Counselor | Aaron Mitchell, MS, LMHC
Education
Aaron has a bachelors degree in psychology and a master's in science degree for mental health counseling from Western Washington University. His focus in higher education and research was cultural psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and developmental psychology. While Aaron studied many cultures and their psychology, his focus was on American Indigenous approaches to psychological health. Under the mentorship of two highly acclaimed and distinguished American Indigenous professors (Joseph Trimble PhD & Jeff King PhD), he quickly became versed in the vast cultural research available to him.
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Since his teens, Aaron has been mentored in American Indigenous cultural techniques used to address sickness and health. Aaron shares these self-healing techniques in his counseling with permission from his elders. With that said, there are things he has been taught that he does not have permission to teach and therefore does not teach.
Experience
Aaron started in the healthcare industry while in college as a Chiropractic Assistant back in the mid 90's. He has worked in the healthcare field in various roles from administration to licensed professionals. He specializes in Mental Health treatment for trauma, anxiety, abuse, and depression across cultures. However, Aaron is well experienced in treating a diverse array of mental health issues from addiction to schizophrenia. Aaron has experience working through his own trauma and can likely relate.
Aaron has been integrating American Indigenous methods with conventional psychology for over a decade. The cultural approaches have large parallels in many evidence based treatments such as Mindfulness, Cognitive Reframing, and Insight based therapies. However, these methods better accommodate the vast understandings and knowledge that are common among Indigenous cultures around the world. Clients and I have found therapy to be quicker too. But sometimes those long histories of abuse, trauma, and the like present longer healing journeys. There is simply more to heal.
This is also open to those outside of Indigenous cultures. Whether you're Euro-American or Samoan we've got you.