Rooted Well Counseling

Dr. Bobby Trihub

About Me

I have served in various helping roles and been studying mental health for about 23 years, and have been working as a licensed psychologist for the past 14 years. This has involved years of ongoing training, education and research. In practice, I estimate I have worked with over 3500 clients and counting. It has been a privilege and honor to be invited into people’s lives in these ways. Through these experiences and from those who have entrusted their stories to me, I have learned much about people, pain, suffering, resilience, and growth. It is my goal to offer what I have learned from these life experiences, as well as from the science of psychology, to be a safe place and a conduit of love, grace, and compassion. Through therapy, I aim to facilitate new understanding, healing, relief, growth and life in those I work with. Being able to connect with people in these ways and to be a part of their change fuels my soul.

Outside of my official work roles, I dedicate most of my time and energy to my amazing wife and children. I also have an array of other pursuits including spending time in the outdoors, hiking, skiing, fishing, strumming on a guitar, designing things, wood working, tinkering with old cars, riding motorcycles, cooking, spending time with friends, and investing in my spiritual faith that grounds me.

Professional Background

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from George Fox University.
Master of Arts (MA) in Clinical Psychology from George Fox University.
Bachelor of Arts (BA) Psychology from Point Loma Nazarene University.
Member of the American Psychological Association (APA)
Oregon Licensed Psychologist 2141
Completion of Post-Doctoral Residency training with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation working in co-occurring substance use and mental health treatment.

Professionally I have worked in various roles as a clinician, trainer, supervisor and in management. Treatment settings have included residential co-occurring addiction and mental health care, outpatient university counseling and assessment, correctional facilities, outpatient community mental health, and outpatient private practice.

I have served adults from a full spectrum of backgrounds, including individuals struggling to manage the basics of daily living, to very high functioning individuals who have hit some obstacles in their lives, and everyone in-between. At the end of the day, while the packaging of our circumstances may look different, there are common elements to being human that unite us all.

My Approach

I have many years of experience doing short-term therapy focused on a variety of complex co-occurring mental health issues. Some common topics include trauma, anxiety, depression, bipolar, addictions, relationship issues, grief, stress, work-life balance, and life transitions. My experience has helped me hone my skill in being efficient and direct to get to core issues quickly. I am of the mindset that the first step to making any sort of change is knowledge and understanding of self (why do I feel the way I feel and why do I do the things I do). I also believe that we often have deep knowledge of what we truly need in our lives, yet tapping into this or doing this has been complicated by the many past and present wounds, pressures, and ideals that we carry with us in our daily lives. I see it as my job to help create a safe place to explore these dynamics and to tap into this inner wisdom. This typically involves spending some time exploring early relational and life experiences, how you have evolved through your life, the narratives you have created or been given along the way, and considering how current issues (relationship struggles, emotional distress, stuck points in life) may be connected to earlier parts of our story that are still needing to be understood or need some healing. Many of us have been avoiding or suppressing parts of ourselves, our experiences, or feelings for much of our lives. This is often for good reason and helped us survive or cope with a time in our life. While this can work for a while, the pressure builds and these suppressed parts start wreaking havoc until we can find a better way to deal with them. Hence the work of therapy.

While I highly value insight as the first step toward change, I am also invested in taking practical action toward change.

This might mean integrating some new coping skills. It might mean taking steps to better align our actions with our values. It might mean leaning into difficult feelings or memories to find some healing, reducing the intensity of feelings via exposure work, exploring forgiveness, or creating new meaning about these experiences. It might mean working toward understanding and healing wounded parts of ourselves that have been neglected or suppressed. In general, it means stepping out of patterns of avoidance and doing something different.

If you feel you are ready to start this process, then we may be a great fit.

My Therapeutic Orientation

I first need to reference the robust work of Dr. Scott Miller et al. indicating that the most critical ingredient to therapeutic change is Alliance, the relationship between client and therapist (accounting for 60% of therapy outcome). Treatment modality only accounts for 8% of the outcome [5,10,15].

Still, it is helpful to feel alignment in how and what we are talking about in therapy. I typically pull from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Interpersonal Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Attachment, Internal Family System Therapy (IFS), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), 12-Step, and I feel it is always critical to operate from a Trauma Informed lens.

My experience has shown me that we all show up a little differently and have different needs; I work hard to meet you where you’re at, incorporating various modalities, languages, or interventions that most align with the way you operate.

Client Feedback

The things I hear most commonly at the end of the first appointment is:

“You are so easy to talk with.”

“I can’t believe how much we talked about; I was able to open up about things that I’ve never talked about.”

“That was easier than I thought it would be.”

The next things I hear most commonly from clients I've been working with is:

“I’ve gained more understanding and made more progress in a few meetings than I have in years of prior therapy.”

“I feel so much better, like a weight has been lifted.”