The Briggs Institute

Therapy. Nashville. Tennessee.

If you’re wondering how to find a therapist and you’re looking for in-person therapy in Nashville or telehealth services anywhere in Tennessee, the therapists at The Briggs Institute, Inc. are here to serve you.

My name is Justin Gregory Briggs, Ph.D., LMFT and my colleagues and I welcome you to the Institute.

(To learn more about Dr. Briggs, check out his curriculum vitae)

“How can I make things better?”

Whether you’re managing mental health issues like anxiety, depression, or trauma or existing in a dissatisfying relationship, you’ve probably asked yourself many versions of this question. If you’re willing to work hard and are open to making changes, know that you have every reason to believe you can enjoy a healthier and happier life. Our purpose is to help our clients know what changes they may need to make in order to reach their goals. We are eager to serve and look forward to working with you.

On average, it takes our clients just 2-5 sessions to move from a distressed state to a maintenance or enhancement phase of treatment. This type of rapid progress does not usually come easily.

Clients are the strongest predictors of treatment outcome. When they come to therapy engaged in the process (e.g., not missing sessions), willing to make changes, and hopeful that things can get better, they are taking the most important steps towards meeting their goals.

Similar to exercise with a great physical trainer, an excellent therapist will help clients know the changes they need to make as they face challenges, navigate through discomfort, and build the strength they need to accomplish their goals and maintain positive changes.

“Do I need therapy or counseling?”

The truth is that you could do really well with either. The mental health field is filled with professionals who hold different titles like therapist, counselor, psychologist, etc. These clinicians often end up doing very similar work with their clients, often in the same practice.

Still, not all therapists, counselors, and psychologists are as effective as others. The most effective clinicians track client data, collaborate with others, and commit to daily attempts to grow their clinical skill set (Miller et al., 2018). All Institute therapists hold themselves to these high standards.

Our Therapists are Trained to Serve You

Therapists at the Institute are trained to the highest standards in the field and include clinicians who have earned the titles such as of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Clinical Fellow and the American Psychological Association Full Member.

There are many reasons people come to the Institute seeking therapy or counseling. Some of the most common are: adjustment disorders, addiction, aging, athletic and sport performance, anger management, anxiety, behavioral addictions, blended family adjustments, boundary setting, child behavior concerns, chronic illness, chronic pain, codependency, couple communication, depression, divorce, domestic violence, eating disorders, entertainment industry stressors, existential crises, family conflict, financial stress, grief and loss, identity issues, impulse control, infertility, insomnia, LGBTQ+ challenges, life transitions (e.g., pregnancy, moving), loneliness and isolation, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), parenting challenges, personal growth, personality disorders (e.g., borderline, narcissistic, etc.), phobias, pre-marital counseling, relationship issues, religious and spiritual concerns, self-esteem, self-worth, self-harming behaviors, sex and sexuality issues, social skills, substance abuse, trauma (e.g., PTSD), trust issues, and work concerns.

The Best Therapists, Counselors, & Psychologists

At the Institute, we seek to behave like the best clinicians in our field. We take an evidence-based, feedback-informed approach to treatment that includes outcome monitoring each session, ongoing supervision and consultation each week, use of the latest technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence), and a systematic approach to improvement each day. The way we practice is an industry exception, not the norm, and it helps assure that we are providing state-of-the-art care for our clients.

Therapy for Individuals, Couples, and Families

Institute clinicians are trained in marriage and family therapy, a mental health profession similar to psychology, counseling, or social work.

In individual, couple, or family therapy, Institute therapists diagnose and treat depression, anxiety, addiction, mood disorders (e.g., bipolar), trauma (e.g., PTSD), low self-esteem and self-worth, and many other mental health problems while also addressing relationship concerns such as couple conflict, codependency, sexual dissatisfaction and dysfunction, and parent-child issues.

Marriage and family therapists treat individuals, couples, and families from a relationship-centered perspective, helping clients understand how their interactions with family, friends, and coworkers affect their mental, social, and emotional health.

Therapy Models & Interventions

The best therapists, counselors, and psychologists adapt interventions to fit client strengths rather than asking clients to work with the clinician’s favorite treatment model. Therapy and counseling need to be a place where diverse clients with various strengths can all come to learn, grow, change, and heal, and working exclusively from a single or small set of models is not going to accomplish this. With this in mind, the therapists at the Institute use a wide variety of interventions from models including, but not limited to:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Couple Therapy (BCT), Bowenian Family Systems, Brainspotting, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Collaborative Therapy, Common Factors of Psychotherapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Experiential Family Therapy, Gestalt, Gottman Method, Humanistic Therapy, Imago Therapy, Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Play Therapy, Restoration Therapy, Sex Therapy, Sensate Focus Therapy, Social Constructionist Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Strategic Therapy, and Structural Therapy.

You are Welcome Here

We work with demographically and ideologically diverse clientele. We welcome the opportunity to work with individuals, couples, and families of all faiths, creeds, races, ethnicities, nationalities, socioeconomic statuses, genders, sexual orientations, health statuses, and education levels. It is our job to provide an empathic ear and wise, research informed counsel to everyone we work with, regardless of any similarities or differences we may have in our core convictions or demographic characteristics.

It is a pleasure to work with our clients. We admire their strength, courage, and humility and are grateful for the opportunity to be their therapist.

We encourage you to come visit us in Nashville or connect via telehealth from anywhere in Tennessee.

Sex Life Science Podcast

Dr. Briggs is the host and creator of The Sex Life Science Podcast, where he and his co-hosts (i.e., most often Institute therapists) talk about everything in life from sex to science. The podcast is a great way for potential clients to get to know Dr. Briggs and other Institute therapists and is meant to entertain anyone looking to live their best life. Be sure to check out the podcast page or listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon.

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