Andy Minard, MSW, LISW-S
My practice is dedicated to helping you and your family to know that you are heard in a safe and comfortable environment, where you can share who you are so that you can find lasting ways to live a balanced life.
What I do
I provide counseling and therapy services to individuals, couples and families. I work with young adults, adults and couples. I also enjoy providing a limited number of hours for supervision of other social workers.
My Counseling Style
My approach begins with empathy. Each person I work with is unique and important to me. I believe that each person has intrinsic value and deserves to be treated with respect and concern. We are all a work in progress and worthy of the compassion of others.
I have significant training and experience in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Gottman Method couples therapy. Many find these approaches to be effective in treatment of anxiety, OCD, depression, management of anger, improvement in relationships among other issues. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and the Gottman Method are solid, evidence-based models with a lot of research supporting their effectiveness but they are not right for everyone. I prefer to adapt my style to your unique needs, as everyone is unique. I have always believed that authenticity is important in developing a trusting relationship with a counselor and that relationship is critical to effective mental health treatment.
I am a 2007 graduate of The Ohio State University, where I earned a Masters of Social Work. I am an Independently Licensed Social Worker with a supervisory designation (LISW-S).
I started my practice in 2018 and today I work only with adults. However, from 2007 to 2018 I worked primarily with school-aged children, teens and their parents through The Buckeye Ranch’s outpatient and home-based counseling programs. I worked within one of the only evidence-based programs for teen Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiance. I have strong experience working with families of children with severe trauma histories, behavioral challenges, those placed in foster care and with those who have been adopted and know well the challenges of parenting.
As I’ve developed professionally, I have realized that I prefer working in the more abstract world of adults. I enjoy working with adults who are searching for a vision of what better might look like but are finding that depression, anxiety, OCD, anger, relationship challenges and the business of the world today often leave the storm, unsure of how to pursue what we value most.
I also enjoy working with couples and flexibly use a variety of couples counseling approaches including Gottman Method. I have developed a model for family-based conflict resolution and problem-solving skills that has helped high-conflict families to increase empathy and gradually change negative communication patterns. I believe that in couples counseling we do better to think first of what we can change about ourselves and how to communicate our needs and dreams with openness, empathy and understanding.
I also have experience supervising other clinicians and providing clinical and administrative training to those in the mental health field.
I am a husband of 20 years and parent of two children. While our careers and interests can be a source of joy and pride, I believe that the role we have as a parent or spouse is more important than any other earthly relationship we have. Since we live in a world that places so much value on our professional and material achievements it is easy to find ourselves wandering off the path we planned to take. Counseling is a way to illuminate that there are often multiple paths to get back to what is most important.
What to Expect
I will provide an emotionally safe and comfortable environment where you can be heard and understood. I will listen with empathy and will respond with authenticity. After a thorough assessment, we will develop a clinical plan to help you to reach your goals. We will identify your personal values and priorities as well as the “hooks” that pull you away from pursuing them. We will work through the past without getting stuck there. We will learn to re-write our story to be more empowered and better focused on what is most important to you. You will learn to develop skills that I hope you will be able to use long after counseling has ended. I will share strategies to help you to overcome barriers to meeting your personal goals.
Counseling sessions are generally just under an hour per week. I tend to think that if things go well and you reach your goal, it has less to do with what we do in the counseling office and more to do with what you do in your own life, family and community. It is my hope that the things we work on in sessions will empower you with a new way of reaching goals that will work in the real world and not just in my office.
Schedule today. Call (614) 607-1125 or email AndyMinard@BalanceCounselingLLC.com