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Holly Priscu, JD, LCPC, CMHPP, CFMHE, CFP
Holly is a Montana native and the founder of Spanish Peaks Mental Health. She worked briefly as an attorney before switching careers to help people in a more meaningful way by becoming a licensed counselor. After achieving her goal of working with incarcerated persons in correctional settings, Holly created Spanish Peaks Mental Health with the idea that we as human beings are resilient and can weather many storms with the right support and direction - just like the mountains.
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Holly is a Certified Mental Health Professional Person in the state of Montana and has experience providing expert testimony for involuntary commitment cases. She is also a Certified Forensic Mental Health Evaluator and Certified Forensic Psychometrist with the National Board of Forensic Examiners. Holly recently finished over 40 hours of training to become a Certified Complex Trauma Professional Level II to better understand science behind complex and relational trauma and how it can be diagnosed and treated. She is trained in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and provides individual skills training.
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Treatment
Holly's experience consists of working with clients ages four to 74 years-of-age, including families, couples, and groups. She has extensive experience with individuals experiencing issues that include mood disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia/psychosis, substance use, trauma, OCD, and more. Holly has completed multicultural competence training and has enjoyed working with members of the LGBTQIQA+ community and individuals of different ethnicities and cultures. Holly specializes in diagnosing and treating Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Therapeutic Modalities
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy based in mindfulness that focuses on helping people tolerate distress, process difficult emotions, and increase interpersonal effectiveness skills. DBT recognizes there is a difference between pain and suffering, and teaches you "how to be okay when life is not okay." Originally founded by psychologist Marsha Linehan in the 1980's to treat borderline personality disorder, studies show DBT is also successful in treating depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and more.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy that focuses on helping people change the relationship they have with their thoughts and emotions instead of trying to directly change them. You are not your thoughts or your emotions - they are part of you, but do not have to define you or how you live your life. Instead, ACT encourages living a life in accordance with one's values instead of getting stuck in what ACT expert Russ Harris calls "the happiness trap" in which we think, "if only ______, then I'll be happy.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT focuses on the roots of emotions and why we might have specific emotional reactions in certain situations. By becoming aware of emotions and the messages they are trying to send, one can learn how to change the negative effects of these emotions. EFT is an approach often used in couples counseling because it helps partners uncover their feelings together and gain insight into one another's emotion-related behaviors
