Keith Gostel
Thank you for sharing information about yourself. I'm so happy that you reached out for help. I am Keith Gostel, a licensed therapist. I am an older therapist with many years of experience working with people experiencing distress in their attempts to feel successful in their lives.
My belief is that we are all trying to be good and to be successful, but sometimes our efforts fail to work or others misunderstand us.
I have worked as a clinician, educator, manager of behavioral health systems utilizing individual, group, and family therapy modalities. I have specialized in severe mental health and substance use disorders. I look forward to hearing more about how you got to where you are now and where you want to go! What is your availability to talk? I usually like to meet weekly in a video format so we can see each other's reactions. I try to reply to messages as quickly as possible and will always reply within 24 hours.
First session
I hope that clients will gain a better understanding of how their thoughts are influenced by their life experiences and how those thoughts impact their feelings and behaviors.
Strengths
As an older married man with adult children, I have experienced many of the difficulties experienced by others. My years of working with inpatient mental health and substance abuse clients has exposed me to a wide range of conditions, experiences, therapeutic modalities and life goals. I feel these experiences help me to identify with clients who are unhappy with how their lives are going. I tend towards a Cognitive Behavioral, solution focused style, but am trained and experienced in a wide range of therapeutic concepts and modalities. I try to match the modality and model of therapy with what feels most reasonable and comfortable to the client. I try to be direct but respectful. My belief is that we are all trying to do the best we can, but sometimes the efforts we make fail to work.
Ideal clients
I enjoy working with people in their teens to old age struggling with feeling successful in their personal feeling of success with their sense of well being and interpersonal, family, social, educational, and career functioning. Many clients are seeking relief from personal feelings of anxiety or depression, leading them to feel like they are failing to live the kind of lives that they desire.
Origin story
I had friends growing up that felt sad, anxious and isolated. I always wanted to be able to help them to feel better and was naturally drawn to counseling as soon as I discovered the fields of psychology, sociology and medicine. I became a registered nurse as a way to support my graduate education. That decision prompted me to learn about the more serious mental illnesses and the struggles they caused for those affected as well as their families and others that loved them. My nursing education and experience enhanced my understanding of medication and the biological interventions available to help some people. I did return to graduate education and spent many years in a variety of roles and environments including inpatient, outpatient, couples therapy, group therapy as well as individual therapy to help clients to attain their goals in living the kind of lives that they desire.
Ongoing work together
As clients gain an understanding of their inner thoughts and how they respond to events, we follow up with concepts that expand on that understanding in a way that helps the client feel that they are gaining insight into how they got to where they are as well as developing the skills to chang how they respond to events so that they feel more control and confidence in their ability to manage the stressors life throws at them.
Treatment methods
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
ACT helps people to understand the thoughts that they have that lead to problems effectively managing their lives, how to manage those thoughts and how to come to accept those things that they cannot change so they can focus on the things that they can change.
Location
Virtual sessions