Ryan Price, MA, LPC, MAC

Position: Primary Therapist, Young Adults

Ryan Price is a primary therapist in the young adult program at Deschutes Wilderness Therapy and is a licensed professional counselor and master addiction counselor in Oregon. He has been working with young adults and their families since 2016 in various settings, including wilderness therapy, a college health and counseling center, intensive outpatient, and private practice.

Ryan is passionate about helping young adults pursue healing and find greater depth in relationships in the wilderness setting. He uses a deeply relational approach in his work with clients and their families. He recognizes that a person can’t heal from their wounds unless their pain is held, honored, and met with compassion, so he aims to do just that. By recognizing their emotional needs and gaining awareness of their internal world, clients better understand how they communicate their needs in unhealthy ways and learn to do so more effectively. Ryan strives to find the most effective balance between challenge and compassion with each client to find freedom from their symptoms – anxiety, depression, low self-worth, addiction, self-harm, suicidality, etc. – and gain insight about themselves. As they develop personal insight, Ryan’s approach helps them find authentic motivation for change rooted in their values rather than external factors.

As a master addiction counselor, Ryan is excited about working with young adults to address all forms of addiction. He understands the importance of helping clients understand the underlying hurts that lead to addiction. He also enjoys working with clients that struggle with grief, loss, and trauma. Ryan is trained in and uses brainspotting, Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), and emotion-focused therapy in his therapeutic work.

Ryan has been playing guitar for over 20 years and is passionate about incorporating creativity and many forms of art into his somatic therapy work to aid whole-body trauma processing and more profound expression of thoughts and emotions. He uses emotion-focused therapy in his family therapy work to support family members that often experience their own trauma from their child’s addiction. Throughout the family therapy process, Ryan strives to help each member of the family experience greater closeness and connection with one another. By integrating family involvement throughout the entire wilderness therapy journey, he supports parents and loved ones in grasping the underlying emotions of their young adult and learning to hold, honor, and exhibit compassion to their young adult in new and more effective ways.

While growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Ryan developed a deep love for the outdoors and enjoys sharing that excitement with others. When he isn’t working, Ryan can be found fly fishing for steelhead and trout throughout central Oregon or searching for new mountain ranges to explore.