Benjamin Nielson (LCSW)

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker based in southeastern Utah with 10+ years of experience working with teens and adults. Six of these years have been in clinical practice. Some of the therapeutic needs I have been presented with during this time have included: individual and generational trauma, anxiety, depression, addictions, traumatic brain injury, attachment issues, loss and grief issues, guilt and mental health crises. My interest in mental health and behavioral therapy was greatly influenced during my employment as a drug and suicide prevention program director for a company on the Navajo Nation. During my 5 years with this company, my team and I were nationally recognized for our work developing experiential-based programs for at-risk youth that included summer camps, youth businesses, equine therapy and high ropes courses. I appreciated the opportunities and training in multi-cultural sensitivity, trauma-based therapeutic approaches and program development I received here. After this, I worked as a medical social worker in a hospital and a homecare and hospice company, concurrently. While here, my work ranged from connecting people with needed resources to intense mental health crisis counseling in the emergency room. I believe we are all products of our closest relationships, our environment, our family systems and every moment that leads to the present us. I strive to treat the therapeutic relationship, and you, with compassion, respect and warmth. My therapy style depends on what each person I am working with needs in a particular moment. Just as you might fall and scrape your knee in one instance, or be involved in a serious accident in another, our mental health approaches need to be flexible and effective based on what is being experienced. That said, I draw from Mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, Internal Family Systems, Emotional Freedom Technique, Trauma-Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. A top priority for me is to meet you where you are and provide an environment and treatment options that will work best for us as we work together to meet your goals. It takes a lot of strength and will power to make needed changes in your life. If you are ready to take that step, I am here to support you.