Client Testimonials
“I started talking to Mark Pletcher at a time in my life that was filled with confusion and anxiety. I felt deeply lost and wanted to start searching for a true level of happiness. However, I lacked the tools necessary to find it. Through his insight and gentle guidance, Mark has helped me see my true self and hear my true voice. I now find myself enjoying playing in this sandbox of life with a level of clarity and pure happiness that I haven’t felt for a long time. I will be forever grateful for Mark’s guidance and the impact he has made on my life.”
“Letting someone into your internal landscape is a bit like mountain climbing with a partner. You depend on that person to hold on to sure footing so you don’t fall, to predict what crevices might lie ahead, to walk in front of you and lead through support and encouragement, to tell you to not stop moving although you are so exhausted and worn down you don’t think you can move another step. Choosing that partner should not be taken lightly-very often your survival is at stake. Mark Pletcher has been my partner in traversing my landscape and I’m so grateful to have found him.”
“Mark is a warm and caring therapist who engages in dynamic dialogue. I am resolving issues which other therapists were not able to help me with. I’m more present in my day-to-day existence, more accepting, and more able to enjoy my life.”
“I’ve been working with Mark Pletcher for several years. When I started seeing him, I suffered from great anxiety as well as deep ambivalence about the life I was living. I seemed to be stuck in patterns of thinking that no longer served me. Through my work with Mark, the anxiety has abated and I’m thinking differently about various aspects of my life.”
“Mark Pletcher is everything one could hope for in a therapist. He’s professional, caring, and a good listener. I became comfortable talking about myself almost immediately. He’s sometimes challenging, in that he makes me look at things in ways that may not have been obvious. Most importantly, perhaps, he enables me to grow and develop so that I see tangible results in my everyday life. I can’t think of better results for my particular needs. Highly recommended!”
“Mark Pletcher is an amazing therapist and an amazing man! After I experienced several crises in a short period of time Mark was the only person in my life who recognized the symptoms of PTSD. With weekly sessions for a few months, Mark gave me the tools to take my life back, regain control over things I had felt sure were out of my control, and not only recover from the traumas but thrive again.
I started dating again after a TEN YEAR hiatus. I confronted and became part of the solution to healing some damaged relationships. I lost 25 pounds (intentionally), made new friends, pulled myself out of considerable debt, and began to value myself as a worthy person again. Not only is my mental health much improved since my experience with Mark but my physical health is on a much better track now also. It was not enough for me to live well despite having cancer. I wanted to kick it to the curb, not give in to it, and thrive again. Thanks to the compassionate, intuitive, skillful techniques of Mark Pletcher, I’ve got my life back again!!”
“Mark is a kind and gentle soul. I feel comfortable talking to him about whatever I’m feeling and whatever subject is bothering me because he responds in an accepting and inviting manner. He is very knowledgeable and explains things in a manner that is practical and easy to understand. If I don’t get it the first time, he is willing to explain it many different ways until I get it. I am grateful to Mark for helping me to change my life around and become a happier person.”
“It is challenging to succinctly write about how much Mark Pletcher has helped me grow and learn to love more fully over the past few years. I’ve found that the key to my happiness is building positive honest relationships. Mark has helped me work through past traumas to learn to trust myself and others in relationship. He has taught me the necessary skills to seek and obtain love for myself which has led to more loving relationships with important people in my life. Mark meets people where they are at developmentally. He provides many different ways for healing and growth. For the first time in my 42 years of life I have experienced my emotions and lived life easily. I am grateful that Mark Pletcher has provided me the caring guidance I have needed to become healthy.”
“I started my work with Mark to address behavioral issues that I knew were creating a cycle of unhappiness for me. From the first time we talked on the phone, Mark put me at ease. I felt a sense of safety I had not encountered in other therapist relationships. From that first conversation, I felt comfortable being completely honest about the behaviors I did not like, and my desire to break old habits. Mark patiently listened, and allowed me the time and space to realize that the behaviors were manifestations of significant trauma from critical points in my life, and my inner voice seeking identity clarification and acceptance.
Mark helped me discover that having the courage to be honest about traumatic events from my past, and see them as a 40 year old man, would not only address my behavioral concerns, but allow me to experience life with new perspective. I now embrace that there is nothing inauthentic about being a married man who has attraction to both men and women. Gaining a greater understanding, acceptance and celebration for my needs and desires has released me from significant burdens. Mark and I have covered a lot of ground in the past year. I still have work to do, but I have never felt more emotionally and spiritually healthier than I do today.
Through my work with Mark, I have grown tremendously in my understanding of who I am. At the same time, I have made significant progress in my personal healing. Mark’s patience, compassion and unwavering commitment to meet me wherever I am are treasured gifts that set him apart from others. He always makes me feel that my story is important, regardless of how repetitive it may be. And he is an authentic cheerleader for my wants, needs and desires. With an advocate like Mark, anything is possible.”
“I am a middle aged woman who has worked with Mark Pletcher in therapy for several years. What has set my work with Mark apart from other therapists is that his philosophy is to meet me where I am at. We started working on issues as they arose in my current life, and Mark has supported me in understanding the ways in which I co-create my life experience. He has taught me the tools I need to change old patterns of destructive behavior that have produced dissatisfying outcomes for me. I feel as if I am empowered in my life now and not a victim in it. Mark has taught me how to live my life in a more conscious way and because of that I am creating a life I feel is worth living. I feel that my life has changed on many levels from this core work. My experience with Mark has been life changing and life affirming.”
“Mark has been a guide for me through my life’s journey. He has been a support for me in finding my own direction. He is unconditional in his acceptance and accepts me for who I am. He engages in the process of helping each client find what it is they need from him and from themselves, and he helps them to make the necessary steps towards those ends. It can be felt quite simply that as a counselor he really is interested in each client’s personal progress and mental health. He is always willing to approach sessions in a way that is most conducive to the client’s needs whatever they may be. His unconditional acceptance of me and his affirmation of my self-worth have helped me greatly in my growth. He has also blessed me with some tools to help me find these things for myself in my other relationships. I have the utmost faith in him as a person and as a counselor.”
“I first met Mark accompanied by my fiancée with the goal of addressing some issues that had come up in our relationship. We would meet and discuss topics in a couples counseling setting. A few months later she cancelled the wedding with no explanation and I met with Mark the next day during our regularly scheduled time to tell him the news. I was devastated and I remember thinking that Mark’s role in my life was finished. I told him thanks for the help, the listening and for his constructive comments but that she had called the wedding off. Mark replied that maybe I would be interested in seeing him a few more times as I worked through the demise of my relationship. I thought, “it couldn’t hurt, so why not?
That was over two years ago. Once I was able to deal with the loss of that relationship I can see, in retrospect, that the real work began. Today I feel like a different person in how I interact, react and process my thoughts and feelings.
Mark’s input in my life has been invaluable. I know that he will support me, hear me and give me tender and constructive input as I move towards wholeness.”
“I think I’ve always been interested in learning more of the ‘good, bad and ugly’ of my emotional makeup. The inclination, however, has been nurtured by a compassionate, patient and gracious mentor in Mark. He’s helped me to ask the relevant questions contributing to my trust in him as a healthy role model. I’m appreciative of talented people in the world and believe it takes courage to reach out to those folks for insight.
Richard Bach is a writer and has written some eloquent expressions in his books that seem to capture a couple of paramount discoveries (to me) I’ve had since I’ve been spending time with Mark.
‘The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.’-Illusions
‘The opposite of loneliness, it’s not togetherness. It is intimacy.’ — The Bridge Across Forever
The encouragement I like to offer is to ‘know, life’s HARD and I don’t have to be alone (in any journey).’”
“12/2007–The meaning of Christmas for me is the miraculous intervention of the Divine in the darkest hour of life, not in a mysterious ethereal manner but through a real, flesh and blood person. Several years ago, my life was falling apart. I’m gay, and at the time was married. My wife, sensing that our relationship was a sham, asked for a divorce. I was devastated; while I desperately did not want my marriage to end, even more critically, I could not face the fact that I was gay. At my nadir, I received a call from my parents and they confronted me as they had heard indirectly that I had an affair with another man. I was at the end of my rope. I was convinced that if I died in a car accident, the world would be a better place. So I got in my car…
But instead of crashing into an embankment that night, I kept my appointment with Mark whom I had seen for the first time about two months earlier. The next chapter in my life consisted of turning my life “right side up.” While I grieved years of isolation, rejection and betrayal, Mark sat by my side. While I struggled with my same-sex attractions, Mark stood their quietly and powerfully and let me sort through who I was. As I made myself known to friends and co-workers, Mark celebrated my freedom. As I encountered rejection from my family, Mark comforted me and helped me differentiate from them. As I decided to re-enter the dating arena, Mark cheered me on. When I partnered with a loving man, Mark helped me create a loving, healthy relationship.
Today, I live freely and openly as a gay man at work, church and with friends and family. I co-parent my two children with a supportive ex-wife and a loving partner, while I co-parent his two children as well. The agony I had gone through several years ago now seems only a distant memory, replaced now with a new-found hope for living.”
