Getting to know Viktor Cortese

My career in therapy started after having already spent several years helping people as a fitness coach and the strength-based lessons there inform my process. Some types of therapy focus on trying to drill down on the problem by dissecting it and investigating it. My style lends itself more to using tried and true psychological workouts to gain strength instead. It happens to be the case that when our lives feel more meaningful, our mindset is more confident, and we’re aware of what we are capable of, that our mind heals itself naturally in its weak spots or where it’s injured. I use an integrated approach utilizing cognitive and solution-focused therapy to keep us on track expanding your potential and helping you to switch the momentum from trying to get rid of weakness to actively growing strength, self-esteem, and confidence. works great for people who may be too intimidated to directly approach a scary part of their past because we’re focused on your strengths rather than the scary part, and it also works great for people who are already performing well but want an extra edge.

Fatherhood also contributed to my passion for becoming a therapist in addition to getting a chance to work with a broad range of clients throughout my years in the mental health field. Many of the techniques that I show my clients I’ve practiced most of my life having grown up in the Soviet Union. If you’re familiar with Lex Fridman’s story, you might be able to see how that perspective may lend to challenging yourself with discipline, searching for the meaning in life, and existentially expressing yourself in a way that adds to the therapeutic process. It’s my earnest hope to meet you where you’re at in your own troubling times to help you likewise finding meaning and rise to the challenge!

What should a new client know about working with you?

Some therapies operate more like fortune telling where it’s a 50:50 whether what you talked about is going to be meaningful to you. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, uses evidence-based methods for consistently getting results over time that aren’t based on interpretation. We’ll measure your goals in advance so we know if we’re hitting them or not and we’ll make adjustments along the way to ensure that we are. These techniques help to cultivate a skillset that you’ll be able to walk away with after therapy is done. Rather than reflecting on a few conversations that may have once been meaningful in the past, I aim for you to walk away with a discipline that you can continue to carry into the future.

There are many different kinds of therapy, but the best ones are the ones where the process half teaches you to become your own therapist. That’s what I’m offering. Very similar to how a gym coach can teach you how to have good form so that you can continue working out on your own, I hope to show you some of the “mental form” that CBT teaches us so that you can continue to work out after our sessions are finished. Rather than a therapist who hopes to hold onto clients forever, my expectation is that therapy works for you within 3-6 months and we count it as a success from which to move on to bigger and better things. Our first sessions are there to get to know one another but also to plan for how the experience is going to end successfully where you feel free and empowered.

What is your typical process for working with clients?

During the intake process, I will use the opportunity to learn more about you; I will listen to your story and help you explore your thoughts and feelings in an environment that is nurturing and safe. We will discuss our roles and procedures and create realistic goals to make good use of the therapeutic process. Over the course of therapy, we will process your past experiences and present-day struggles to help you better understand and accept yourself and let go of any maladaptive behaviors that have held you back or been damaging in some way. Together, we will work on developing more adaptive behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Depending on the goals and the interventions used, I may assign homework that will consist of writing, reading, or watching videos, which we will then discuss. Our process will be collaborative throughout, and we will track progress in ways that will allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment about the goals you have met.