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Chris Chandler

Licensed Counselor and Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist
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Chris Chandler, MA, LMHC, CSAT

Licensed Counselor and Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist
(425) 954-7494

Have you ever struggled with doubt, failure, or addiction? I have, and I know that redemption is possible through Christ. My hope for you is to find healing and wholeness. I’m honored to use my experiences and faith to help you reclaim and fortify your life though faith-based counseling. Whatever you’ve been through, I offer you a safe and understanding place where you can find your path to freedom. Together, we can discover lasting and positive change though the love, mercy, and grace of Christ.

Online (WA only) - Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri

About

The Goals I have as a Christian Counselor

I am passionate about helping clients build healthier and more enjoyable lives that are honoring to God and themselves. My goal is to meet you where you are in your journey and walk with you toward healing, hope, and health. Regardless what you are struggling with, we will work to strengthen hope that you can change your behavior and rediscover the joy of living. I offer judgment-free, authentic, and empathetic care. As a Christian counselor, I am continually aware of my own reliance on God, and therefore conduct my practice with the knowledge that I, too, need His help. I strive to provide a safe setting in which I can get to know you and adapt my methods to suit your personality and individual needs. As much as possible, it is my goal to provide brief solution-focused therapy to all my clients.

Being a Christian counselor was not always part of my plan. I have personally experienced almost all of the issues my clients face in their own lives including but not limited to: failing in school, struggling with multiple addictions, and wrestling with my faith. Today, I am a licensed mental health counselor with over twelve years of counseling experience. I am living proof that change and redemption is possible, and I have the privilege of helping others find freedom from addiction and rediscover the joy of living.

I offer expertise in working with all forms of addictions including but not limited to: chemical dependency, sexual addiction and other process addictions. Additionally, I work extensively with the interaction of multiple addictions and mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and trauma. I address these concerns from a variety of angles including: group therapy, individual therapy.

My Approach to Counseling

As a counselor, I see myself like a personal trainer but with much higher stakes: I provide the framework through which my clients are empowered to go out into the world and make everyday changes that benefit their growth. I hope to help you get good at life, not at coming to therapy.

I am educated in a variety of therapeutic methods. Some of them approach counseling by helping people change from the outside-in and others cultivate change from the inside-out. I have found both are very important to help people transform their lives. Different people benefit from different approaches. As a result, I have a very customizable style of counseling, and I enjoy finding what works best for you. To ensure that I am able to provide you with maximum counseling benefits, I adapt my methods to you rather than asking you to adapt to my methods.

My Areas of Expertise

My particular expertise is in the area of “co-occurring disorders”—meaning I specialize in the interplay between various addictions and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. A majority of the time, if an individual struggles with one of these, they end up struggling with several. Furthermore, within the context of addiction, I work to address addiction interaction disorder. This involves multiple addictions that coexist in the brain and interact with each other such as substances, processes (food, sex, work, money, exercise), relationships (co-dependency, love addiction, trauma bonding), and core affect states (shame, despair, rage).

I also specialize in counseling adolescents and young adults. I have found it is far easier to work with an adult that is seeking out therapy than a young person who feels they are being dragged in by their parents. As a counselor, my approach shifts dramatically working with these young people. I am more focused on connecting with them in a meaningful way that relates to their world. Much of our work is helping them identify what they want for themselves instead of what everyone else wants for them. Contrary to what their behavior may suggest, most young people do not enjoy being miserable; but they have not found healthy and adaptable skills to accomplish the goals they have for themselves. As a result, they turn to destructive behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and conduct disorder problems because they falsely believe that these will provide the relief they are looking for. Counseling focuses on helping them learn how to connect with their deepest desires and then learn how to apply skills to fulfill those desires.

In addition to my particular expertise in co-occurring disorders and adolescent counseling, I offer therapy for:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Grief and loss
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Spiritual direction
  • Men’s Issues

On a Personal Note

I have been married since 2010 and my wife and I are blessed to have two wonderful daughters. When I am not counseling, I enjoy spending time with my family, exercising, reading, and serving in the local community in other ways.

Biography

Chris Chandler is a full-time Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over 10 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of contexts including inpatient, outpatient, chemical dependency intensive outpatient, and partial hospitalization settings. He has significant experience working with individuals with co-occurring disorders of various addictions and psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, grief/loss, ADHD, OCD, PTSD and Christian/spiritual direction concerns. Chris received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Western Oregon University and his Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Mars Hill Graduate School (Now Seattle School of Theology and Psychology).Prior to working fulltime with Bellevue Christian Counseling, Chris worked with a team at Therapeutic Health Services in Seattle for several years to implement ENCOMPASS, a new evidenced based intensive outpatient program for adolescents and young adults struggling with co-occurring disorders. This program was developed through 15 years of research by Paul Riggs, MD at the University of Colorado and is the first of its kind in the entire country.

Prior to this, Chris worked at Fairfax Hospital, an acute inpatient psychiatric hospital, for over five years. He worked primarily on the adolescent and adult units in a variety of roles including: Chemical Dependency Specialist, Clinical Therapist, Program Developer, and Case Manager. Chris gained extensive experience working with severe suicidality, chemical dependency, behavioral problems, self-harm, abuse, grief/loss, homicidality, and psychosis.

Chris first opened his private practice in 2008 while working at Fairfax Hospital. He has maintained his practice on the side since that time, seeing approximately 10-15 clients per week in addition to his fulltime work. He has enjoyed working with individuals, and families from the ages of 5 to 75 years old and dealing with a wide variety of concerns such as wide range of addictions, depression, anxiety, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, sexual addiction, Asperger’s Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, grief/loss, parenting concerns, Christian counseling, and much more.

Services and Specialities

Counseling for Co-Occurring Disorders

Treating Addiction and Mental Health Together

“Co-occurring disorders” is a term that describes the interplay between various addictions and mental health concerns. For the past several years, I have counseled people struggling with sexual addiction, drug/alcohol addiction and/or various other addictions while simultaneously addressing their mental health diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, and PTSD. Very often, if an individual struggles with any one of these, they end up struggling with several. I am passionate about helping my clients understand the relationship between various addictions and underlying psychiatric disorders. I aim to offer a holistic approach to healing that includes biological, psychological, social, and spiritual interventions. I also offer counseling for these issues independent of each other; see “one-to-one counseling” below.

Adolescent Counseling

Safe, friendly counseling for young people

Life can be pretty overwhelming for young people. In addition to disorienting physical and emotional changes, teenagers must combat enormous temptations and pressures heaped on them by peers, families, schools, and wider culture. Yet young people are at a perfect time in their lives to figure out what works and what needs to change. My desire in counseling adolescents is to help them see themselves for who they are apart from the labels that have been imposed upon them.

When working with young people, I have found that there are often systemic family issues involved in the client’s development. Therefore, I emphasize family involvement in my work as a youth counselor.

One-to-One Counseling

Therapy for Individuals

In addition to offering therapy for the specific areas listed above, I also provide one-to-one counseling and spiritual direction for individuals seeking to address personal concerns. My ultimate goal as a counselor is to help my clients feel liberated—to be set free from past experiences and present problems so to live a fuller life in the future. Through a variety of counseling techniques—from exploratory sessions to goal setting to homework—we will work together to help you overcome the issues in your life that prevent you from living to the fullest. Whether you suffer from anxiety, depression, grief, or addiction, or you just want a safe space and qualified counselor to assist you on your journey, I am here to help.

Payment and Forms

Sessions: I offer 53-minute sessions. Sessions can be held more than once per week, weekly, or every other week. Scheduling options are discussed in greater detail during your Risk-Free Initial Session.

Availability (by office location):

  • Online (WA only) – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Fees: I offer a Risk-Free Initial Session for Individuals, Adolescents and Groups looking to pursue counseling with me. For new patients without insurance, your initial appointment is a risk free initial session which means that you will not be billed for the session unless you decide to continue.

Insurance – Out of Network:

Insurance: As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC),a majority of insurance companies will reimburse a portion of my services. If your insurance covers out-of-network benefits, we accept payment for the session and will provide you with a receipt that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement. We recommend checking with your insurance for information about covered benefits, limitations and/or exclusions and to confirmthe amount of reimbursement you can expect from your insurance, so there are no surprises.

Receipts/Statements: In the event you require a printed or digital receipt, I will provide receipts for personal use, insurance reimbursement, Flex Spending Accounts (FSA), and Health Savings Accounts (HSA).

Payment options: Cash, Check, or Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, & American Express). A fee of up to 3.7% plus $0.15 per transaction may be added for credit card payments.

About Biography Services Payment

Chris Chandler and his staff have been helpful and prompt to respond to emails, calls etc. He is very easy to work with and has been very helpful to me. I would recommend him to anyone else in a heart beat.

Read Entire Story

I have worked with Chris Chandler for the past three years and appreciate the combination of professionalism, accountability, grace and strong work ethic in our working time together. I especially appreciate his timely coordination with therapy planning and sensitivity to partner trauma and grief. I look forward to continuing to work with Chris in the months and years to come!

I went to graduate school with Chris and have been collaborating with him in private practice since 2013. Chris is a great counselor and colleague. He is compassionate, knowledgeable, and relatable. I strongly recommend his counseling services!

My son has been going to Chris Chandler for a little less than a year. When we approached the subject of counseling, he was dead set against the idea. After asking him to give it a try, it is clearly the best decision we could have made for him and our family. Our son has really grown a lot in these past months and has learned to really hear us. After this summer, he asked that we continue to allow him to stay with Chris and that was a huge victory. I look forward to seeing him continue to grow as a young man and I am grateful to God and Chris for opening his heart and helping him to communicate in a more productive way with his dad and I.

I’ve been working with Chris for the last 6 months or so. He and his staff have been helpful and prompt to respond to emails, calls etc. He is very easy to work with and has been very helpful to me. I would recommend him to anyone else in a heart beat.