Text: 641-521-9197
*text or email is preferred*
Fax: 641-450-1146
Address:
807 4th Ave., Grinnell, Iowa
Dylan Kastner, LMHC
Dylan is a licensed mental health therapist with 3+ years of experience in the field and 6 years of additional experience providing mental health support in other roles. Dylan works with individuals age 16+ who chose to voluntarily attend counseling for personal growth and reduction of distressing mental health symptoms. He is passionate about supporting LGBTQIA+ individuals, neurodivergent people, religious minorities, non-religious people, or anyone who feels like an outsider in some way.
Dylan is accepting new clients.
More About Dylan
Dylan specializes in treating trauma while helping people better manage their ADHD, communication, and relationship related concerns. While admittedly still in the learning process, he is actively working on gaining more knowledge and experience to better support autistic, trans, and non-binary persons. He uses a hybrid therapeutic approach primarily consisting of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy), and EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) while incorporating additional techniques from other therapeutic modalities to best fit the needs of the unique individual being supported.
Dylan strives to create a relaxing therapeutic environment with the goal of creating a space where you can feel calm, safe, and more like a genuine person than a clinical patient. He factors in calming sensory elements. Dylan is open about his own mental health journey to encourage normalization of discussing mental health, minimize stigmatization, and connect as a fellow imperfect human being. He utilizes humor and encourages both expressing oneself without a filter and embracing one’s uniqueness.
Dylan operates from a trauma-informed care perspective, recognizing that most people have been through some degree of trauma that has had an impact on their mental health, beliefs, and communication patterns. Trauma is subjective and not limited to physical abuse, sexual assault, tragic accidents, or combat. Life involves at least some exposure to misfortune, unfairness, and hardship that we can struggle to process or let go of. Dylan focuses on exploration of one’s past to create insight into patterns of thought and behavior that have become detrimental to one’s ability to thrive with the intention of helping you find a pathway to healing from these wounds.
Dylan is passionate about involving mindfulness practice in counseling where beneficial, to include teaching basics of mindfulness meditation. Per the American Psychological Association, “Mindfulness is awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.” (American Psychological Association) While the practice of mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, mindfulness itself is not religious and is not conflictual with one’s own religious beliefs or lack thereof. The therapeutic benefit of mindfulness based techniques have been scientifically validated. Mindfulness practice is beneficial for most people but can be especially helpful for people struggling with racing thoughts, impulsivity, or mood dysregulation which are common concerns with ADHD, BPD, depression, bipolar, anxiety diagnoses, and trauma diagnoses.
Dylan lives in his hometown of Newton with his dog, Izzy. He enjoys spending time with close friends living in the Des Moines area. Dylan keeps busy in his free time with numerous hobbies and interests which include various creative projects (spray paint art, writing fiction, etc.), kayaking, disc golf, recreational learning (history, mythology, philosophy, etc.), rock music/concerts, and lots of nerd stuff (D&D, Warhammer 40k, board games, video games etc.).
