to work with a spectrum of clients, I am most passionate about working with clients at the intersection of sexuality and spirituality – especially LGBT+ people and those who are processing and healing from religious trauma. Early in my career, I primarily worked with clients who expressed concern with the frequency they used pornography and its effects on them, and secondarily with sexual dysfunction and sexual identity concerns. Generally, that work was focused on creating the space for clients to explore and be curious about sex and sexuality while imagining how it could be in closer harmony with the rest of their lives. These topics and concerns still interest me; however, I have started to focus more on LGBT+ identity and working with clients to unlearn the myriad of toxic lessons we learn as queer people. It has been a tremendous honor to help these clients imagine a new way of being and to help them step into that reality.

Another shift that has occurred in my practice is in working with clients as they process through religious trauma or deconstruct their religious beliefs. Faith deconstruction and awareness of religious trauma have been widespread over the last four years and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was this shift that, in part, led me to pursue a PhD in religious studies focusing on the formation and performance of queer identities, which builds upon a previous academic foundation in biblical and theological studies, complemented by the curriculum at Richmont. From my personal experience and studies, religion and its effects on people tend to linger long after someone leaves a faith community or religion. This lingering is further compounded by how people who leave religion often express a sense of being adrift since they no longer have religion as a guardrail pointing them in the direction they should go. Combining my lived experience with my academic and clinical training empowers me to offer clients a well-rounded and empathetic perspective informed by my clinical practice and rigorous academic research. While many clinicians are equipped to talk about or incorporate religion of spirituality, few are equipped and prepared to do this deconstruction work with clients.

I appreciate the time that you have spent to read this so far. I hope you have a better sense of me as a therapist and how I might fit in as a colleague. If you would like more information, please take a look at my resume and explore the parts of my website that are more client-focused; you can also contact me via the "take action" tab or by sending me an email. I look forward to any questions you may have and discussing the possibility of working together.