ANDY HUDAK COUNSELING AND CONSULTING

Andy has been providing mental health counseling services, workshops, and consultation services in Montana since 1976. He has a B.S. in Psychology and M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from The University of Scranton, a Jesuit institution that consistently scores high in a variety of college rating assessments.

His educational degrees integrated hard science and research approaches, with process oriented healing ones, as well as philosophy and spiritual studies.

Being a part of a person’s healing process towards transformational change is a privilege. I find myself personally energized by this process.

A metaphor re pain and suffering:

Processing poop, as any farmer knows, is what feeds and creates all things beautiful and grows all food on our planet. I feel the same way regarding the process of healing emotional wounds and pain. Our “shit”, processed in an atmosphere of safety and trust, is fertilizer for the growth of our awareness, the “unfreezing” of our emotional development, so that eventually, we take our place as “elders in our tribes”.

Our Process:

We will start with your thoughts and feelings regarding what you want help with. I’ll be interested in what you have already tried and your wants and needs in any specific areas you wish to focus on. I will give options for ways to approach your issue(s). Looking at each, we can arrive at a specific plan(s), and how we will measure progress. I will also share how other types of helpers might approach similar issues, so that you can make your best informed choice re who you choose to work with on what.


SERVICES & BACKGROUND

Andy's counseling psychotherapy practice includes Individual, Family, and Couples Sessions. (See *Communication Group Skills under “GROUPS” section for more details of the specific interpersonal relationship skills models that I share.)

My work includes consultations with people and agencies re the skills one needs to develop an environment that nurtures the maximum potential and growth for all involved. (For examples, see “ORGANIZATIONS I HAVE WORKED WITH” below)

GROUPS

  1. Communication Groups:
    A.   Interpersonal Communication Skills for Secure, Emotionally Intimate Relationships
    B.   Specific Skills include empathy, awarenesses of thoughts vs. feelings vs. wants vs. needs, identification of strengths, Win/Win Conflict Resolution, using mistakes for growth rather than self-shaming and blame. These can also be applied intrapersonally (inside ourselves). They include practical interventions with perfectionism, shame, anger, vulnerability, negativity, anxiety, depression, and how to bring these to our important relationships.
    C.   Group Format = Brief lecturettes, followed by practical, structured small group applications of the topics.
  2. Shadow of the Helper and Self Care Groups
  3. Couples Groups
  4. Co-Dependency Groups
  5. Andy has an ongoing recovery therapy group that can accommodate people that destructively act out sexually or with substances. Partners and spouses are encouraged to participate as well. One of four weekly groups a month is devoted to acquiring the previously mentioned non-power and control relationship communication skills in a workshop format, which are then applied in the other three weekly groups per month to whatever relationship issues arise.
    More Information

EXPERT WITNESS

Decades of experience and innovation in the Chemical Dependence, Co-dependency, and sex offender fields have informed Andy’s expert witness practice in Federal and District Courts across Montana. These experiences include establishing Montana’s first intensive outpatient program for Alcoholics and their partners in 1977. I also co-founded Montana’s first trauma informed treatment programs for adolescents and adults that act out on others sexually in 1983 , as well as co-founding The Montana Sex Offender Treatment Association (MSOTA) in 1985. I drafted the initial standards for the evaluation of risk for re-offense for MSOTA, and my duties as Chair of MSOTA’s Legislative Committee for the past decade have helped me become one of Montana’s foremost experts on the scientific literature on a variety of related subjects. These areas include trauma, resiliency, parenting, and my original focus…the treatment of sexual abuse victimization. As such, I am available for second opinion testimony re risk to re-offend, psychosexual evaluations, treatment planning for “survivors” and “offenders”, as well as Restorative Justice Interventions between offenders and survivors, including “proxy clarifications” where a recovering person, selected because of similarities to a specific survivor’s deceased or in denial offender, goes through a healing dialogue for a variety if unresolved issues.

I frequently testifies on the appropriateness for relief from one’s duty to register on Montana’s Public Sex Offender Registration.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING

I have provided consulting services and workshops nationally, and locally, for a wide variety of organizations. (see next section for specifics) For a list of workshop topics, please set up a consultation meeting, so I can first get a feel for your needs and whether my designs might meet your needs.

ORGANIZATIONS THAT I HAVE WORKED WITH

II have presented regionally and nationally on a variety of related topics. My work has been enthusiastically received by the following organizations: National Juvenile Justice Council; The National Association of Family Court Judges, Blackfoot Indian Nation; Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho Tribal Leaders Council; Salish Kootenai Mental Health & Chemical Dependency Programs; The Northwest Regional Sex Offender Treatment Conference; The National Indian Health Service Mental Health Conference; The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS); Flathead Valley Community College; Flathead County United Way; Missoula County Health Department; Missoula Community Hospital; United States Federal Probation; MSOTA (Montana Sex Offender Treatment Association); WATSA, (Washington Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers); Montana Department of Corrections; Montana Conservation Corps, and others

PRICING

My fee is $150/hr. I takes Medicaid, and ia a provider for a variety Insurance Companies

Organizations That I Have Worked With

I have presented regionally and nationally on a variety of related topics. My work has been enthusiastically received by the the following organizations: National Juvenile Justice Council; The National Association of Family Court Judges, Blackfoot Indian Nation; Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho Tribal Leaders Council; Salish Kootenai Mental Health & Chemical Dependency Programs; The Northwest Regional Sex Offender Treatment Conference; The National Indian Health Service Mental Health Conference; The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS); Flathead Valley Community College; Flathead County United Way; Missoula County Health Department; Missoula Community Hospital; United States Federal Probation; MSOTA (Montana Sex Offender Treatment Association); WATSA, (Washington Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers); Montana Department of Corrections; Montana Conservation Corps, and others


Contact Me

Send all correspondences to my mailing Address: 801 River Lakes Parkway, Whitefish, MT 59937
Office Address: 309 Wisconsin Ave, Whitefish, MT 59937