About Brandt
I’ve spent much of my life trying to understand why people do what they do—including me, which has provided plenty of material.
Why our responses usually make sense. Why we keep trusting what has worked. And why something can work remarkably well while still leaving us less free.
Relationships, identity, judgment, pain, self-trust, uncertainty. This is apparently what I do for fun.
I don’t have all of it figured out. That is part of why I keep paying attention.
More Than Twenty Years of Listening
For more than twenty years, I’ve worked as a licensed therapist with individuals, families, and leaders from across the United States, into Canada, and as far away as Saudi Arabia. I’ve also trained and supervised other therapists.
That work has taken me into community settings, homes, schools, correctional facilities, substance-use treatment, residential programs, private practice, and rooms where other clinicians were learning how to do this work themselves.
The settings have changed. The people have changed.
One thing has remained remarkably consistent: people make more sense when we take enough time to understand their story.
We’re often quick to identify the problem, name the pattern, or decide what needs to change. Sometimes that’s useful. Occasionally, we even get it right.
But an accurate explanation offered too early can still miss the person.
I want to understand what happened, what you experienced, what mattered to you, what you made of it, and how the way you responded did its job.
That does not mean every response should remain exactly as it is. It means we begin with understanding rather than correction.
Because once the story makes sense, we can ask a much more useful question:
What is this way of living still making possible—and what is it no longer allowing?
How I Work
I’m not here to become the hero of your story. That position appears to have been filled.
I pay attention to the pattern inside what you’re telling me: what keeps repeating, what seems connected, where the story becomes difficult to follow, and what you may not be able to see clearly from inside it.
When I think I see something, I’ll tell you.
I may offer several ways of understanding the same moment, ask a question that changes where we’re looking, challenge an assumption, or stay with you somewhere the answer is not immediately clear.
I will not take over your judgment. I also won’t pretend that respecting your judgment requires me to have no perspective of my own.
And if understanding becomes a particularly sophisticated way of avoiding a decision, conversation, or action, I may point that out too.
Sometimes the work is making sense of what happened. Sometimes it is deciding what you want to do. Sometimes it is trying something, discovering that reality had ideas of its own, and returning with better information.
The goal is not for you to think like me.
It is for you to see more clearly, remain open to what is real, and decide how you want to participate.
Rabbit–duck illusion, after Fliegende Blätter (1892). Public domain.
On Perspective
What do you see?
A rabbit. A duck. Maybe both.
The image has not changed. Nothing has been added or removed. And neither perspective is wrong.
The same information becomes organized differently depending on where and how you look.
We do this with our lives too.
Our perspective is cultivated through what we have experienced, what we have learned to notice, what has mattered to us, and what we have needed to protect. It makes some parts of reality easier to see and others more difficult to access.
That is not a flaw. It is how human beings make sense of a complicated world.
Sometimes we become so accustomed to seeing the rabbit that we cannot understand how anyone could possibly see a duck. Occasionally, we become concerned about the people seeing the duck.
My work is not to convince you that your perspective is wrong. It is to help you understand what becomes visible from where you are standing—and what another angle might allow you to see.
A different perspective may change what you choose.
Or you may see both and make exactly the same choice.
The freedom is in no longer needing one perspective to be the only one that is real.
The Work Takes Different Forms
The questions are connected, even when the relationships built around them are different.
Private Advisory
Private Advisory is an ongoing relationship for people navigating complex decisions, responsibilities, and seasons of change. The work develops around what is happening in their lives rather than following a predetermined curriculum.
CATALYST
CATALYST is a structured process for developing greater self-trust. We slow down the different parts of how you meet life, take them back into your actual environment, and discover what remains available when something matters.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy takes place through my separate clinical practice. It provides a therapeutic relationship for people working through mental health concerns, painful experiences, relationship difficulties, and other forms of distress.
Writing
And then there is writing.
Writing gives me somewhere to follow questions that do not always fit neatly inside a conversation. I often begin thinking I know what I’m writing about and discover somewhere along the way that I don’t. Those tend to be the essays I find most interesting.
These are not different names for the same work. Each has its own purpose, structure, and boundaries.
Across my work with people, what remains consistent is how I approach the person in front of me: with curiosity, attention, and respect for the possibility that reality may have more to show both of us.
Outside the Work
Fortunately, I don’t spend all of my time thinking about why people do what they do.
I’m a husband and a dad before I’m any of the things listed on this website. I’m sarcastic, love movies, love to teach, play golf, make up ridiculous songs with my kids, and have a long history of taking on house projects that are probably bigger than they need to be.
In my defense, they have not fallen down.
I like adventures. I like building things. And for all the time I spend thinking about how people participate in their lives, I’m also trying to remember to participate fully in mine.
Some days I’m better at that than others.
Begin a Conversation
You don’t need to have everything figured out before we talk. That would make the conversation somewhat unnecessary.
If something you’ve read here has given you somewhere new to look—or you’re wondering whether Private Advisory or CATALYST might make sense for you—tell me a little about what is happening and what you hope might become possible.
I’ll read it personally.
If I believe I may be able to help, we’ll find a time to talk and decide together whether the relationship is the right fit.
Looking for psychotherapy?
Brandt maintains a separate clinical psychotherapy practice.
Information about therapy, availability, fees, and becoming a therapy client can be found on his clinical practice website.