Mandaran Labrum
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
“You wouldn’t bake a cake without a recipe, why navigate conflict in your life or your relationship without a roadmap?”
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Vernal, Utah. Prior to moving to Vernal, I attended Virginia Tech for my Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. At Virginia Tech, I had the opportunity to work with and learn from esteemed professors, clinicians, and an extremely diverse clientele. I enjoy taking a client centered, humanistic approach, drawing on the uniqueness of each individual. As a therapist, I am often humbled by the resilience people have to work through difficult obstacles in life. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Utah State University and a Masters of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech. I graduated from Virginia Tech in 2014, following which we moved to Vernal, Utah to be closer to family.
My Approach
Although I consider myself a collaborative therapist, I use two main theories to form my therapeutic frame. I pull strongly from both Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Additional frameworks are often brought in for reference during my work. With these theories as my frame, I am able to take a client centered approach in which I rely on the unique characteristics of the client to adapt my counseling to best fit their needs. In therapy, I am not a judge nor do I take sides. I believe that we all have the answers we need, sometimes we just need help sorting through them or identifying what some of those solutions are. I work with a humanistic and systemic approach, looking at how the problem is not only affecting the person, but their family, their work environment, habitat, etc. Vice versa, I analyze how the problem, work environment, habitat, and family are affecting the person. I take a non-judgmental, curious approach to therapy to gain insights into my clients’ values, beliefs, and goals. Counseling is a collaborative interaction with a counselor to help foster better relationships, better communication, greater understanding of self, strategies for self-care, and in making choices that are more consistent with your values and goals. Therapeutic change occurs when clients are invested in the process.
My Story
When I was attending college at Utah State University, in Logan, UT, I had the fortunate opportunity to work with adolescent girls at a residential eating disorder treatment center. This experience is what led me to choose counseling as my career. I saw girls come in resistant, hopeless, feeling worthless, and like there was no point. They were on the verge of death. Some were suicidal and some were just being released from the hospital after their eating disorder had almost taken their life. They didn’t want to change, to gain weight, or to take control of their life. With loving, caring support, these girls would fight their demons. They gained valuable skills and tools to face life’s stresses. They left with a new perspective. They were hopeful, healthy, excited about life, and interested in their future.
My mission is to change the social stigma about therapy. When people think of therapy – they think it’s only for those that are “crazy” or “psycho”. They are under the false impression that it’s only for “addicts” or those ill equipped to handle life – only for those who are weak. No. False. Therapy is for the strong, for those who are willing to put forth the effort to create a better life for themselves. Therapy is for those who are able to realize that the unhappy way they are living right now doesn’t have to be permanent.
Therapy is work and therapy takes effort. However, therapy creates a better, stronger you. If you are skeptical, give it a try. As part of my training we were encouraged to see a therapist in order to see what it was like, to work on improving ourselves and to be vulnerable. I can attest to the value of therapy personally from my own experiences and through the lens of those that have been brave enough to enter the door and sit on my sofa.
Next Steps…
I work with people from Vernal, Roosevelt, and all surrounding areas. To discuss your options for counseling please call or email: 435-315-2615