About Michael

I am Michael Kerns, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist, Master Addiction Counselor and a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor.

In 2011, I graduated from East Carolina University with Dual Master’s Degrees in Substance Abuse and Clinical Counseling and in Rehabilitation Counseling. I have gotten further training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and I am an Intensively-Trained Dialectical Behavior Therapist™.

My clinical experience and expertise includes counseling adults with general mental health concerns, addiction, and relationship issues, specifically, Borderline Personality, Generalized Anxiety, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety, Panic, Depression, Bipolar I and II, and Substance Use Disorders (i.e., Heroin, Opioids, Cocaine, Stimulants, Benzodiazepines, Cannabis, Bath Salt and Spice). I also have a considerable amount of experience treating Suicide, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (i.e., Cutting, Burning, Head Banging, etc.), Emotional Dysregulation, Distress, and Impulse Control.

I provide the evidenced-based treatments of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Extensive research for decades has shown these treatments yield positive outcomes for various disorders.

MY PASSION: ACCEPTANCE AND CHANGE

Above all, I believe in empowering and inspiring individuals. I believe in accepting and facilitating desired change in people. I believe in validating people as they currently see themselves and thus, I assume people are doing the best they can in any given circumstance.

I believe people want to change and thus can change. I have a strong belief people want to improve their lives and give their lives meaning through the unity of purpose, resolution, and harmony. An assumption I hold to be true is that people may not have caused all their problems. Yet, they have to solve these problems to have the life they dream of having.

I instill acceptance and change in a variety of ways. Helping people understand their patterns of emotional reactions, cognitive interpretations and/or behavioral responses may prove both “appropriate and valid”, and simultaneously, “ineffective and in need of change.” Also, there will be times when I offer alternative insights and solutions to problems.