Inspiring Conversations with Mark Allsman of Sacred Place Counseling

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Allsman.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have really enjoyed helping others for a long time. It seemed like lots of people would come to me with really difficult struggles in their life and look to me for help. I really enjoyed being able to help others and be a safe place for them. In my time at college I got my undergraduate degree in Biblical Literature as I pursued becoming a Pastor so I could help others in a spiritual sense. But in my free time I would read lots of psychology books, article, and watch videos about communication. I loved learning about how people worked and how to effectively connect with others. I was fascinated by how to help people by understanding how the mind works. I even took a Persuasion and Influence class just for fun. On the first day of class I realized I had already read the textbook just for fun the semester before I took the class!

After I graduated from college I worked for a church for about a year and then felt God’s call to move on and begin something new. As I explored this with my parents my dad told me that he and my mom had always thought I’d be good at counseling if that was something I wanted to pursue. I became more and more excited about the idea as I thought about it more. I then moved to Lakewood to attend Colorado Christian University. I really enjoyed everything I was learning and started working at a halfway house for my internship during the pandemic, what a way to begin my counseling career! Almost all of my clients were being treated for some sort of substance abuse issue and every client was court mandated to complete counseling. This means that all of my clients were forced to go to counseling by the courts. Many of my clients got mad at me at some point because they were forced to go to counseling. It makes sense how they felt that way and it was still not always fun!

I worked at a Christian group practice for a few years and then just recently started my own private practice, Sacred Place Counseling. I have worked with many different people with a variety of struggles. I have enjoyed being welcomed into vulnerable spaces with my clients and being able to guide them in making real and lasting change. I really love collaborating with clients who are ready to do the work. One time a client and I had discovered a lot of his issues were stemming from a belief “I’m not good enough” and he said “We need to fix that, like yesterday.” Although I wouldn’t use the term “fix” I understand his desire to change quickly and deeply. I was so excited to meet him in that space and work with him on creating a detailed plan to change his life for the better.

I have really focused in on using EMDR, one of the most well researched trauma treatments in the world. I am EMDR certified and have just started as an EMDR Consultant in Training, which means I can now train other therapists on how to use EMDR therapy well. I have loved using EMDR with clients and seeing them make progress deeply and quickly on many different issues that have been bothering them for decades. EMDR really allows clients to make lasting change for themselves in a deeply personal way. The EMDR therapist guides the process, but the client’s brain is doing all of the work to heal itself. I have had clients who have started off the process being highly traumatized but ending the process saying “I’m actually ok now and I believe it in my head and my heart.”

I have also started offering EMDR Intensives, an accelerated therapy format where we can accomplish months and months worth of work in just a couple of days! I offer 1-3 days sessions that are each 3 hours long. These sessions are highly focused on one specific goal where we can devote many hours of time to achieving a specific therapeutic goal. These have been some of my favorite sessions to offer because I get to witness people be healed from decades worth of pain in just a few days. After completing EMDR intensives clients have told me they have felt much lighter and much more confident in achieving their life goals. It is such a joy to see people heal so deeply and so quickly. Clients have told me they feel incredible amounts of relief afterwards.

Lastly, I have started offering SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol) a well researched approach to helping people to create a sense of lasting calm in their nervous system. A lot of times I find that client’s feel more anxious than they want to and they feel powerless to control their emotions. This is often times because of their nervous system is feeling unsafe. The Safe and Sound protocol helps the nervous system to feel safe so that they can move forward in life in the way that they want to. The Safe and Sound Protocol is therapeutically altered music that speaks directly to your nervous system and helps clients to feel a deep sense of calm in their bodies. I love this mode of therapy because it is simple and highly effective. This way of therapy can be highly beneficial for clients who can’t seem to feel calm no matter what different kind of calming technique they use.

I started my own business this year in January and got married February of this year, so there have been a lot of changes in my life this year! They have both been really good changes though and I’m excited to see how my business will grow and change over the years.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I started practicing as a therapist during 2020 with court mandated clients with substance abuse issues. It was quite difficult because most of my client’s didn’t want to be in therapy. I learned a lot from clients during that time. I learned how to deal with some negative things such as lying, manipulation, and motivation issues with clients. I also learned positive things from my clients such as the importance of choice, loyalty, and how to sit with people in really hard life situations.

I have worked with clients who have had such difficult struggles, sometimes it gets heavy to hear about all the struggles that people have! Over time I have learned to entrust my client’s struggles to Jesus when I am outside of the office. I trust Jesus to help support my clients. It has been quite helpful to learn to that I can be 100 percent committed and available to helping someone when they are in front of me. Once they leave the door of my office, I can only hope they make good choices and that our time together has been helpful for them. Most of what I can do at that point is trust that Jesus will take care of them.

Otherwise, I have been fortunate to have a great support system as I’ve been through hard times which has helped me to thrive as a counselor throughout my career. I’m very grateful for my family, my wife, and clinical support that I’ve received throughout my career!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I specialize in working with high achievers that have anxiety and they don’t know why. This often shows up as anxiety in the work place, social circles, or within their families. My ideal clients are often hardworking men and women with demanding jobs who often thrive in some areas, but really struggle in other areas of life for a variety of reasons. I love working with clients want to make a structured plan to take care of the issues they are facing. I often end up working with doctors, engineers, scientists, business people, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders. I love to collaborate with my clients and establish a clear plan forward so that we can help them live the kind of life they want to live.

I do this by specializing in EMDR, EMDR Intensives, and SSP. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is recognized as one of the most well researched trauma treatment modalities in the world. It can help resolve trauma, anxiety, depression, burnout, and negative beliefs. It works with people in a deep way and a quick way. I can often resolve a traumatic memory to where it won’t bother someone anymore in just one session! I love it and believe it in so much that I spent a lot of time honing my skills in this area. I am EMDR certified which means I have done extra training and supervision and practice specifically with EMDR. I’m also an EMDR Consultant in Training which means that I help other therapists to develop their EMDR skills.

One way I like to describe EMDR to clients is that it help resolve the block between your head and your heart. If for example, in a romantic relationship you feel like you’re overreacting but you don’t think you should be when you lay out all the facts this can be quite distressing. By using EMDR we can resolve that tension between overreacting (heart) and the facts that seem to indicate that you shouldn’t feel that strongly about it (head). EMDR can help lower the intensity of those overreactions and to understand why it feels intense.

I also specialize in EMDR Intensives. We do EMDR for 3 hours over the course of 1-3 days and in this way we can target one therapeutic goal and make many months worth of progress in just a couple of days! By focusing in one goal we can get to the really deep and difficult work right away and make a lot of progress on it in a very short amount of time. I have seen this clear up decades worth of pain in just a couple of days! It really helps people to feel lighter, more in control, and confident in their ability to manage the future. It’s quite rewarding for me to see clients have so much growth in just a couple of days!

Lastly, I specialize in SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol) this is therapeutic music that was developed to regulate the nervous system directly. Our nervous system is constantly scanning our environment to ascertain whether our environment is safe or unsafe. When it deems our environment unsafe we can get stuck in a state of fight, flight, or freeze. This then makes it difficult for us to feel calm even when we know intellectually that we are physically and emotionally safe. So this music helps your nervous system to know and feel safety and peace at an experiential level. Then we feel safe then we can truly heal in a deep manner.

I have more information about all my specialties and blogs about all my services on my website if you’re curious to learn more!

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t think about luck too much honestly. I think about it more in terms of God’s plan for my life and how He plans to provide for me in different seasons. I have always had enough for what I needed in each season of my life. I think it’s important to trust God and to work hard. I think about what I can control which is being wise in my work decisions and working to continuously improve my clinical skills over time.

Pricing:

• $150 for Individual Sessions
• 2 installments of $350 over time for SSP
• Intensives (prices vary but beginning at $2,000)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sacredplacecounseling.co
• Facebook: Sacred Place Counseling
• LinkedIn: Mark Allsman

Image Credits
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