Justin Hughes
I’m Justin, a licensed clinical social worker in Alabama, and I work with adults and teens on a wide range of struggles. Trauma is where my training goes deepest, but plenty of people come to me without knowing what to call what they’re dealing with, only that something isn’t right. That’s a perfectly good place to start, and there’s nothing you can tell me that will change how I see you. What matters most to me is that you feel heard and understood. That isn’t a warm-up before the real work. It is the real work, and it’s what makes everything else possible. Once that’s in place, I draw on approaches like Cognitive Processing Therapy and CBT to help you make sense of what’s been weighing on you, and we go at a pace that feels right to you. I’ll ask along the way what’s helping and what isn’t, because you’re the one who knows. Faith is part of how a lot of people make sense of things. If it’s part of yours, we can include it. If it isn’t, we won’t. I see clients by telehealth anywhere in Alabama.
Strengths
I listen closely, and I pay attention to what you tell me. That sounds like a low bar, but plenty of people have sat across from someone who decided what was wrong before they finished talking. I try not to do that. I’d rather understand your situation as it really is than fit it into a template. Because of that, no two people get the same therapy from me. I’m certified in Cognitive Processing Therapy and trained in CBT, and both are useful, but they’re tools, not a script. Some people want to dig into what happened to them. Others need to get through this week first. Either one is fine, and we can change direction whenever something stops working. Some therapists work like a sledgehammer. They see the problem and start knocking down walls to reach it. Sometimes that’s what a person needs, and if it’s what you’re after, I can do that. But it isn’t how I prefer to work. I’d rather work like a surgeon with a scalpel: make the smallest opening I can and do as little damage as possible on the way in. It can take a little longer, but it’s gentler, and there’s usually much less to clean up once we get to the heart of it. I’m also honest with people, and I try to do it kindly. If I notice a pattern, or something that isn’t helping, I’ll say so, because I think you deserve more than agreement. And when you tell me I’ve gotten something wrong, I want to hear it.
Origin story
The first time I seriously thought about becoming a therapist, it wasn’t because of a class or a book. Someone in my family was hurting, and nobody seemed able to help him. He had been through far more than anyone should, and he went from one professional to the next without ever getting real answers. Watching that from the outside was its own kind of helpless. I’d already been toying with the idea of finishing my degree, and somewhere in the middle of all that it stopped being a maybe. That’s what got me started, but it isn’t why I’ve stayed. Helping people is the one thing I’ve always felt I was meant to do, and the longer I do this work, the more sure of that I am. I don’t see my job as fixing anyone. Most people already understand more about what’s wrong than they realize, and they just need someone to listen closely, help them sort through it, and stick with them while they figure out what to do next. The change is yours. I’m just here to make it easier to reach. That’s especially true for the people everyone else relies on. I drove an ambulance for a couple of years early on, and even that was enough to show me how much the people who show up for others carry, and how rarely they set it down. If you’re the strong one everybody leans on, I’d be glad to be someone you can lean on for a change.