About Justin Johnson, MA Student Intern
Individual & Couples Therapy
Let's Talk about you being the expert of your own life
Hello! I’m Justin Johnson (He/Him) but you can call me “JJ” if you choose. I am a MA student intern at Modern Love Counseling completing my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Regis University. I am supervised by Licensed Relationship Therapist, Jessica Cook and offer discounted counseling services ($95) as I complete my Master’s Degree.
Like my supervisor Jessica Cook, I incorporate humor into my therapy while I gain a better understanding of what your lived experience has been and how it could be different.
My idea of humor: Therapy is best when you can connect with your clients. I use humor to do just that. Humor is a way for me to collaborate with you, with your goals, and your expectations of how therapy will help you. I believe that humor manages to promote resilience for clients and fosters a sense of hope and optimism. If you are on the fence with who to trust as your therapist, humor me and let us see how we can work together.
Experiential activities in the therapy room: It is common for people to come into therapy because they have exhausted other options and are unsure how to make things better in their lives. I understand that and acknowledge the frustration, disappointment, and potential shame it may feel to ask for an outside opinion on how to make your life/lives better. I implement different experiential (learn by doing) strategies for clients to better understand the jargon that therapists use when speaking with their clients. People learn in different ways and using these experiential activities can help create an opportunity for safe exploration and self-understanding when the topics you come into therapy with may be difficult or sensitive.
Good therapy is like making good barbeque… its bound to get messy. With that in mind, I may challenge you or push you to consider different perspectives. Most importantly, we are a team and if something is not going the way you expected in therapy, please, I implore you to let me know so that we can work on it together and understand the disconnection that may have occurred.
Individual & Couples Counseling
Marriage & Family Therapy
I have a vast understanding of how to work with individuals, couples and even families. My education has taught me how to always consider the relationships in which you are apart of. Our conversations will cover different areas of your life such as your family of origin, romantic relationships, those closest to you, work/life balance and so much more. Marriage and Family Therapists (MFT’s) call it understanding a client’s “system” and once that is understood, we implement approaches to best serve our clients. One size does not fit all in therapy. Each person’s experiences, needs, and preferences are unique. I understand this and will create a treatment plan alongside you to best fit your system and what is best for you!
My Areas of Interest
1
Structural Family Therapy
I enjoy understanding a client’s “system” by getting to know the different “subsystems” that are part of your life. “Mapping your system” creates an opportunity to learn more about your family of origin and helps you find patterns in your life that may have been missed or misunderstood. There are “hierarchies” in our lives that help describe different power structures apart of our lives and Structural Family Therapy (SFT) not only helps puts these pieces of information out on the table, but it also helps clients create a plan on how to solve their reasoning for coming into therapy on a deeper level.
2
Gottman Couple Therapy
When you are in a romantic relationship, conflict is going to happen eventually or at some point. It’s how you work through those conflicts with your partner that either help or hinder the relationship. Gottman Couple Therapy helps clients not only manage conflict but also teaches clients how to become aware of certain actions, responses, or “bids” that your partner(s) have in order to connect with you either verbally or nonverbally. We in the therapy room are a team and we will work on understanding your relationship on multiple different levels.
3
Incorporating Music in Therapy
Music is a very powerful tool in the therapy room. You can learn a lot about how someone’s lived experiences and understandings about the world show up through lyrics, melodies, rhythms, and your preferred artists themselves. Sometimes it can be difficult to put your emotions or thoughts into words when talking with someone else. Music is an outlet for creative expression and is an opportunity for getting out the words that are hard to say or when experiences are too raw to fully understand. My music taste would surprise you and I am happy to listen to what you may bring into a therapy session and help me better understand you as a person.