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According to Matthew Reinhart, LPC, therapist at Allies for Health + Wellbeing, everyone can benefit from therapy.
“Everyone has trauma,” he said. “Everyone has stress. Having a dedicated space to unpack that with a third party who doesn’t have conflict of interest with all the other people in your life is valuable. The more we learn, the more we realize that addressing these mental health issues has a direct impact on physical health.”
Reinhart, who has been at Allies since June 2018, provides therapy for patients and clients of Allies.
“Given the population we serve, there are going to be mental health needs that are important to address,” Reinhart said, noting that his work is one of the many tools that Allies offers to help patients and clients thrive.
“Behavioral health needs to have a layer of case management built into the process,” he said. “If you don’t know how you’re going to eat tonight, it’s going to be hard to process trauma. We have to do both.”
There are many names for the work that Reinhart does – mental health, behavioral health, psychological health – but he says that no matter what you call it, the purpose is the same.
“It’s about the way people behave, the way they interact with the world,” he said. “Those are the things we can control. We can’t control how the chemicals in our brain react — we can control our behavior.”
For people who are considering therapy for the first time and aren’t sure what to expect, Reinhart is reassuring.
“You don’t have to know how to ride a bike to learn how to ride a bike,” he said, noting that patients do not have to do any prep work before their first therapy appointment. “You don’t have to do anything. That’s the nature of being in a real therapeutic space. You don’t have to come in with any type of preconceived notions or knowledge or skillsets – as long as you’re open to the process.”
Reinhart said that an initial therapy session is essentially a “meet and greet.” He’ll get basic information from a patient, including why they’re seeking out therapy.
“I do start an assessment in the first session — even getting your name and why you’re here is part of that,” he said. “You can just expect to ask questions, and be open to answering [questions] transparently and honestly.”
Reinhart also delves into a patient’s needs beyond mental health care and links them to the resources available at Allies or elsewhere, such as housing resources, nutrition support or group counseling.
“We assess basic needs and see where we can prop you up a little bit,” Reinhart said. “If somebody’s coming in and they’re brand new to the clinic or they just don’t know what we do, [we start] to connect them to those things.”
Reinhart also makes sure his patients are as comfortable as they can be by creating a calming atmosphere in his office, providing refreshments and meeting people where they’re at, without judgment.
“I try to have as much genuine curiosity [as possible] about the person I’m sitting across from,” he said. “If I can tap into that — be curious and conceptualize and be interested in the story, the rapport will happen. That’s my experience.”
As long as patients are willing to be open to the process, therapy can be an important tool toward holistic healthcare that addresses all of a person’s needs.
“Mental health supports physical health,” Reinhart said.
Currently, mental health services are available at Allies for Health + Wellbeing for existing patients and clients, though the organization plans to expand its mental health offerings in the future. For more information about mental health services at Allies, visit AlliesPGH.org or call 412-345-7456.
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