Bradly Long

Hello. I'm Bradly Long, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. From personal and professional experiences, I believe in a psychodynamic approach, as well as processing life experiences, to learning about ourselves, where we come from, while improving upon our daily functioning in our life domains. We are all works in progress.

My approach

I meet my clients where they are at in their journey. My approach? Building a supportive and trusting relationship. We all come from somewhere, and exploring and learning about what we were taught, informs our choices and future. Psychodynamically and from our life experiences, we all can grow from the progress and the beliefs that benefit us. And not necessarily the ones we were taught. And because we are works in progress, we can change our beliefs throughout our lives to benefit us along our journey.

My focus

From my personal therapeutic experience as a client and then as a therapist, my focus is exploring and learning where we come from. What were we taught? What are our life experiences? I'm most comfortable with clients who aren't afraid of confronting what isn't working for them and talking about the elephant in the room. Additionally, at this point in my personal and professional life, my focus is on clients who I can relate to. Meaning, that I’ve had similar experiences in my life that are relatable to a client’s. Some of my life experiences have included being disowned by family for being Gay; navigating my teenage years in the closet, coming out, Gay culture, and from being single to open and closed relationships; drug addiction; and the death of several partners. As well as acceptance of myself.

My communication style

I attempt to create a safe and supportive environment as a therapist while also talking about issues that appear to be holding my client from moving forward. Hence, my training included pointing out and processing the elephant in the room. I'm challenging as a therapist. And if being challenged is uncomfortable for you, you have two choices: confront that or not. Without being challenged, what would be the point of being in therapy?

My journey to mental healthcare

What attracted me to being a therapist? My own personal journey in therapy was when I was coming out while being disowned by my mother, and then my partner passed away. My therapeutic experience provided me a path forward from being a successful accountant to wanting to help one individual like I was.

My goals for you

My client gets to inform me about their goals for being in therapy. With that stated, my role as a therapist is to bring attention to other areas that may (or may not) need to be addressed in the client's goal setting.

My first session with you

What you can expect during a first session with me? Hopefully a relaxed, non judgmental conversation. A sharing of common experiences to build rapport and trust. Honesty. Care. Empathy. And the beginning of learning background information.