Welcome to the pursuit of perpetual health and growth. I’m Lance Adams. I want to help you cope with whatever challenges you currently experience. I will help you develop or enhance your mental health tools to better prepare you for responding to challenges in the future. And, if you choose, I can coach you to thrive by taking an active role in seeing and steering your own story to live your best life.
My Background
I’ve worked helping people since 1982. My first position was with juvenile diversion, helping at-risk youth found guilty of misdemeanor infractions move back into the community rather than farther into the judicial system. After getting a B.A. in psychology I worked for several years with children and adolescents in residential treatment centers. That work included involvement with families and led me to graduate school.
I was accepted into the Ph.D. program in clinical child-family psychology at Michigan State University and spent seven years there completing a Master’s degree, beginning one dissertation with a professor who left the program and a second dissertation through the Interdepartmental Graduate School of Infant Studies (IGSIS). I completed all of the graduate requirements for both the Clinical and Infant Studies programs except the dissertation, leaving me with the unofficial, designation of ABD (All but Dissertation). As part of the Ph.D. process, I completed the required APA (American Psychological Association) approved internship at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1996.
I stayed in Albuquerque, building a private practice. My practice began with contract work for the State of New Mexico helping people with developmental disabilities and their families manage their mental health challenges. That practice expanded over the next twenty years to include other contracts with persons with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), medically fragile individuals, and those on the waiting list for mental health services with the state, and the full range of clinical skills for which I have been educated and trained.
The decision to enter therapy or coaching can be difficult and daunting. Many people put it off over and over, or never choose to avail themselves of the support. I understand that fear and/or reluctance. I structure our work accordingly. You will find me a genuine and accepting person. I am interested in your story. My job is not to judge, but to understand, and when necessary to share my observations with you.
The therapist’s primary virtues are the ability to help others feel comfortable in an otherwise unnatural and uncomfortable circumstance—talking honestly and in-depth about their life, their thoughts, feelings and actions. You need to feel like you can trust the therapist to bring more than just knowledge and experience to the relationship. The therapist must be able to create a safe “holding” space, like a virtual hug from a good friend. My decision to do this work comes from exactly that place—recognizing that we all need a safe place to be fully ourselves in the presence of another who can bring an objective perspective and a supportive attitude.
Areas of Expertise
- Relationship therapy
- Child therapy
- Adolescent therapy
- Family therapy
- Infant Mental Health
- Depth psychology (intensive, personal transformation)
- ADHD
- Autism Spectrum
- Anxiety (Worry)
- Depression (Sadness)
- Developmental and/or Intellectual Disabilities
- Alcohol and Substance Abuse
- Anger Management
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Parenting & Pre-parenting Classes
- Group Therapy (ADHD, ASD, Life-Story Coaching & more)
- School Problems (learning difficulties, social difficulties, conduct difficulties, IEP advocacy)
- Life Transition Counseling (leaving high school, leaving college, parenthood retirement)
- Infant Mental Health