Duane Winter, LPCC

Duane Winter is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) based in Minnesota. He brings seven years of clinical experience and a straightforward, respectful manner to sessions. Duane focuses on helping people work through stress, anxiety, addiction concerns, grief, depression, and life changes. Duane uses practical approaches that include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and client-centered work. He aims to learn what matters most to each person and to match methods to those goals. Sessions emphasize building on strengths and finding clear, doable steps toward change. His style is warm and direct. He pays attention to the therapeutic relationship and aims to create trust and honest communication. That makes it easier to talk through difficult feelings like shame, guilt, isolation, or anger. Duane also brings experience addressing issues related to parenting, adoption and foster care, caregiver stress, substance use, codependency, and communication problems. He helps people facing career shifts, midlife questions, men’s issues, and challenges tied to identity and relationships. In sessions, Duane focuses on practical skills and small experiments people can try between meetings. He works collaboratively with each person to set goals, track progress, and adjust the plan as needed. His approach is to walk alongside clients in a supportive, encouraging way.

How therapy approaches fit into online sessions

Duane commonly blends cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in a straightforward way. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with small behavioral experiments to reduce symptoms like anxiety or low mood. ACT helps people notice what truly matters, accept difficult feelings, and take actions that match their values. He also uses client-centered techniques that prioritize listening and building a strong therapeutic relationship. Together, these approaches aim to create practical steps people can try between sessions and to adjust the plan based on real-world results. Duane will work with each person to decide which combination fits their goals and preferences. Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for worksheets. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or to fit a shorter check-in into a work break. Live chat and text-based messaging support brief check-ins, homework prompts, and ongoing encouragement between longer sessions. Finding the right mix of approach and format is part of the process. Duane collaborates with people to choose methods and session types that match their needs, goals, and day-to-day realities.