SAINT PAUL
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Our Clinicians
Sometimes the reasons for a good fit between patient and therapist can be a mystery. Feel free to read more about the clinicians on our team to see if any specializations or training match what you might be looking for in a care provider.
Our range of approaches ensures that one of us will likely be a good fit for therapy so browse our bios and visit our websites to see who you would like to work with. Alternatively, you can schedule a brief phone consultation if you would like to talk more about who could be the best match.
Nguyen Vu
Psychotherapist, MA
I am an LPCC candidate from Saint Mary's University. When someone lets me sit with them, listen to their stories, and be a witness to their pains, bravery, and strengths, I consider it an honor and a privilege.
Through my personal and professional journey, I have learned, and wholeheartedly believe that every person already has what it takes in them to be content and happy. However, life has never been simple or easy, despite its beauty. Often we can lose sight of our unique and intrinsic strengths, beauty, and meanings when surrounded by the busyness of daily life, human suffering, and un-nourishing cultural messages.
I believe that meaningful changes in therapy arise primarily from the therapeutic relationship itself. I will show up to every conversation with respect, curiosity, empathy, and authenticity. My clients are the authors of their stories and of their own process of healing and growth. I see my therapeutic role as facilitator of a process of change through different modalities and practices such as existential conversations, exploration of the mind, mindfulness practices, experiential activities, and cognitive/behavioral exercises.
In every session, my goal is to hold a safe and compassionate space for my clients while maintaining a respectful curiosity to facilitate client’s experiences of their most free and honest selves.
If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your time, and I’d love to hear from you. I understand that therapy is a big commitment and can be difficult for a variety of reasons, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to me for a brief conversation to see if I might be a good fit for your growth. I’m looking forward to our conversation.
Psychologist, PsyD, LP
I am a licensed clinical psychologist and have several years of experience working in different settings with a wide range of clients. I approach therapy from a collaborative and depth oriented approach. Therapy is a relationship that requires genuineness from both the clinician and the person seeking services. I work with clients to establish a strong foundational relationship that will then allow us to explore and uncover the things that have led to where my clients find themselves today. My goal is to create a relationship and environment where my clients feel they can look at the difficult areas of their life and understand the inner workings of experiences, relationships, and personal dynamics that influence the current state they find themselves in. It is important to me that the therapeutic process is an honest one, even in the times that honesty is not the easiest choice. To support this, I bring understanding and compassion to sessions in an effort to build the supportive environment people need to grow. To be successful in therapy, I encourage patients to take chances to try something new when other strategies don't seem to be working. I encourage vulnerability in sessions but also offer the grace people need to take the risk of being their true and vulnerable selves. In addition to supporting clients in understanding themselves more thoroughly, I integrate principles of DBT to aid in developing healthy coping skills.
I am originally from Oregon but had the privilege of moving to Minnesota in 2020. During my time in Oregon and Minnesota, I have gained several years of experience working with children and their families, in residential and inpatient mental health treatment serving adults, and in the legal system providing evaluation and treatment to individuals with legal involvement. I have worked with individuals with a wide range of diagnoses including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. In my free time I enjoy camping, fishing, and Minnesota sports.
Sean McEwen
Wade Bergquist
Psychotherapist
I am an LPCC candidate from Saint Mary's University. Personal growth is the improvement of our skills, knowledge, wisdom, habits, behavior, and qualities. This self-awareness allows us to reach our full potential, be our best selves, and live fulfilled lives. I see therapy as an exciting opportunity to find one's authentic self.
My goal is to provide a safe, non-judgmental space for clients to explore various issues that may be troubling. Therapy is about finding positive long-term solutions, whether focusing on addiction/substance abuse, family issues, marital problems, trauma, stress management, or self-esteem.
As a clinician, my style is warm and empathic. I provide empirically validated cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The first approach allows you to watch negative thinking patterns and apply techniques to alleviate them. The second approach gets to the foundation of such patterns.
My clients receive a goal-focused, evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices which help them change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems.
In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my two dogs – Chloe and Gnarly, reading books on art, riding my motorcycle, mountain biking, going to AA meetings, and smoking an occasional cigar.
PMHNP-BC
I am a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with a diverse mental health background who specializes in treating patients across the lifespan. My experience began in human services yearly 22 years ago. For the past 11 years I have worked largely in the inpatient setting treating patients across the lifespan. The range of services I provide includes psychiatric assessment, medication initiation, and ongoing medication management. My areas of interest include: mood disorders, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, psychotic disorders, ADHD, PTSD, substance use disorders, serious and persistent mental health disorders (SPMI), and other psychiatric illnesses.
The central theme of my practice is advocacy for patients and belief that all people should be seen for who they are and not what label has been attributed to them. Each patient will be a collaborating partner in their treatment plan and will work with me to develop a plan based on their unique needs. The focus of each session is to continue to work alongside each patient to instill hope, develop the tools they need to succeed, build confidence, and to look forward to a brighter tomorrow.
Feel free to reach out for a brief consult to see if I might be a food fit to support your medication evaluation and management needs.
Irene Ottoson
Matthew Champ
Psychotherapist
I am an LPCC candidate from Saint Mary's University. The therapeutic process can be an intimidating journey full of challenging questions, uncomfortable insights, and confronting self-reflection. My goal is to join you on this journey and to create a partnership of safety, trust, and connection. We will craft a supportive environment that will help enable you to gain a better understanding of your motivations, your challenges, and how you show up to others in your life. Whether you are struggling with anxiety or depression, self-doubt, relational problems, or finding your way in this world, self-exploration is the first step in enacting meaningful change. Together we will work to help you develop meaning in your life, build satisfying relationships, overcome your struggles that are holding you back, and identify your strengths that can push you forward.
I have had the privilege of working with a variety of communities in multiple contexts, from working with youth in wilderness settings, to community-based mental health care. I have a passion for working with teenagers, lost or wayward souls, and folks who may feel resistant to therapy or that therapy "isn't for them." Having spent time in the Marine Corps, I have a particular affinity for working with Veterans and other first responders.
In my free time you can find me skiing, camping, playing with my dog, or enjoying the smell of my freshly mown lawn.
I am an LPCC candidate from Saint Mary's University. My approach to psychotherapy begins with personality and finding friendly ways upon which to build rapport. I bring positivity and enthusiasm to my work, offering clients a chance to find solution-focused and strengths-based innovations to the challenges they face. I'm fluid in narrative interventions which allow a strengthening of the successful storylines in life, while cutting out the sections of script no longer serving a useful purpose. My creative approach can be especially constructive in situations where feelings of negativity, worry, guilt, self-doubt, hopelessness, or abandonment are present. In the face of these difficult emotional patterns, I help co-author new messages of fulfillment that offer satisfaction of deep seated and universal needs of place, nurture, support, protection, and limits.
I have experience providing senior care, cooking and food service, and counseling in residential treatment programs. Through each stage of my professional growth I've helped a multitude of people find hope, make goals, laugh, navigate change, take chances, and transcend the boundaries in their lives. I've lived and studied in both Wisconsin and Minnesota, where for the past 7 years my family has made a home in south Minneapolis. Outside the office, you might find me cheering at a Timberwolves game or tromping along a wooded path in search of mushrooms or pushing my children in the jogging stroller or on our way to an unscripted adventure in the park.
Trevor Peterson
Psychotherapist
Tobin Shelton
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, LCSW, MPH
I am a bilingual psychotherapist for individuals and couples who have a range of life experiences and concerns. I work primarily face-to-face in St. Paul and offer phone or video sessions for people living in California and Minnesota. My approach to therapy emphasizes trust and awareness in the process of healing. I believe that therapy can be fun, challenging, and rewarding. I will honor your lived experiences, laugh with you, and support your growth.
I have worked in the criminal legal system, schools, and healthcare settings. With a background in music, dance, and creative arts, I am open to a wide range of human expression. I am committed to my own work around my identity and to the intrapersonal and community work we must do to deconstruct racism, classicism, and discrimination against the LGBT community. These issues are always with us - including in a therapy session! I have extensive experience working with people who use alcohol and other drugs. The work we do around substance use will focus on harm reduction, dignity and your own experiences of what is healthy and safe. I welcome work with families who are struggling with issues around alcohol and other drugs—including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT).
I’m open to phone or email inquiries to see if you’re interested in therapy. I look forward to our work together.
My style is to support you in connecting with and understanding your deepest agendas and to facilitate the expansion of your capacity to live authentically, with all the parts of yourself. Many people have an intuition of when it's time to make changes, but are uncertain about how to do this, or where to begin. I'll help you generate the right conditions for change by first working to thoroughly understand your inner landscape, and what it’s like to be you. I'll assist you in refining your own instruction manual, find a useful balance between self-acceptance and self-discipline, and live a more integrated life. I bring an open mind, open heart, curiosity, creativity, and sometimes playfulness into my therapy work.
I have experience working with a wide variety of people navigating major life transitions, identity evolution, and issues including depression, anxiety, shame, breakups, divorce, imposter syndrome, career questions, self-esteem, addiction, quarter-life crisis, midlife crisis, covert (negative) narcissism, and existential explorations. I have previous experience working in assisted living facilities, hospice work, drug and alcohol counseling, and real estate. I've lived in Wisconsin, California, and now Minnesota for the past 11 years. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, bike rides, podcasts, and spending time with my dog.
Ryan Peterson
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, LPCC, MA
Lauri Ink
Psychotherapist, MA, JD
I am an LPCC candidate from Saint Mary's University. I have a warm and compassionate client-centered approach. I will support you to develop and maintain meaningful, intimate connections, get through stuck points, and to live authentically, at peace, and comfortable with what is inside you. We all have the natural tendency to grow and heal given the right conditions. My goal is to be a steadying, nonjudgmental presence alongside you in your healing journey. I believe that the therapeutic relationship is critical to therapy, and I will prioritize developing emotional safety and trust in our relationship. Some of my areas of interest include depression, anxiety, addiction, burnout, chronic illness, life transitions, relationship problems, stress management, and self-esteem. I work with individuals, couples, and families. I am both trained and currently obtaining certification in Emotionally Focused Therapy, an evidence-based approach to couples counseling. I also have many years of experience in the corporate world, and understand the stresses of trying to find work-life balance, navigating personality conflicts, work overload, communication challenges, and engaging in complex problem solving. These are additional areas of interest for me.
I have called the Twin Cities home for 16 years. I have a background in dance and athletics and believe strongly in the connection between mind and body. I enjoy spending time outdoors and keeping my cat out of trouble.
If you are curious about whether working together might be a good fit for you, please reach out and I would be happy to have an introductory call.
I look forward to meeting and hearing the story of each person who comes to therapy - and each journey is different. Therapy can go in may different directions; for some clients the work is in managing the day to day, for others it is working out grief and emotional challenges, and for others it is to improve the quality of their important relationships. Therapy can address a host of difficulties, from mental health conditions to emotional skills, existential meaning, or how to set healthy boundaries with others, to name just a few. I begin the process of therapy by helping the client set goals using treatment methods that are individualized to the client and the specific situation. Starting therapy is an act of courage, and facing our problems inevitably makes them better. In each case, it is when we shed shame, face fear, embrace our values, and hold ourselves accountable, that change can truly take hold in our lives.
I specialize in working with clients with anxiety disorders, PTSD, young adults, ADHD, and addiction. This is consistent with my previous professional experience working in college counseling and for Hazelden Betty Ford. My work with transgender and atheist populations is particularly important to me. Having spent nearly all my life living in the Twin Cities, I have great affection and regard for the community. I spend my free time with friends, playing my guitar, or reading. My work and this community are very important to me and I appreciate you taking the time to consider me in your search for a therapist.
Cliff Buhl
Psychologist, PsyD, LP
Oliver Ross
Psychologist, PsyD, LP
I am a licensed clinical psychologist and the Clinical Director of Saint Paul Psychotherapy. In my clinical work I draw heavily on theoretical approaches that view therapy as an opportunity to participate in a healing relational experience. For me, spending time developing insight into one's self and patterns of coping is just as important as working towards participating in relationship in a way that is free and authentic. Despite the fact that therapy often requires facing our pain, for many of the people I work with therapy can be joyful. I bring my compassion, training, experience, and dedication to my work, and in exchange I ask that you take chances; try something different even if it makes you feel uncomfortable, be vulnerable even if it hasn't always worked for you in the past, and be curious even when doing so might reveal a difficult truth to face. My goal is to cultivate the conditions that make it feel possible to take these chances while challenging you both intellectually and emotionally.
Having been born and raised in St. Paul, I feel dedicated to the community which has given much to me. I've had the fortune of working with people across the metro in many different contexts, including crisis counseling, veteran’s residential rehab, in-patient substance abuse treatment, traumatic brain injury rehab, and university counseling. In my free time I enjoy making music, watching my birdbath (especially when there is a bird in it), and biking with my friends. I find that it can often be helpful to have a brief conversation to see if it could be a good fit for therapy, so feel free to be in touch if you think that could be helpful.