Cale Cloutier, LMFT

I highly value radical genuineness in my practice of therapy. I am very much a personality in the therapy room, and this is an intentional choice, developed from my work with at-risk teens while practicing Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which is a therapy model designed to help people who are experiencing really powerful mental health symptoms. The belief guiding radical genuineness is that it’s the highest form of validation I can give as a therapist, involving myself as a human and an equal – engaging in an authentic manner and not taking myself too seriously or ignoring the obvious.

I also believe in humility and warm openness toward feedback – I am your witness and consultant, but you are the expert on your own life, and there will be times that you need to correct my understanding or help me change my pace or focus in therapy. Never worry about protecting my feelings – I’m at your service and I look forward to being corrected or having the chance to repair a mistake with you, because these are often the most powerful and useful moments in talk therapy.

I originally went to graduate school with the desire to practice therapy for couples in distress, and I believe that couples therapy can be one of the most efficient and effective mental health services on the market. Family therapy and couples therapy can help people change together, and to recognize when they are bound together in a mad, frantic dance of escalating conflict and turbulent attachment. This work can help people drop blame, exit painful feedback loops, and strengthen the things that are already beautiful in their relationship. I don’t believe that it’s always my job to help people stay together – there is dignity in using therapy to recognize that the relationship should end in an amicable, orderly fashion. I would like to think of myself as a talented and passionate therapist for couples and family systems, and I often find that this work is the most rewarding work.
In my practice of outpatient therapy, I mostly rely on Solution Focused Therapy as a primary model of change. I also use Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and Gottman Method Couples Therapy.