Justin Farrell, LICSW

I have been a therapist since 2006. Early in my career I worked primarily with children and families but have more recently been focusing my work on first responders. I have always been fascinated with human behavior and love being able to incorporate what I've learned about human development, trauma, and interpersonal relationships into my sessions to help people better understand themselves. My passion for working with first responders started during the summer of 2020 during the riots in downtown Portland as I watched day after day of officers on the front lines and kept thinking to myself, "who's keeping an eye out for them?" I have enjoyed learning more about first responder culture and ways I can combine that with my counseling background to help provide first responders with the ability to navigate life outside of the uniform as well as they do while wearing one. This also involves helping them manage the day to day stressors of what they are seeing and doing in response to increasing call volumes in order for them to be equipped to be just as effective on the next call as they were on the one prior. In addition to being a counselor specializing in first responders, I am also a chaplain where I help support first responders and the community during difficult events. I recently heard the term "guardian of the guardians" as a way to refer to first responder chaplains and I absolutely love that imagery. 

Favorite movies: Old School and Gone in 60 Seconds
Favorite book: The Shack
If I could be any superhero, I'd be Hawkeye because he's just a regular dude, dad, and husband with some cool skills and training. I like to eat carbs too so that's another reason why or else I'd have picked Captain America or Thor.