Ryan Cheney, LCSW
Welcome!
Therapy is a sacred act.
I'm here to work with you toward the goal of transformational change. That means when you’re facing a problem in your life, we work to discover its root, and bring healing to the root cause. When this happens, the symptoms which are downstream from your problem disappear completely.
Building safety and trust, deepening self awareness, and building readiness to change all take time. Part of my job is to keep us oriented to the transformational change you seek, while ensuring that our relationship is moving you toward that.
I take great joy in helping people become the fullest version of themselves. Some of the freshest, most sublime and transformative moments of my life have been in therapy – first as a client, and later as a therapist.
I have vivid memories of standing on the sidewalk outside of my therapist’s office after a great session, seeing my life and how I’d lived it from new vantage points and feeling myself change. I’m here to offer that to you. Great therapy can be terrifying. It can also be fresh, big, and a bit unbelievable. The work is a great privilege.
How I Work
Perhaps the core learning from clinical study of therapy’s usefulness is that the quality of the relationship between the client and the therapist is the biggest predictor of therapy’s effectiveness. Who you choose as your therapist is important.
In service of helping you judge whether we’re likely to be a good fit, here’s how I tend to approach therapy. (None of these are hard rules. Great therapy makes space for spontaneity and play, which tend not to follow rules.)
- Insight-driven. I tend to privilege insight over offering advice. When you want to change, I invite you to slow down and go inside, and discover what’s true for you as it relates to the change you want. I’m unlikely to offer you advice. An exception to this is couples or family therapy, where my time spent inviting people to go inside to get clearer on what’s happening in their inner world is more balanced with working to find common ground on how to shift patterns of behavior in the relationship.
- Centering our relationship. Ideally, our relationship in therapy serves as a container which is safe enough for you to explore more challenging parts of yourself in therapy: aspects of yourself you hide from, ways you feel you may be unlovable, things you’re scared of, ect. I may invite you to explore together how you feel about our relationship.
- Results-oriented. Our goal is transformational change. Sometimes that’s quick, sometimes it’s not. Our goal isn’t to keep you in therapy forever. Together, we’ll track and discuss how our work together is affecting you and your life.
- Honoring both reason and emotional truth. Many challenges folks bring to therapy come from a tension between the rational mind (which often has ideas of how we should be and feel) and deeper emotional truths (memories based on felt experiences). These are separate areas of the brain, and I work to give space to both.
- Embodied. If you want a therapist who will mostly focus on ideas and how you think about the world, I’m probably not a good fit. Those emotional truths I mentioned in the last bullet point… they’re stored in your limbic system. Getting in touch with your body sensation is a way of noticing and getting snuggly with your limbic system. I tend to invite folks to slow down and notice body sensation.
- In the now. We all hold stories about ourselves and the world. Stories help us make meaning. Sometimes they’re immensely useful, and at other times they prevent us from growing. Bringing attention to what’s happening in the now can give us a little bit of wiggle room to step back and notice our stories. With that wiggle room, we can notice our sensations (emotions are sensations!), and hopefully encounter them as just that: sensation, with space before we return to the story.
Training
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) - Certified Level 1 Practitioner
- Somatic Experiencing (SE) - Certified Beginner 3 Practitioner
- Coherence Therapy (CT) - Intermediate Level Practitioner
Feel free to request sessions in these specific modalities. You’re welcome to try a given modality for as long as it feels right for you. If we’re working in a specific modality, it’s okay to take breaks and have standard talk therapy sessions.
Education
Specialites
Couple’s therapy, family therapy, sex, polyamory, high conflict relationships, men’s issues, trauma.
Services & Cost
I offer therapy both in-person at 1310 S. 1st St. in South Austin and online.
Insurance & Sliding Scale
I’m not taking new clients paying with insurance at this time. I can provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance company if you’d like.
Sliding Scale
I offer 3 tiers of sliding scale, based on income:
To qualify for my sliding scale, you must satisfy two conditions:
- If unmarried, your net worth excluding the value of your primary residence is less than $200,000
- If married, your combined net worth excluding the value of your primary residence is less than $400,000
Single Adult Household - Annual Income Requirements
| Tier 1 ($150/session) |
Tier 2 ($135/session) |
Tier 3 ($120/session) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| My income is less than: | My income is less than: | My income is less than: | |
| No kids | $64,000 | $56,000 | $49,000 |
| 1 kid | $106,000 | $94,000 | $82,000 |
| 2 kids | $133,000 | $117,000 | $102,000 |
| 3+ kids | $168,000 | $149,000 | $129,000 |
2+ Adult Households - Combined Annual Income Requirements
| Tier 1 ($150/session) |
Tier 2 ($135/session) |
Tier 3 ($120/session) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Our combined income is less than: | Our combined income is less than: | Our combined income is less than: | |
| No kids | $86,000 | $76,000 | $66,000 |
| 1 kid | $103,000 | $91,000 | $79,000 |
| 2 kids | $112,000 | $99,000 | $86,000 |
| 3+ kids | $129,000 | $114,000 | $99,000 |
Income levels are based on MIT’s living wage calculator for Travis County.
Next Steps
I'm currently accepting new clients.
When I'm accepting new clients, I offer free 30 minute consultations to meet and explore what it might be like to work together.
To set up a first session or free consultation, or if you have any questions, feel free to call/text me at (512) 736-9065 or email me at ryan@qualityofbeing.com
Thanks so much!
May the Goodness that's within you shine brightly.