About us
“Not all battles are visible and neither are the victories.” ― Brittany Burgunder
Real Life Community Behavioral Health is a licensed Behavioral Health Agency serving the counseling needs of individuals and families living in the Clark County, WA area.
We provide caring, consistent and competent support to those seeking our services. It's also a clinic designed by counselors and for counselors, to assist them in growing their practice competencies, receive invested training and ongoing support as they meet the needs of those they help.
RLCBH desires to see lives changed - both in those whom we partner with in providing services and in the lives of those providing them.
RLCBH Vision
RLCBH exists to provide dignified mental health services from a strengths-based & client centered posture, utilizing evidence based and best practices approaches in being a support to our community in helping meet its mental health related needs. We also desire to be a safe, supportive and collaborative place for new clinicians to learn and grow in their practice in such a way that they are competent and confident in their eventual move into independent licensed practice and possible supervision related work.
We seek to be supportive - to clients and staff - in helping them become empowered with their lives - both in our client’s personal lives and our counselors professional careers.
Our Values & Approach
Person/Client Centered - We believe clients are the experts on themselves and they know where they want to go with their treatment. Clinicians are expert guides (meaning, they know the terrain a person is journeying on) but are joining a client on their own journey of where they want to go. Every client & counselor relationship is 50/50 - 50% clinician (their training and expertise as a provider) and 50% client (they are the expert on themselves, they know when something “fits”, they set the goal of therapy and we not only respect it but encourage it). If one isn’t listening to the other, this is where progress stalls. But, in order for a client to “listen” to a provider, that client has to know the counselor “gets” them through compassionate listening and accurate gathering.
Strengths Based - Clients have strengths they may not have awareness of. We want to identify those strengths, both in building self worth and confidence but also in identity formation. We also “speak” from a strengths perspective, always holding the dignity of a client both when working with them and when we are not.
Solutions Focused - We don’t just “curse the darkness”, we help clients “find the/their light”. This isn’t meaning we are always striving for “answers” or solutions, as therapy is often just providing a space for a client to safely process. This also allows a person to find their own solutions, which then empowers them with finding their “own” strengths they may not have known or recognized.
Collaborative Approach - We don’t take a “I’m the professional so you should listen to me” approach. Every counseling session is a “collaborative conversation”, the client informing us on what they are processing or needing, us sharing our reflections and insights and any education aspects that could be helpful and empowering.
Resource Teaming - We see all clients through the lens of them having a community of resources and strengths we can assist them in identifying and accessing that is sustainable and enjoyable. This specifically refers to supports they may have that can last beyond the counseling relationship - family, friends, other providers, community resources.
Unconditional Positive Regard - We provide non-judgmental approaches with an inherent expectancy that all people strive for the same positive goals of sustained satisfaction and genuine happiness. Often, even maladaptive behaviors originate from a healthy and very human desire. Helping clients identify that and find alternative ways to meet those needs is part of the work we do.
Trauma Informed - Many clients who work with us may not present with clear PTSD related symptoms, but instead, have developed alternative symptoms that are very much rooted from either traumatic experiences or behaviors that are now “coming out sideways”. We assess for the impacts of both Big T and small t traumas to inform our process with clients.
Humility - Regardless of who is the provider and who is the client, we are all equal in value and worth. Regardless of position, title, experience, education or heritage, no one person is more inherently valuable than another. We seek to embody and model this in the work we do with clients. People have different roles, different strengths but not different value.
Culturally Humble & Integrative - No one knows everyone’s ethnic, national or even family culture. Being culturally humble means we recognize that and seek a posture of being a “learner”, getting educated by our clients on their culture and experiences. Then, as the counselor, we revisit those cultural dynamics as well as integrate them into the treatment process.
Values Integrative - We all have values that guide us. Some struggles a person is having is not finding congruency with one or more of their values with the problem they are facing. Values are guiding, filtering and informing. This includes an individual's own values, family/upbringing values, culture values and even spiritual adherences. We seek to identify these through the counseling relationship and assist the client in seeing how they “fit” with the problem they are hoping to alleviate.
Competent - This means we practice within our scope of strengths and experiences. It’s ok if something feels unfamiliar or inexperienced - we just do our due diligence to get informed and supported, while being transparent with clients with things that may fall outside of our input opportunities.
Journey Cognizant - Remember, we are only one step on every person's journey. Whatever progress is made for however long this step is with us, we want to make it positive, so that, when a client takes their next step, they have confidence in the counseling process - whether that next step is with us or someone else. Our care is for the individual and “their” process, not ours.
We have & model the "courageous conversations" - We speak to the metaphorical “elephant in the room'', but do so graciously, maintaining & upholding the dignity of the individual we are talking with. This is what, at times, clients are counting on and trusting us for.
Empowering Agency - Many people who come our way do so because they feel unempowered with either life in general or over the problem that is bringing them to us. Helping clients find solutions, discover strengths, learn and understand themselves and their mental health, are all ways we help “empower” their agency over their own life and well being.
