Nathan Reeder, LPC
(512) 777-0059
Hi, I’m Nathan…
I’m a 40-something-year-old husband and father of two who after two careers has finally found my dream job. Earlier in life, I prided myself on being adaptable and able to rise to other’s expectations.
But I didn’t find fulfillment there, far from it. It was exhausting living up to other people’s expectations. As a counselor, I’m finally living in agreement with who I’ve always been.
Throughout my life I’ve been a deeply compassionate person, but found the jobs I succeeded in weren’t supportive of me caring for others in the ways that I’m wired. Counseling allows me to do that, and that’s why I love it! If I had someone along the way to help me sort out what I really wanted out of life, I would have gotten here much sooner.
I’d like to be that person for you.
Regardless of your age, whatever is holding you back, whatever is keeping your truest self from emerging, whatever is keeping you from the life you desire, it’s time to get things sorted. So let’s do it. Together.
“Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?”
~ Danielle LaPorte
Discover your truest self
Inside of you is a person who is dynamic, resilient, and able to adapt to life’s challenges, waiting for the right conditions to fully emerge. However, if you are struggling with the demands of life, you may believe you need to figure it out on your own. But the truth is, you are biologically wired to thrive when you have at least one healthy, secure relationship to help work things out.
I offer you unwavering support in an environment where you are deeply valued and exceptionally safe to encourage the emergence of your truest self. Together we will explore how your significant relationships and experiences have influenced your resiliency, behavior, and emotional well-being. Your pain is true, but it’s not the truest thing about you. While we can’t alter your past, we can certainly transform it’s meaning and significance.
My hope for your therapy is that you find it a profoundly redemptive and transformative experience. My approach is nurturing, understanding, and nonjudgemental, and I will encourage you to share my curiosity about your thoughts, feelings, and embodied experiences. Through this process you will learn that your emotions aren’t scary or unnecessary, but are actually vital to living the life you desire.
“It takes courage to grow up
and become who you really are.”
~ e e cummings
My Approach
I believe in the transformative power of healthy relationships to encourage expansive growth and effect lasting change, which is why I am a DEEP counselor grounded in Interpersonal Neurobiology.
What is a DEEP counselor?
As a counselor who practices Dynamic Enriched Experiential Psychotherapy (DEEP), I believe that many of our struggles emerge from:
- feeling alone in the face of painful and overwhelming emotional experiences
- not having others reflect our value and worth
- and lacking support for our exploration of who we want to be
Generally speaking, I see my work as undoing aloneness, reflecting goodness and worthiness of care, and encouraging your exploration of new ways of living and being – so you can finally start feeling like your truest self.
I don’t believe that you are broken and in need of fixing, or weak and in need of help. I believe your truest self is dynamic, resilient, and able to adapt to life’s challenges, but your truest self needs the right conditions to fully emerge – an environment that is safe enough and secure enough. And that is the environment that I offer you. I will be with you and for you. We may share laughter or tears, heartbreak or silence, and we will do this so you can experience that your truest self is knowable and shareable.
What is Interpersonal Neurobiology?
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the mind and mental health. As a counselor who practices IPNB, I believe:
- We can define what mental health looks like for you, but not based on your behavior. People who are mentally healthy are flexible, adaptive, coherent, energized, and stable (FACES). This state of being is as unique to you as your own fingerprints. I will respect what works best for you.
- Most of the resources you need are already inside of you. I will help you identify and modify the internal and external barriers that are preventing the resources of your truest self from fully emerging.
- Your early relationships matter a lot. Early in life, nature and nurture both influenced how you made sense of the world and guided who you became. Many of your early assumptions and adaptations are things you probably haven’t questioned until they began to interfere with your life. We will examine those assumptions to see if any are obstacles to living the life you desire.
- Your body is a part of every memory. Memories contains five basic elements: sensations, images, behaviors, feelings, and meaning. Because sensations and feelings are embodied experiences, we will track what’s happening in your body to better understand the memories influencing your beliefs and behaviors.
- Your brain is changing all the time. Neuroplasticity is the ability of your brain to form and reorganize connections throughout your entire life, particularly in response to learning or new experiences. This means that change isn’t just possible; it’s inevitable. So we will harness this ability to lead you to a more satisfying life.
- Neural integration is the foundation for increasing well-being and can be nurtured through healthy relationships. Wellness springs from all the parts of your mind working harmoniously together. This is called neural integration. Being connected with another person where you are deeply valued and exceptionally safe is the environment from which neural integration emerges.
- Healing and healthy living require whole-brain processing. The right and left hemispheres of your brain function differently and have equally important jobs. I will help you find balance so that you cane manage your life in a whole-brained way.
- Mindfulness is a key agent of change. I will help you develop the ability to observe your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without agenda or evaluation. I will encourage you to share my curiosity about their origin, so we can understand you more deeply. You are the way you are for really good reasons! Let’s find out what those reasons are. You will find that lasting change occurs only through radical acceptance.
- My mental health matters to you. I am an imperfect, work-in-progress who is committed to continued growth through my own counseling, supervision, consultation, and continuing education. I do this to your benefit – so I can best care for you and provide you with the best counseling I can.
Qualities of my work
- warm and caring
- calm and slow-paced
- friendly
- sense of humor
- decades of life experience
- helpful with adolescent challenges
- enjoys treating young adults
- appreciates working with creatives
- experience alleviating anxiety and depression
- experienced in quirky kids
- attachment informed
- LGBTQ+ friendly
- trauma focused
- spiritually sensitive
- professional experience other than counseling
- familiar with substance abuse
- mindfulness modalities
- career counseling
