At Good Enough Counseling: Questions to ask:
Grief isn’t a malfunction. Depression isn’t a personal defect. Moral disgust isn’t “dysregulation.” They’re signals: something you care about has been taken—or never reliably given. Maybe you never had it, but you can sense it’s the thing to move toward. Therapy a place to address serious issues that concern you.
I’m less interested in whether you “feel happy,” and more interested in this: are you going in the right direction—toward a life that’s more grounded, more stable, more human?
Towards healthy relief? Life is complicated.
How We Work: Therapy can be a place to rebuild what is needed. Not all at once, and not by pretending the therapist has all the answers. I try to show my hand. I bring training, experienceattention, and some intuition about what has helped other people in the past. You bring your life, your judgment, your pace, and your sense of what fits and what does not. We work with what makes sense, and leave aside what does not. The point is not for you to submit to a method. The point is for therapy to become useful to you.
I bring training, patience, and quiet listening.— Brian Whitney, LCSW
About Brian:
I’m a Denver-based therapist focused primarily on individual adult outpatient therapy. I began in the early 1990s as a psych tech, working with acutely disturbed children in acute psychiatric hospitalization. moved quickly from child work into adult treatment settings, and have spent most of my career doing one-to-one therapy with adults.
I was first licensed in 1997. I earned my Master’s degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, with clinical training through placements including the state hospital, the VA, and BridgeWay. Early in my career I received uncommonly close supervision and intensive training, several hours weekly, with a full 33 therapy hours/week every week, for years, and I’ve continued ongoing education and consultation throughout my practice, most of it in individual adult counseling.
Today my work is straightforward: I offer a calm, direct, collaborative therapy process for adults who want real traction—whether that means working through long-standing patterns or focusing on a specific problem and building a plan.
About me: I try to practice what I preach, emphasis on try. I do believe in simple things. A daily walk with my old dogs, at sunup or sundown, is my daily centering. Putting healthy routines in place. Repair to connections lost or under stress. My wife and I try to stay connected to friends, family and stay open to new things, as life and time allow.
Who I work with:
Adults 19–99
In person in my East Denver office (near Leetsdale & Monaco)
Teletherapy statewide for clients located in Colorado
My practice is primarily individual therapy. Occasionally a partner or family member may join a session when it supports an individual client’s goals, but the work remains centered on one adult.
What I help with
People come to me for many reasons. In my career, I’ve heard many reasons, all of them vital and important. Common themes include:
Anxiety, depression, irritability, and stress that doesn’t shut off.
Grief and life transitions.
Trauma and its aftereffects (including fatigue, sleep disruption, hypervigilance, shutdown, or avoidance)
Relationship strain and “relational patterns” that repeat, for the individual client.
Work stress, burnout, and loss of motivation, sleep issues.
Chronic health issues or chronic pain that affect mood and functioning.
Some problems or shocks that just started, others that simmer off and on for a lifetime, even several lifetimes.
How I work:
I aim for therapy that is grounded, honest, and effective—not performative. Sometimes today there are too many metrics, not enough listening.
Depending on your needs, I draw from:
Evidence-based approaches (including ACT, Motivational Interviewing, REBT, and trauma-informed CBT)
Longer-term psychodynamic therapy when deeper patterns and history matter
You should have a clear sense of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and where we’re going. Some clients want focused work toward a defined goal and then stop. We can do that. Others want longer-term therapy to change deeper patterns, take a look at past trauma.
Training and consultation
I take technique seriously and keep training current. Recent and ongoing professional development includes:
2026 formal training focus on Men’s issues already started, February.
2024: CCPT-II training with Dr. Ruth Lanius and other trauma clinicians
2025: In-person training event with Nancy McWilliams (Denver)
2025–2026: Additional training focused on mature clients. Ongoing peer consultation with clinicians I respect, to make sure we are on the right path.
Training started in 1995, and has continued every year. Several years of close weekly supervision and psychodynamic technique, and CBT and evidenced based training— hands on. I take an active interest in finding out what works, weeding out what doesn’t, and applying technique and close attention to help the person in front of me.
I read a few books of interest every year, train with the best I can find, and make sure I am listening. Just read:“Terrence Real’s “I don’t Want to Talk About it”.
I keep my caseload intentionally sized so I can respond thoughtfully and do the work with care, with time enough for reflection between sessions, and so you get in fast.
A note on “Good Enough”
I named the practice “Good Enough” because therapy is not about perfection. It’s about showing up—honoring the part of you that wants things to be better—and building change that translates into real life.
You can become too well defended, or overtrain and rehearse, and never ‘jump in’. Or you insist on doing it yourself, for years on end:
“I’m fine, I ought t be fine. I want to be over this.”
No social media. No “likes”, no reviews, just therapy that is grounded, well-trained, and supported by ongoing consultation. Tbh, many things I hate about on-line life, some not good for anyone, but many are just life in 2026.
Of course AI did help me with this website: keywords, snippets, strategies, Google Ad Cost strategies, etc. Its 2026. I can’t escape some of it.
But I’m still very much here.
In-person, and on encrypted video conference. Hello! Looking forward to meeting you.
Next step
If you’re doing the responsible thing and comparing a few therapists in Denver (or across Colorado for teletherapy), I encourage it. Look for someone whose style, boundaries, and availability feel right.
If my approach fits, the next step is simple: call or email and we’ll see whether we’re a match.
If you’re considering thapywith me, the simplest way to start is a brief phone consult to check fit and availability.