Moving from its original location in the Grantsville Plaza where it was for three years, Quest for Hope Counseling hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, August 25th, at its new location along Chestnut Ridge Road.
Owner and counselor Nate Maust says he has felt a calling to help people for a long time, but often had to turn people away at his old practice. In the practice’s current location, a renovated church, there is room for more counselors, and clients as a result.
“I like to meet clients where they are at and try to tailor an approach to them,” said Maust. “I use a lot of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and things like that. I often incorporate faith and Christian principles within that as well.”
Currently, along with Maust, there is one part time counselor along side him at Quest for Hope, with another full-time counselor on the way.
“The hope is to have, including myself, five full-time counselors. I hope to have the rooms being used when full-time counselors aren’t there, so I’m hoping to have more part-time counselors as well,” he said.
Maust describes faith-based counseling as taking a look at the client’s values and the values they are hoping to maintain and looking at that as their guide throughout their mental health journey.
“There’s a number of clients that don’t feel comfortable going into a secular agency because they are afraid that their values won’t be upheld throughout that process as well,” said Maust. “But faith is not necessary to incorporate into the counseling if that is not what the client wants.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony was hosted by Garrett County's Business Development Department and led by Business Development Specialist Connor Norman, who shared some statistics about mental health and accessibility to treatment in Garrett County.
“Garrett County and Maryland as a whole has a disparity in mental health provision,” said Norman. “The state currently sits at a deficit of 300 to 1. In Western Maryland that disparity is around 600 to 1. So organizations and businesses like this are absolutely essential to our area.”
Article courtesy of The Garrett County Republican. Photo credit: Claire Sullivan. Staff Writer Claire Sullivan can be reached at 301-334-3963 or by email at csullivan@therepublicannews.com
