I grew up in a large family and a small town. I spent my free time exploring the forests and mill towns of New Hampshire. I’ll always have a love for rusty railroad tracks and slow-moving rivers.
At seventeen, I left home to join the Marine Corps. I spent four years traveling to Afghanistan and East Asia as a combat engineer. It wasn’t until I returned home that I began to learn the importance of mental health.
Difficult experiences can come at a cost. By now, I’d become very familiar with what it means to have your mind, your mood, and your sense of security and identity disrupted. I sought out my own therapy while attending college, and my life began to change.
I started my academic journey by pursuing a passion I’d cultivated from childhood summers spent reading books in maple trees. I earned my BA in English Literature, and an MFA in Creative Writing. I learned the power of stories—of crafting the narrative of our own lives with the goal of gaining clarity.
I later pivoted from my English background and dove headlong into the fields of psychology and mental healthcare, enrolling in the Clinical Counseling program at Antioch University.
While in graduate school, I gained experience at each level of mental health treatment. I worked as a therapeutic aid with patients in psychiatric hospitals, and at a nonprofit for unhoused people experiencing severe mental illness and substance abuse.
In 2020, I moved to the Palmetto State at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was time to begin a new chapter, one with milder winters and warmer oceans. I spent my pandemic years working as a group therapist on the frontlines of inpatient mental healthcare while I completed my studies.
WELCOME, I’M CURTIS.
Licensed Professional Counselor Associate #8340 - State of South Carolina
National Certified Counselor - National Board for Certified Counselors
MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling - Antioch University
Certificate in Psychological First Aid - The Johns Hopkins University
MFA in Nonfiction Writing - The Mountainview Low-Residency MFA Program
BA in Creative Writing and English Literature - Southern New Hampshire University
PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS
It was during this time that I discovered the Buddhist practice of mindfulness meditation, or vipassana, in the Pali language. Translated, this means “insight.” When we begin the process of looking inward, noticing and not attaching to the content of our minds, we are called Sotapanna, or “stream-enterers.”
I adopted this as a way of living—striving to say “yes” to the motions and adjustments of life with acceptance and compassion, all while learning to have a wiser relationship with the self. This is the concept I’ve built my practice around—vipassana, stream entry. My logo reflects the imagery of the stream, with the eight spokes representing the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism: wise view, wise resolve, wise speech, wise conduct, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration.
My life’s work is about discovering change and growth for myself, and helping to foster it in others. When I’m not working, I’m cooking vegan meals with my wife or running along the beach with my two rescue dogs, Davy Jones and Olive. I’ve never forgotten the value of stories, and I crack open a new novel about once or twice a month.
DISCOVERING INSIGHT
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Clarifying questions? Email me directly at curtis@insightpsychotherapypractice.com