Luke Watson, LPC NCC 

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Nationally Certified Counselor. I help children and adolescents find an inner sense of calm.  Strong emotions like anger, anxiety, shame, and depression can be overwhelming for children who often do not have the coping skills or language to manage these strong emotions.  Problems at school, in the home, and the community can arise despite children and teens trying their very best.  I work to help develop emotional regulation, distress and frustration tolerance, social skills, self-esteem, and empowerment in their world. 

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I counsel from a mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral orientation.  This means that I help children and teens explore how their thinking affects their feelings and behaviors.  I believe that mindfulness can be a powerful tool to help overcome many emotional and behavioral problems.  I help kids find a sense of calm in the here and now. I then help them generalize this sense of calm to the problems in their life. Play is often the language of children and so I encorporate play in counseling. 

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I have 18+ years of experience working with children and adolescents in behavioral health in the home, school, and partial hospital settings. I received my bachelors degree in Psychology from Geneva College in 2003 and my Masters degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2015.  I am a life-long resident of western PA. I am a husband and father.