It stops being a rough patch. At some point the story quietly changes from “this is a hard year” to “this is just how I am now,” and that second one is much harder to argue with.
Telehealth across Minnesota
Therapy for adults carrying more than they let on.
Anxiety, depression, addiction, anger, or a change that knocked everything sideways. You have been managing it on your own for a while now. I would rather name a thing than dance around it, and I promise you will not be lectured.
Free and 15 minutes. Already know you want to start? You can book an intake appointment from the same page.
Statewide telehealth
- Licensed
- Minnesota — statewide telehealth
- Credentials
- LPCC · LADC · CCMHC · NCC
- Experience
- 15 years in addiction treatment
- Clients
- Adults 18+ — individuals
In his clients’ words
Where most people start
Most people who call have been fine for years.
That is usually the problem. You are the one who handles it. Work, kids, the house, somebody else’s crisis, the thing nobody else was going to deal with. You have been the steady one for so long that there is no obvious moment where it would have been reasonable to say you were struggling.
So it goes somewhere else instead. You are exhausted in a way sleep does not fix. You are shorter with people than you want to be. You are drinking a little more than you planned to, or lying awake running the same conversation again, or going through the week without feeling much of anything at all.
You have probably already tried to fix it quietly. Sleeping more. Drinking less for a while. Getting on top of the work so there is one less thing. Deciding, on a Sunday, that this week will be different. Some of that helps for a bit, which is part of why it is so easy to keep putting off the larger conversation.
Plenty of people arrive here without a tidy explanation for any of it. They just know they have not felt like themselves in a long time. That is a perfectly good reason to start, and you do not need a diagnosis to make the call.
Nothing about this gets easier by itself.
Waiting is not neutral. It is a decision that costs something, and the price is usually paid somewhere you are not looking at.
The people around you adjust. Your partner reads your mood before saying anything. Your kids pick their moment. Nobody announces this. You just notice one day that things have stopped being brought to you.
Something starts doing the job. A drink at the end of the day, another hour of work, the phone until one in the morning. Whatever takes the edge off gets a bigger and bigger role, and it works right up until it is its own problem.
The pattern gets more expensive to change. Not impossible. Nobody is too far along for this and I have sat with people who were sure they were. It simply costs more the longer it runs, and there is no reason to pay that.
What sets this practice apart.
01
Mental health and substance use in one room
I hold both licences. Being sent to one provider for the drinking and another for the depression is common, and it means telling the story twice to two people who never speak to each other. Whichever one brought you here, the other is allowed in.
02
I did something else first
I owned restaurants for nearly thirty years before this, and spent twelve years on a school board. Most of what I know about what people do with stress and frustration I learned there, not in a classroom. It is a second career and I chose it on purpose.
03
Straight talk, and no lectures
I do not dance around problems, I name them. Ten years working with three county drug courts taught me to be useful to someone before they are convinced, so you do not have to arrive agreeing with anybody about what is going on.
04
Nobody in your town has to know
Everything is telehealth, anywhere in Minnesota. No waiting room, no parking lot, no running into someone you know on the way in. In a smaller community that is often the difference between getting help and putting it off another year.
Duane WinterLPCC, LADC, CCMHC, NCC
Your therapist
Hi, I’m Duane.
I work with adults who are dealing with things like anxiety, depression, addiction, life stress and major transitions. My approach is warm, down-to-earth and collaborative, so my hope is that you will feel comfortable being yourself while we figure out together what you need.
I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Ten years of that has been as a mental health therapist, and fifteen were spent in addiction treatment before it, including ten years working with three county drug courts.
This is a second career. I owned restaurants for nearly thirty years first, and I spent twelve years on a school board. When I sold the businesses I needed to reinvent myself, and I chose addiction counseling. What I found was that so many of the addictions were rooted in mental health issues, so I went and trained for that too.
I have a relaxed way about me and I do laugh in session. I will also get more challenging over time if I think you are stuck. Both of those are on purpose.
What I work with
The full list, not just two.
Two of these have pages of their own, because they are what I am best known for. The rest are just as real, and in most weeks I am working on several of them at once.
Addiction & substance use
Anger management
Anxiety
Depression
Grief & loss
Stress management
Life transitions & change
Trauma
ADHD
Social anxiety & phobias
Conflict resolution
Relationships
Forgiveness
Self-esteem & confidence
Meaning, purpose & direction
Mindfulness & presence
Adoption
Discrimination
Not sure it fits
If what you are dealing with is not on that list, or you are not sure which of them it is, ask me. I would rather tell you honestly that someone else is the better fit than have you spend a session and your money finding that out. I see adults 18 and over, individually, anywhere in Minnesota.
Three steps, and the first one is small.
-
1
Send me a message
Tell me roughly what is going on. A few sentences is plenty. I read these myself and I will write back to you, not to a form letter.
-
2
We work out the fit
Between us we decide what makes sense next. If I am not the right person, I will say so and help you find who is. That happens and it is not a wasted conversation.
-
3
We start
Weekly at first, easing off as things steady. You will know what we are working on, because we decide it together and we keep track of it.
One step
The first step is the smallest one you will take.
I know reaching out is not always easy. You do not need it worked out first, and you do not need the tidy version. Tell me a little about what has been going on and we will see whether I am the right person to help.
Free and 15 minutes. Already know you want to start? You can book an intake appointment from the same page.
- Serving
- All of Minnesota
- Clients
- Adults 18+
- Availability
- Accepting new clients
- Format
- Telehealth only