I began my career in what some would consider to be the “trenches” of the mental health world, supporting teens often experiencing acute psychiatric distress in direct support roles. Direct support in this case means that I was not yet a therapist, but simply providing  care to at-risk adolescents in the therapeutic milieu, building safe relationships with them, maintaining the schedule, preparing their meals, modeling healthy communication and emotional intelligence, and offering ad hoc counseling and crisis deescalation. From these experiences I learned the deep fundamentals of the therapeutic alliance. I continued working in residential programs while completing my formal training at Northwestern University, during which I also began working in outpatient mental health settings to complete my practicum and internship. I received my Masters in Counseling in 2022 and worked in a variety of different contexts as a Professional Counselor Associate under the guidance of six different clinical supervisors, in addition to other experienced mentors and teachers in the psychotherapy space. I worked in residential programs including Parrott Creek Child & Family Services and Albertina Kerr Subacute (Crisis Psychiatric). I also ran my own private practice, primarily serving clients on Oregon Health Plan, before settling at a group practice to complete my associate training. I received full licensure in 2024. Since then, I have continued practicing and serving clients, most recently in this current practice, Myles Buchanan Counseling.

 

Before joining the mental health workforce in 2019, I completed a seven-month period of residency at a Buddhist monastery. While at the monastery, I participated in a rigorous full time monastic schedule, including silent meditation retreat one week out of every month in addition to hours of daily meditation practice, while helping maintain the functionality of the monastery as a place of service to the surrounding community. I continued to participate in this community as a lay person after finishing my period of practice at the monastery, completing outdoor meditation retreats in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and continuing to attend retreats at the monastery to deepen my practice. I remain a lifelong student of meditation and am currently continuing my practice through continued engagement with this Buddhist community, daily meditation practice, and sitting in community at a local temple. These experiences have informed my clinical practice as a therapist and my perspective on lived experience and the mind.

 

I also have experience with spiritual practice in other mediums and am comfortable with spirituality as a topic in therapy, if desired. My lens tends to be contemplative, open, and curious, rather than belief-oriented or structured. I am accepting of (and curious about) all faiths.