Ezra Kreamer, LCSW

About me

Hi,
My name is Ezra Kreamer. I am an independently licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in the State of Maine, in the United States, with over 17 years of clinical counseling experience serving the needs of children, adults, and families. I have an encouraging counseling style and enjoy the collaborative process of working with people to gain insight and fresh perspectives. Earlier in my life, beginning in 1993, I began working with children and adolescents as a therapeutic wilderness program counselor and program trip leader, taking groups of 10 to 12 boys on 2-week backpack and/or canoe trips, where I cut my teeth on what the whole concept of Experiential Education means! In hindsight, Even in my youth, as a competitive swimmer and wrestler, and a dancer (Jazz, African, Ballet), I had already learned to approach Mindfulness from a training perspective. Sports training, really. Now, 25 years later, I still use it in therapy, and I've never found a more powerful approach to ANY challenge! I enjoy helping to facilitate and participate in transformational experiences, typical of my interactions with people who seek my help. It's why I feel so rewarded by being a social worker. Throughout my life, I have had opportunities to grow and succeed because of the support of caring and inspired people. I feel compelled to return that support and inspiration to others.

My experience includes, but is not limited to, working with emotionally challenged youth and adults, and their nuclear and extended families in their many forms and manifestations. I have spent the majority of my career immersed in learning about and helping people of all ages recognize and cope with chronic stress and anxiety associated with the challenges of life, and am especially drawn to addressing self-defeating and addictive behaviors. I have worked in both public and private outpatient and residential mental health settings and in private practice, in roles such as a Family and Child Services Case Manager, State of Maine contracted Crisis Worker, and Program Clinician. My background has served to broaden my appreciation for diversity and resilience. My early life as an athlete and a dancer very much informs my work, and it has weaved itself into my work with Mindfulness practices, and Mind-Body Medicine. My therapeutic approach focuses on encouraging and assisting clients to develop perseverance, become more flexible in their thinking, and increase their self-worth via use of evidence-based psycho-therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Short Term, Solutions Based problem solving skills and strategies. I have an insatiable appetite for research and strive to keep abreast of the latest findings regarding both mental and physical health, and I feel strongly that the two are inseparable.

SPECIALTIES:
Non-pharmaceutical chronic stress/ anxiety management; Somatic Therapy; addiction/cessation Issues, and treatment; non-pharmaceutical chronic pain management; medical cannabis-competent/literate and supportive; psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy literate and supportive; relationship issues (I don't provide specialist couples counseling), self esteem, family conflicts , grief , trauma (and treatment of PTSD, and CPTSD), parenting issues , anger management, strengths based coaching , child and adult ADD/ADHD, adoption and foster care issues, codependency, communication challenges , as well as men's issues and fatherhood issues. I have successfully incorporated aroma therapy into psychotherapy for the last 15 years, finding it an astonishingly effective tool in helping people to, access, reveal, "catch", redirect, and transform deeply embedded maladaptive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and positively, powerfully, reinforcing new, intentional, emotions, thoughts and behaviors with olfactory, tactile, and audible tools, skills and strategies, thanks to our brain's amazing neuroelasticity!

CLINICAL APPROACHES:
Client-centered therapy, Somatic Therapy; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, (DBT), Narrative Therapy, and other cognitive behavioral approaches, Motivational Interviewing, solution-focused and skills based goal setting, and mind-body awareness/biofeedback training, often referred to as Mindfulness practice.

Years of Experience: 17 uninterrupted years as a licensed psychotherapist (LCSW), and a licensed social worker every year since 1998.

SERVICES OFFERED:
VIDEO - (preferred, as it provides the most efficient means of feedback and information exchange, including unspoken/body language, which is very important in most work, in my view.

PHONE - (Adequate for many people, and this is a perfectly adequate way to communicate in therapy, if it helps you to feel more comfortable, or if it's just more confidential for you. Otherwise, I highly encourage you to summon the courage to consider trying one video conference with me if you can, before settling on one method.

MESSAGING/TEXT: (Not preferred long term, but I will accept it if it's clearly where we need to start, for whatever reason. Although this is an option, I hesitate to use it, as it provides little opportunity for either of us to gather much information from one another, nor to accurately understand other subtle dynamics that may be at play, ... hard to do when the voice and/or visual cues aren't available.

LICENSING:
LCSW #LC11082 (Expires: July 31st, 2023)

Professional experience

Additional areas of focus: Relationship issues, Trauma and abuse, Grief, Eating disorders, Sleeping disorders, Parenting issues, Self esteem, Career difficulties, Bipolar disorder, Depression, Coping with life changes, Compassion fatigue, Abandonment, Adoption and Foster Care, Antisocial Personality, Attachment Issues, Autism and Asperger Syndrome, Avoidant Personality, Blended Family Issues, Body Image, Cancer, Caregiver Issues and Stress, Chronic Pain Illness and Disability, Codependency, Commitment Issues, Communication Problems, Control Issues, Coping with Natural or Human-Caused Disaster, Dependent Personality, Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD), Dissociation, Divorce and Separation, Domestic Violence, Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Eating and Food-Related Issues, Emptiness, Expats, Family of Origin Issues, Family Problems, Fatherhood Issues, First Responder Issues, Forgiveness, Guilt and Shame, Impulsivity, Isolation/Loneliness, Life Purpose, Men's Issues, Midlife Crisis, Military and Veterans Issues, Money and Financial Issues, Mood Disorders, Multicultural Concerns, Narcissism, Obsessions, Compulsions, and OCD, Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks, Personality Disorders, Phobias, Post-traumatic Stress, Prejudice and Discrimination, Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling), Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Self-Harm, Self-Love, Sex Addiction, Sexual Assault and Abuse, Sexual Dysfunction, Sexuality, Smoking/Vaping Cessation, Social Anxiety and Phobia, Somatization, Traumatic Brain Injury, Trichotillomania, Workplace Issues, Young Adult Issues

Clinical approaches: Attachment-Based Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Existential Therapy, Mindfulness Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Somatic Therapy, Trauma-Focused Therapy

License information

ME LCSW LC11082

Reviews

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