About Triad Counseling Centers

Our History in Clarkston: How an Outpatient Mental Health Office Grew Into a Full Behavioral Health Practice

Triad Counseling Centers has been a part of the Clarkston community since 1975, rooting wellness in Northern Oakland County for five decades. We have built a long-standing relationship in Clarkston and surrounding communities that has been based on trust and dedication to our clients. Personalized patient care is what sets us apart.

The center began as an outpatient mental health care office and throughout the years has grown to encompass psychiatry, mental health, social work, nutritional services, and specialized client treatment in individual, couple, family, and group settings. We believe in designing our services to suit your individual needs, so there is always a path to wellness that is specific to you.

The new office allows Triad an opportunity to expand its services, to grow our dedicated team, and to create new services dedicated to complete client care. If you were a client at the Ortonville Road office, or you are looking for the practice at that address, South Main Street is where to find us.

Our Mission at Triad Counseling Centers: We Are Committed to You

We commit ourselves to providing comprehensive, high-quality, and professional outpatient therapy that is centered upon your needs. Our ability to provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and psychiatric services allows us to provide you with complete mental health care.

We promise to work for you, to help you reach your goals, to advocate for you, and to help you become your own advocate — to get you to the place in life that you have been striving to work toward. We will work together with you to define where you are now, where you want to be, and what steps you need to take to have a life that is satisfying, rewarding, and enjoyable.

Why Mental Health Is Part of Your Everyday Health, Not a Separate Category of It

Mental health is a part of your every day health. It plays a part in your emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental wellness contributes to how we think, how we feel, and how we act. The way we interact with others, how we internalize feelings and situations in our lives, how we handle stress and make decisions, our family and our relationships are all a part of how your mental health shows up in your every day.

Just as unlikely as it is to run a marathon without training, it is difficult to create wellness all on your own. That is not a comment on anyone’s willpower. It is simply how skill acquisition works in every other area of life, and there is no obvious reason mental health should be the exception.

Mental Health Does Not Have to Consist of a Problem: Wellness, Growth, and Prevention

Positive mental health and wellness includes continuous development within yourself and in your mental health — finding new ways to cope, creating internal happiness, setting life goals, connecting with others, and helping to create an everlasting positive outlook as life ebbs and flows.

Blocks in your mental health can affect your thinking, your mood, and your behaviors. They can be attributed to your biology or family history, to social and familial experiences, and even to everyday life changes and adjustments. None of those require a diagnosis to be worth working on.

Triad Counseling Centers believes in your growth and wellness, and looks forward to all of the work we will accomplish together in your mental health journey.

Our Team: The Disciplines and Credentials Represented at Our Clarkston Practice

Our staff provides a variety of theoretical approaches and interventions, and serves a wide variety of clients, in order to help you find a therapist who fits your needs. That range is deliberate. No single clinician is the right match for every person, and a practice with only one kind of training can only offer one kind of help.

Across its history Triad has brought together licensed professional counselors, limited-licensed counselors working toward full licensure, clinical social workers, psychologists, nationally certified and trauma-certified therapists, a staff psychiatric team, registered dietetic support, and administrative staff who handle the parts of care that happen outside the therapy room.

Michigan licenses these professions through the state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and license status is publicly verifiable. Checking the credentials of anyone you are considering working with is a reasonable thing to do, at this practice or any other.

Connected Care Under One Roof: Why Having a Psychiatrist and Your Counselor in the Same Office Matters

Our staff psychiatrist provides you with the flexibility to visit your counselor and psychiatrist in the same office, providing an excellent network of connected care. In the event that further medical treatment needs to be considered, the psychiatric team works together with you and your therapist rather than in parallel to them.

The practical difference is real. When therapy and prescribing sit in separate organizations, the two clinicians often never speak, and the patient ends up carrying messages between them. Under one roof, the prescriber has access to what the therapist is seeing week to week, and the therapist knows what has changed medically. Records are shared within the practice’s clinical record; anything leaving Triad requires your written permission.

We want your mental health journey to be as streamlined as possible for you, and anything that we can do to help you reach your mental health goals is our focused mission. Again — Triad Counseling Centers’ mission is simple. Our mission is you.

Finding the Right Therapist Match at Triad, and What to Do If the Fit Is Not Right

Our dynamic team of licensed therapists, social workers, and specialized focuses allows you the ability to find the right person to work with to help you accomplish your mental health goals. Matching considers the presenting concern, the client’s age, whether a specialist certification is relevant, and sometimes simply personality.

Fit matters more than most people expect. The research on therapy outcomes consistently finds that the working relationship between client and clinician predicts results at least as well as the specific technique used. If the fit is not right after a few sessions, saying so is useful clinical information rather than a complaint, and asking to be matched with a different therapist is a normal request at any competent practice.

What Outpatient Care at Triad Covers, and Where a Higher Level of Care Is Needed

Everything Triad provides is outpatient. Clients live at home, keep their job or school schedule, and attend scheduled appointments. Outpatient is the least restrictive level of behavioral health care and the level most people need.

It is not the right level for every situation. Acute safety concerns, medically supervised withdrawal from alcohol or other substances, eating disorders requiring medical monitoring, and instability that scheduled appointments cannot contain all call for something more intensive. Part of advocating for a client is being honest when their needs exceed what an outpatient practice can safely provide, and helping them reach the right setting rather than holding on to the case.