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Welcome to Eric Hyde Counseling!

Thank you for visiting my site! I am a licensed professional counselor in the state of Oklahoma, specializing in anxiety disorders of all varieties, as well as trauma in general and religious trauma in particular.

Education and Therapeutic Philosophy

I hold a BA in Pastoral Ministry, an MA in Theology from Oral Roberts University, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from Northeastern State University.

I use a variety of therapeutic models filtered through an Existential and Gestalt therapy approach. I believe therapy revolves around getting to the core of oneself through self-awareness and mindfulness and not about applying cookie-cut techniques to mental illness simply because they have worked out statistically for certain groups. To quote the great professor Keating in Dead Poets Society, “We’re not laying pipe, we’re talking about poetry.” Human beings are complicated and, most of the time, do not lend themselves to easy, impersonal solutions.

I am also trained in EMDR, which I use primarily for anxiety, trauma, and addiction when appropriate.

Past Professional Experience and Lessons Learned

I completed my internship with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. During this period, I learned how to truly be with individuals and families suffering the life and death trials of cancer. It gave me an experiential sensitivity to death anxiety and a deep awareness of its power on the human psyche.

After my internship, I spent the next several years working in both inpatient and outpatient settings with every form of psychosis, trauma, and mood disorders under the sun. This period taught me the intricacies of the human condition; it helped me weed out methods and techniques of therapy that either failed to help in any measurable way or worked but failed to hold for any significant length of time; it helped me to understand when short-term fixes were appropriate and when they only fostered further entrenchment of pathology; and most of all this period helped me unlearn many theoretical ideas I gained from my formal education, replacing them with real-world experience.

I have been in private practice since 2017.

About Me

I first desired to become a therapist during my teenage years but decided to become a minister during my early college years. As a result of various twists and turns along the way, I eventually discovered that becoming a professional counselor, rather than a full-time minister, was the right fit for me and the fulfillment of a lifelong desire to help others in the capacity most suited to my talents and life situation.

I’m also a lifelong student of history, philosophy, and foreign languages; I love to travel and have been to several countries in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. I’ve played guitar for more than 30 years, and also had a short stint with bagpipes (until I realized that I was terrible and would likely never improve).