Patrick Nitch, LCMHC

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Patrick Nitch, LCMHC (He/Him)

About Patrick

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about my psychotherapy practice, Mindful Therapy Asheville. My intention is to serve the Asheville community by co-creating—together with you—a nonjudgmental, compassionate space where deep inner healing and transformation are possible. While I serve in the role of therapist, guide and mentor, I approach this work first and foremost with humility. I see myself as a fellow traveler learning, just like you, how to meet life with a greater sense of ease, compassion, and joy amidst its many challenges.

My therapeutic style is rooted in mindfulness, contemplative practice, and spirituality, while integrating effective Western modalities, particularly Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. IFS resonates deeply with me because of its profoundly non-pathologizing approach. We all have parts. We all experience pain. And, like you, I am continually navigating the complexity of my own internal world.

My Story: How I Came to This Work

I grew up in a family system filled with unhealed wounds—many “exiled” parts carrying pain, and many protective parts doing their best to survive through addictive or self-protective behaviors. As a child, I developed my own exiled parts that felt alone, unseen, and unheard. In response, my protector parts learned to stay busy, distract, and keep emotions at a distance.

After college, while grieving the traumatic death of a parent and unsure of my direction, those protector parts went into overdrive. I found myself caught in my own patterns of self-destructive behavior. Reaching out for help was the turning point. With the support of a therapist and a spiritual community, I began to access something beyond the swirl of my parts—a spacious, loving awareness capable of holding even the most hidden, hurting parts of myself with compassion.

Experiencing that kind of healing firsthand awakened in me a deep calling to help others find their own path toward wholeness.

Professional Path and Experience

I completed my Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Vanderbilt University in 2012 and have been practicing psychotherapy ever since—in Northern California, Nashville, and now Asheville.

From 2012–2014, I lived in an intentional yoga community in California and spent significant time in residential Buddhist retreats at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. These formative experiences shaped my understanding of mindfulness, compassion, and spiritual development.

Returning to Nashville in 2014, I founded Mindful Nashville Therapy & Wellness Collective in 2016, a center offering psychotherapy alongside mindfulness-oriented workshops such as breathwork, mindful yoga, sound baths, and forest bathing.

A major inspiration for moving to Western North Carolina was my training at Heartwood Refuge Center in Hendersonville, NC, where I completed their two-year lay Buddhist Teacher Training program. I fell in love with the mountains, the community, and the grounding energy of this region—and I am grateful to now call Asheville home.

Licensure:

  • Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, North Carolina (LCMHC #21862)

  • Licensed Professional Counselor – Mental Health Service Provider, Tennessee (LPC-MHSP #3569)

Education:

Additional Therapy & Mindfulness Training

Questions for Patrick

  • Mindfulness means practicing being a kind, compassionate, and loving friend to myself. This is not always easy, but mindfulness practice starts here—cultivating curiosity about our present internal and external experience, and meeting that present moment reality with compassion, loving-kindness and acceptance. This allows us to enter into moments with others with that same curiosity, compassion and loving-kindness.

  • I was not always a kind, compassionate, loving friend to myself! I developed quite an elaborate system of avoiding my pain and suffering by staying busy with building an identity of who I thought I “should be”, meanwhile neglecting myself and my actual needs, desires and values. After college, I spent some time at a Bhakti Yoga meditation center in California that introduced me to what it was like to be in my body. It is through that practice that I discovered mindful movement, and ultimately mindfulness meditation.

  • When we are caught in a cycle of suffering, the kindest thing we can do for ourselves is reach out for support. Healing does not happen in isolation, but in community. And as a therapist, I can serve as a companion on the path into a community and into healing. So the same presence of curiosity, compassion and loving-kindness that I practice cultivating within my own experience, I help others cultivate in their experience. One of my intentions is often to bring a lightness and sense of humor to what is often quite heavy and quite serious. Therapy can quickly become an art. Every person is different and yet the same. We are all headed in a similar direction towards freedom from suffering, but our paths are often quite different, and we often need different directions to navigate towards that liberation.

Logistics

  • Session fee is $175 for 50-minute session.

    • Licensed psychotherapist North Carolina, LCMHC License #21862

    • Licensed psychotherapist Tennessee, LPC-MHSP License #3569

  • Email: patrick@mindfultherapyasheville.com

    Phone: 615-988-0488