Austin Professional Counseling represents the leading edge of counseling and psychotherapy in Austin, TX. We put you, our clients, first, and work to serve your needs by helping you in the areas we are expert in and collaborating with supporting specialists as needed. Our priority is first building a close and authentic relationship with you, then identifying your needs and goals, then working toward solutions and results effectively and efficiently. We are trained in the very latest approaches to depression, anxiety, and relationship issues, incorporating modern neuroscience into our methods and views. We help individuals get on their feet and thrive; we help singles date and find their partner, and help couples nurture their love and closeness.
Schedule Your First Appointment Today!
Here at Austin Professional Counseling, we believe in personal growth. We see therapy as a way to engage the deepest feelings, thoughts and desires you have in order to support you in living your fullest life. While we are specialized in assisting you with a variety of mental and emotional health issues, we don’t see therapy as just a solution to illness or major problems–we think of therapy as a path of personal growth, a way to maximize your life both personally and in your relationships.
Our therapists walk their talk, and are deeply engaged in their own growth process. They also train in the most current and advanced approaches with leading researchers and clinicians. We believe the most effective therapists are those who take their own growth and personal work seriously. A part of our work includes a focus on spiritual/existential issues and welcome clients who view their path of growth in holistic or personal growth terms. You can learn more about meditation or mindfulness in our study and practice groups, or simply discuss your issues from a spiritual or holistic perspective with your therapist.
Our Therapists
John Howard, LPC, LMFT is a nationally-recognized therapist who specializes in couples therapy, dating, anxiety, life transitions and existential issues.
Peter Craig, MA, LPC specializes in authenticity, connection, mindfulness and trauma.
Leah Cummins, MA, LPC Intern specializes in social anxiety, feeling lost, stress, depression and those who have a pattern of unhealthy relationships.
Amber Crable, PhD is a warm, intelligent psychologist who specializes in trauma, anxiety, mindfulness and self-esteem and works with diverse populations.
All of our therapists have a warm, empathic style, and bring a kind and supportive presence to their work. While our work is held in a foundation of compassion and support, we set clear goals and utilize cutting-edge therapy methods that facilitate growth and change, effectively addressing the issues we work with.
Our Specialties
Here at Austin Professional Counseling™, we specialize in developing an authentic and healthy sense of self, relationships and relationship patterns, depression, anxiety, spiritual and existential issues, stress, life transitions, identity exploration, trauma, and mindfulness. Our therapists are trained in a broad range of approaches that can address a wide range of issues. We see individuals and couples, and offer group therapy to develop real relationship skills in a live, realistic setting and help you receive feedback from peers.
We do not offer outpatient treatment programs and are not set up to handle mental health emergencies. Our approach is more geared toward long-term work that leads to personal growth and change rather than immediate short-term crises. We do not treat domestic abuse, violent tendencies, active drug abuse and addiction, active eating disorders, serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia or psychosis, disorders that require mental health hospitalizations, acute active suicidality, or acute active trauma with artifacts such as dissociation. Some of these conditions may counter-indicate therapy, and some require the attention of specialists or inpatient/outpatient programs that offer more structure than we provide. We also do not work with clients engaging in court-mandated therapy or who are seeking to bolster court proceedings such as in custody or divorce cases.
Our Location
- 4407 Bee Caves Rd, Ste 422, Austin, TX, 78746. Please see the contact page for directions.
Do you struggle with depression?
Our therapists are trained in the latest protocols for the treatment of depression. We understand the impact and effects of depression on both the mind and body, and approach depression as both a physiological and a psychological dilemma. We understand holistic and lifestyle approaches to the treatment of depression and often recommend those in conjunction with therapy. Occasionally we may see a need to recommend medical treatment alongside therapy, but we are very careful with recommending experienced doctors that don’t just see pills as the answer and that we can collaborate with.
Is anxiety bugging you or affecting your lifestyle?
Anxiety is a common ailment that can affect us in a variety of ways. Sometimes, anxiety is mild, but chronic and pervasive enough to be annoying. Other times, anxiety can be quite severe, including avoiding activities or places as well as having anxiety or panic attacks. Anxiety, if not dealt with, can limit our lives in very significant ways, from affecting our relationships and romantic lives, or dating, to limiting our ability to function or thrive at work, to making it difficult to travel, focus, relax and enjoy ourselves.
Anxiety sometimes comes with other annoying symptoms such as a tangible fear of flying, heights or confined spaces, or social anxiety that prevents us from associating out in groups. Severe anxiety is a significant medical illness that requires fast attention in order to protect the body and nervous system from its degrading effects. As specialists in the reduction of anxiety, we can teach you tools and tips to help you relax and help your nervous system be calmer. We approach anxiety in a comprehensive way, from assessing potential medical or physical illness components, to addressing its psychological effects, to exploring how emotions, confidence, self-esteem, expression and relationships form part of the constellation of living with anxiety. With focused attention and sustained counseling, anxiety can be dramatically reduced to allow you to enjoy and fully live your personal and relationship life.
Want to maximize your relationship or heal some issues?
One of our primary specialities is helping couples discover or re-discover the love and healing potential in their relationships. We see relationship as a powerful and sacred force in our lives that can be harnessed to deepen our personal work as well as in support of our life goals. Do want to feel more connected with your partner, start a relationship off on the right foot, make sure you’re choosing the right partner, or work through stubborn relationship issues that have dogged you for years? Improve communication, intimacy and how you work together as partners to support your family or handle responsibilities in life? Our therapists are trained in modern approaches to relationship health and care and can help you get back on track, or just optimize your relationship and take it from good to amazing.
Our expertise in couples counseling stems from APC Founder John Howard, LMFT, who was 1 of 12 couples therapists in the world chose to form a new faculty to train couples therapists worldwide in the very latest methods, including attachment and neuroscience-informed therapy. John is known nationwide as brilliant and irreverent teacher of relationship tips and skills, helping both professional therapists and everyday partners understand connection and intimacy from the new science of relationships. John’s experience and expertise in relationship therapy flows into APC’s associate staff, who are personally trained by John and have their own couples counseling expertise and experience. Whoever you work with, you can feel confident that at Austin Professional Counseling we take the cutting edge of relationship therapy seriously and bring you the very latest understandings and methods from validated science-based approaches.
Schedule Your First Appointment Today!
Austin Professional Counseling’s Core Values
- Multicultural Awareness. We feel strongly about the importance of providing a multiculturally-aware environment and services that make any client feel welcome. Our methods and perspective are accepting and inclusive of the full variety of human expression, culture, lifestyle norms and choices. We welcome clients of all sexual orientations, gender identities, lifestyle preferences and cultural backgrounds. We welcome clients of faith of any religion as well as spiritual adherents and clients of no faith, atheists, agnostics, and however you see the world and life. We have worked with dedicated Muslims and Christians as well as with radical feminists and cynical existentialists. We work with conservatives and liberals alike. We see heterosexual couples as well as gay and lesbian couples. We happily work with polyamorous and open couples as well as monogamous couples. We are a sex-positive practice. In short, we’re in the business of helping humans be more optimized humans, not trying to change your culture, so we welcome a diversity of perspectives, political ideologies and views and do not discriminate on the basis of any condition of being human ;).
- Privacy. Your privacy and confidentiality is important to us. We will explain our procedures to you at our first session and list some of them in our paperwork. We safeguard your identity relative to other clients and are careful in how we handle any paperwork related to our work together. If you have special needs related to privacy and confidentiality, let us know. We want you to feel as safe and comfortable as possible opening up to us and understand the importance of protecting anything you share with us.
- Integrity. We are committed to always doing what is best for you, our clients, and putting you first. If we think you are best served seeing a specialist in an area we don’t cover, we will let you know. If we see that something else could be useful as an addition to your therapy, we recommend it. We are not here to enrich ourselves, we really want to see you get better, feel better, and thrive as quickly as possible. We structure therapy so that it is effective and efficient while not sacrificing important elements of the client/therapist relationship. When we feel you are ready to exit the therapy process, we will say so and explore that option with you. In everything we do: Billing, handling payment, giving advice about services and supporting specialties, scheduling, returning your messages, and keeping your best interest in mind, we aim to bring the highest level of service and integrity to our work with you.
- Kindness. We believe that warmth, love and genuine empathy is healing. We strive to develop an authentic relationship with you rather than one that is simply transactional or a means to share analytic information and advice. We care about you. We want to know and understand you. We hope that our relationship deepens and that we have a chance to experience the full value of a deep, committed, and caring professional bond. Our therapists are mental health experts, but they are centered in their hearts, and bring depth and compassion to their work. If you are a deep spirit, and have many years of experience in a personal growth journey, you will feel at home in our practice.
- Competency. Here at APC, we take training seriously and keep up to date with the latest changes in our field. As with any discipline, the science and art of various approaches and methods are constantly being revised and studied. We believe in keeping up so we can bring you the best possible approaches to the issues that you’re dealing with. One of the biggest developments in the field of counseling over the last 10 years has been the contribution of neuroscience. Our understanding on the brain, its nuances and tendencies, and how those influence and work synergistically with the mind, has changed methods and perspectives in therapy work. Even our definition of the mind and what helps our minds be as healthy as possible has changed based on the influence of neuroscience. When you work with a therapist who keeps up with the latest developments in the field, you receive the benefits of therapy that is tailored to support not just your mind, but also your nervous system and brain to learn and grow in important ways.
- Authenticity & Humor. Yes, these are core values. OK, life is depressing at times; sometimes we feel so awful and hopeless we don’t event want to live. Sometimes the pain of losing someone close to us is devastating and incapacitating. Yet here at APC we strive to meet issues with genuine empathy while also bringing positivity and humor into our work. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, even though we take our craft and your problems seriously. We think the therapy process can benefit often times from a sense of humor and a sense of ease and rapport in the room. While we are at the leading edge of our craft, we are down-to-earth individuals who seek to really connect and laugh with you, fully explain everything we see and think in a transparent manner, and include you in the process of understanding the best way forward.
