Recovery is a long and soulful process. Finding a counselor with whom to collaborate on your personalized journey to a more whole and independent life is like a hero who needs a good sidekick. If you choose to work with me on your recovery and healing journey I will be a faithful sidekick and you will be the hero of your story. I will encourage you, give you feedback, share hard truths with you, maybe even confront you, give you sage counsel, and essentially be part of your tribe. But like every hero’s journey, at the end you will have to face your fears without me. But you will have changed, grown, become larger than your anxieties, rewritten your story by replacing words of doubt, pain and languish with words that more accurately and compassionately represent you and the growth you have worked so hard for. I am a psychotherapist here in the mountains of North Carolina. Since I graduated from Montreat College I have achieved full licensure (LCMHC) and I have almost completed my Licensed Substance Abuse Counselor (LSAC-A). For the past 3 years I have worked in a recovery based, person-centered therapeutic community with incredible individuals who suffer from major mental health challenges and in some cases addictions as well. Empathy, warmth, humor and confrontation are my strong suits in the therapeutic relationship. My specialty is in treating disorders of overcontrol. As in, so much self-control it gets in the way of expressing yourself, or gets in the way of living a meaningful life. Maladaptive perfectionism falls into this category, along with all-or-nothing thinking, resistance to feedback, loneliness, anxiety, treatment resistant depression and OCD. My preferred modality is Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy, I also use Narrative Therapy, Eco Therapy, Existential Therapy and I do Brainspotting, Natural Flow EMDR, and mindfulness. I would be honored to get to know you. May your recovery be profound, may your recovery lead to wholeness, may your recovery sustain. Respectfully, Thomas Wilder MA, NCC, LCMHC, LSAC-A