Robert Simms

 Like many therapists, I came to the practice as a second career. My first was in education, studying, researching, or teaching at universities in New Zealand, Oman, Japan, and Norway, with some side stays in Belgium and Italy. Shortly before the pandemic, I returned to the United States to teach at a college prep school in northern Nevada. I have always been attracted to the ethic of tikkun olam, or ‘healing the world’, and watching the negative impact of the pandemic led me to reconsider the kind of work I most wanted to do. I chose Marriage, Couples, and Family therapy as a focus because, for better and worse, the quality of our personal relationships matter.

I take an Existential orientation to therapy. While this sometimes conjures airy notions of deep philosophical conversations about life and death—and I will gladly go there with you—often the fundamental question people I work with want to address is “How do I best live my life despite the things that are happening or have happened to me?” And that is not easy work to do sometimes.

I see clients of all backgrounds and life circumstances, and I am GSRM (Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minorities) positive. Inclusivity is a core personal value and our therapeutic relationship will be as free of judgment as I can possibly make it and I will honor your lived experience no matter who you are or where you are on your journey. 

Areas of interest for me are men’s mental health (especially the struggles of mid-life), folks navigating cultural difference or adaptation, death and loss, and clients managing estrangement or family cut-off. Families, couples, teens, and young adults are also most warmly welcome.