"This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.”

-Carl Rogers

Services provided for:

  • Adolescents
  • Adults
  • Elders

Specialties:

  • Anxiety
  • Career Counseling
  • Coping Skills
  • Depression
  • Emotional Disturbance
  • Grief
  • Life Transitions
  • Men's Issues
  • Mental Health
  • Mood Disorders
  • Peer Relationships
  • Relationship Issues
  • School Issues
  • Self Esteem
  • Spirituality
  • Stress
  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Thinking Disorders

Treatment Styles:

  • Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
  • Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Existential
  • Humanistic
  • Narrative
  • Person-Centered
  • Solution Focused Brief (SFBT)
  • Supervision Services

Biography | Travis Schermer, LPC 

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Travis Schermer, LPC
M
y interests in counseling started many years before my formal academic training. Questions of meaning and purpose led me to philosophy, psychology, and ultimately counseling. In that space a natural confluence developed between my personal pursuits and my professional life. With these early explorations still in my heart, I gravitate towards an Existential-Humanistic understanding of human nature - that with increasing self-knowledge and self-responsibility we can make valuable choices and develop rich fully human lives.

We can clear away the things that get in the way of living authentic lives.

Anxiety, depression, anger and dissatisfaction often reflect a mismatch between who we are and how we are. My goal in counseling is to help you differentiate “who” from “how” and in that space support you in making intentional and creative choices. Whatever life events have emerged — trauma, loss, or just feeling worn down — we can work through difficult feelings and help the “who” emerge.

A key to my work centers on building a relationship together and ensuring I am fully hearing what you are sharing. Coming from a “not knowing” perspective allows me to expresses curiosity and provide the latitude for you to narrate the construction of your own experiences. Techniques from Cognitive Behavioral, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Solution Focused, and Voice Dialogue are often helpful in facilitating this process.

I have worked with people across the lifespan and focus on adults and adolescents. Some difficulties are not inside a person but social systems that surround us, such as systemic racism, homophobia, and ingrained traditions of oppression. Knowing the different parts of yourself that have developed to protect you from harm, and giving voice to these parts, empowers us to challenge adverse systems and remain centered in our skills, strengths and innate dignity.

New freedom can be frightening but we travel together and do not need to walk difficult roads alone.

In my free time I enjoy being with my family, friends, and little dog, Toffee. I am passionate about live music, theatre, and the arts. I have also been an avid drummer most of my life and relish those non-verbal conversations with other musicians. I work as a professor at a local university and teach about mental health counseling.

A little more regarding some terms mentioned above:

Voice Dialogue: Different ideas comprise the mind and can be beneficial or detrimental depending on the situation. Exploring these thoughts and beliefs through Voice Dialogue can help us discern the function and utility of each. Giving voice also strengthens our identity as we start to live more intentionally.

Solution Focused: Problems typically capture our attention because they are a threat to our wellbeing. But the problem does not contain the solution. Shifting to solution focused means identifying what is wanted instead of the problem, finding exceptions, and creating new ways of living in the solution, rather than the problem.

Self-actualization (or actualization of the organismic self): Inside each person is a unique expression and embodiment of life. Sometimes it can be masked, quieted, or even hidden from the world. Distress can emerge between the mismatch of what is being experienced inside and what is being presented on the outside. Counseling can assist people in bringing these two pieces into accord with one another in order to be more fully oneself.

Insurances Accepted:

  • BlueCross and BlueShield
  • Highmark

 

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Travis Schermer, LPC

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