Ryan Peterson, LCMHC — EMDR-trained therapist and author, based in Sandy, Utah.
Meet Ryan
I don't think people come to therapy because they're broken.
I think they come because they're trying to understand something.
Maybe it's anxiety. Maybe it's people-pleasing. Maybe it's the same argument that keeps happening. Maybe it's watching your child struggle and wondering, "What am I missing?" Maybe it's simply the feeling that you've been reacting the same way for years and you don't know why.
That's where our work begins.
Not with fixing you.
With understanding you.
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When I imagined opening a therapy practice, I couldn't picture white walls, fluorescent lights, and a room that felt more clinical than comforting.
I pictured a living room.
A place where people could exhale.
A place where curiosity mattered more than perfection.
Where therapy felt less like being evaluated and more like being welcomed.
Because healing doesn't happen when we feel judged.
It happens when we feel safe enough to be honest.
That's why this practice is called The Living Room.
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My name is Ryan Peterson. I'm a Clinical Mental Health Counselor licensed by the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL), an EMDR-trained therapist, and an author based in Sandy, Utah.
I work with adults, parents, and teens using evidence-based approaches like EMDR, while also helping people build a practical language for understanding their nervous systems.
During my five years of practice, I kept noticing patterns in sessions.
People weren't just asking,
"How do I stop feeling this?"
They were asking,
"Why do I react this way?"
"Why does my child shut down?"
"Why do I keep doing this even when I know better?"
Those questions deserve more than coping skills.
They deserve understanding.
That realization became the beginning of the Brain and Heart framework and the children's books I now write.
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I believe behavior is information.
I believe understanding comes before lasting change.
I believe curiosity creates new possibilities.
I believe therapy should feel warm, collaborative, and human.
I believe children communicate through behavior long before they have words.
I believe parents deserve compassion too.
I believe emotions are not problems to eliminate—they're experiences to understand.
I believe people make more meaningful choices when they feel safe enough to see them.
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I won't pretend to know your life better than you do.
I'm not interested in handing out advice from across the room.
Instead, we'll become curious together.
We'll notice patterns.
We'll understand what your nervous system has been trying to communicate.
We'll make room for new choices.
Sometimes that looks like conversation.
Sometimes EMDR.
Sometimes creative activities.
Sometimes sitting quietly with something you've never had space to say before.
There isn't one right way to heal.
But I do believe understanding changes what becomes possible.
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I'm also the author of the Brain and Heart children's book series, where complex emotional experiences become stories children and families can understand together.
Whether someone meets me through therapy, a book, a worksheet, or a video, my hope is always the same:
To help people understand themselves—and the people they love—with a little more curiosity and a little less shame.
If you're here...
...you don't have to know exactly what you need.
You don't need the perfect words.
You don't need to have everything figured out.
You just have to be willing to begin.
