Meet The Therapist
Nicholas Bonacci, LPC, LCDC
Licensed Professional Counselor |
I feel gifted and blessed in my present day life and with my family, and the reprieve from "my own best thinking." I chose to be a psychotherapist because as a college student, I began seeing that I am living in a world where one's sense of fulfillment could only be improved by supporting one another, and digging deep through struggles. And I journeyed through so many of my own. I actually grew up with this attitude and didn't know how to articulate until much later. My favorite movie is Lorenzo's Oil if that means anything.
I had started at 20 years old, seeking sobriety, after meeting an amazing speaker and teacher of Power vs. Force, who had experienced all the amazing ups and downs that life offers, yet had 40+ years sober at the time, Dr. David Hawkins. Then soon after, I began reaping the benefits of multiple 12 step recoveries in the forms of codependency and adult child and family trauma recovery. These practices lead me to amazing therapists and trainers in the field of Experiential, Psychodrama, PIT therapies which truly helped me dislodge painful patterns of living, from a body and mental perspective, and further in to the health of my living relationships and pursuits of my goals. I entered into my practicum at a Bible Based Counseling service in Arizona where Dr. Larry, also a pastor of Goodworks, supported my deeper understanding of using spiritual guidance throughout a therapeutic experience. By the time I moved to TX at early 2016, I made strides in learning Psychodrama and Brainspotting, and eventually Prolonged Exposure. My intern practice included the populations of all ages except children under 12, and basically all were treated at the behavioral hospital, while later at Intensive Outpatient Services (IOP) for court ordered clients, where the focus was mostly on substance related concerns. However, I was able to apply action method, psychodrama, to the process of working the 12-steps as a way to give client a hands-on, experiential understanding of this inner work path. I'm now developed as a trained therapist who's done more than "what's typical" for learning. Training has included Cognitive Processing Therapy which is a workbook based program for Trauma, and approved by the VA, as well as Certifications (9 year process) in Psychodrama and Prolonged Exposure. Brainspotting 1 has also been accomplished. Clients will benefit from the reliefs of suffering through these methods, especially in relief of PTSD, Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures (PNES), anxiety/depression, substance abuse and other disorders. Eventually I would enjoy the work I put forward in men's workshops at the Man Kind Project (MKP) and the Braveheart Experience with Dr. Bob Beare at local treatment 30 day centers. Dr. Glenn Sammis of San Antonio helped finish my psychodrama/experiential training in the latter part of my certification process. My main motto in this work is, that I invite the universally self-supportive 12 step wisdom, partly meaning that "I get back what I put into my inner work." I believe people grow fastest when they look to increase their faith and purpose in life, with the love of God and family as a major priority for healing and release of past wounds. However, the work they do in between sessions, may be most important to making significant and speedy progress. I believe it all starts with the I/self asking and moving toward the response that inspires growth. If an individual has different wordings or understandings of how they're spiritually inspired, I try not to get in the way of that and work with the person on their own journey for healing, while attempting to integrate the tools I've had in my background and experience. In Summary, here are my qualifications and certifications in additional training : - MS in Pro Counseling - MS in Addiction Counseling (2013) - Psychodrama CP and PAT certification (15 years learning) - Brainspotting level 1 (2014) - an offshoot of EMDR - Prolonged Exposure with Dr. Foa (2017) - Motivational Interviewing (10 years) - Certified Experiential I (Onsite workshops) - PIT Model learning from Pia Mellody and John Bradshaw - CPT (2014) |