Bret Patterson
Calm, practical counseling for everyday struggles
- Credentials
- LPC
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed in
- Mississippi
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Bret
Bret Patterson is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) practicing in Mississippi. He uses a practical, client-focused style to help people facing stress, anxiety, grief, anger, depression, addictions, LGBT concerns, relationship challenges, parenting questions, and other life changes. He speaks plainly and aims to make sessions feel straightforward and useful for everyday problems.
Before becoming a counselor, Bret spent 25 years working as a paramedic and clinical educator. That background informs his calm presence and ability to stay steady in difficult moments.
Background and approach
He draws on four years of formal counseling experience combined with those earlier clinical roles. In sessions he adapts the conversation and plan to each person’s needs. Techniques may include talking through patterns, practicing new skills, and building small steps that fit daily life.
He emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion while encouraging practical change. Bret works with a range of concerns including trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, self-esteem, career changes, bipolar disorder, and coping with illness or caregiving stress. He also addresses more specific issues such as abandonment, communication problems, codependency, and divorce or separation.
Clients can expect a collaborative approach where goals are set together and progress is measured in real-life terms. He offers multiple ways to connect and will tailor therapy to what a person finds most helpful. Taking the first step can feel hard, and he aims to make that step clearer and more manageable.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and creating a respectful space where a person’s own goals guide the work; it helps people clarify what matters and find their own solutions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps identify unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and replaces them with practical skills to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, adds specific tools for emotion regulation and coping skills that are useful when strong emotions feel overwhelming.Choosing the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will work together with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That collaborative planning allows techniques to be mixed and adjusted as progress is made.
Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility for different schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to keep regular appointments, practice skills between sessions, and get support from home or wherever a person is located within the region served.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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What experience does he bring to therapy?
Where is he licensed and what is his credential?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
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How are fees and cost handled?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- Mississippi
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Bret
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point