Counseling in St. Cloud, MN
You keep handling everything. It just shouldn’t feel this hard.
Maybe your mind stays at work long after the workday ends. You feel tense even when nothing is wrong, more irritable than you used to be, or exhausted without being able to actually relax.
We define the problem, identify what keeps it going, and use targeted strategies to create meaningful change. I specialize in anxiety, trauma and PTSD, social anxiety, and chronic stress or burnout.
In-person counseling in St. Cloud and online throughout Minnesota.
Prefer to talk first?
Does this feel familiar?
You may be doing well on paper while privately realizing that maintaining it is taking more out of you.
You replay conversations after they happen. You prepare for problems that haven’t occurred. You have trouble switching off after work. Small frustrations get under your skin faster. You keep pushing through because other people depend on you, but even downtime can feel strangely difficult.
Or maybe something happened months or years ago and you thought you had moved past it, yet your body, thoughts, relationships, or sense of safety still seem organized around what happened.
You do not have to be falling apart for counseling to make sense.
What Counseling at Criterion is Like
I am not interested in giving you generic advice you already know or spending months talking around the problem without understanding what keeps it going.
We start with what is happening in your actual life.
That may mean looking at worry that keeps demanding certainty, avoidance that provides short-term relief but strengthens anxiety, trauma-related beliefs that still shape how you react, perfectionistic standards that never let you feel finished, or habits built around staying useful, composed, and in control.
From there, we develop a clear treatment direction.
My work draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), exposure-based approaches, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and other trauma-informed methods when appropriate to your needs and goals.
The aim is not to make you less capable. It is to help you stop paying such a high internal price for functioning.
My Specialties
Focused treatment for anxiety, trauma, and problems that don’t resolve by just pushing through them.
Anxiety
When your mind is constantly anticipating, analyzing, second-guessing, or preparing for what could go wrong, even ordinary life can start to feel exhausting.
PTSD & Trauma
Past experiences can continue affecting sleep, trust, attention, irritability, avoidance, guilt, and the ability to feel safe long after the event itself has ended.
Social Anxiety
You may rehearse what you are going to say, monitor how you come across, avoid attention, or replay interactions afterward even when you know logically that the situation was not dangerous.
Stress & Burnout
When responsibility rarely stops, you can become depleted without noticing how much has changed until work, relationships, patience, motivation, or health begin paying the price.
Nate Van Heuveln, LPC
Hello, I’m Nate.
I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor and founder of Criterion Counseling.
My background includes graduate training in both clinical mental health counseling and industrial-organizational psychology. That combination helps me look at both the symptoms themselves and the context that may be keeping them going, including work, leadership, responsibility, role expectations, and performance pressure.
In counseling, I tend to be active, practical, and direct. I want you to understand what we are working on, why we are working on it, and how it connects to what is happening in your life outside the therapy room.
Who I Help
You’re still functioning, but it’s taking more out of you than it should.
You may recognize yourself here:
- Adults dealing with anxiety, PTSD, trauma symptoms, chronic stress, or burnout while continuing to meet significant responsibilities.
- People who are accustomed to being capable, dependable, or in control, yet find it difficult when those usual ways of coping stop working.
- Individuals navigating sustained pressure from work, leadership roles, caregiving, public safety positions, or self-imposed expectations.
- People who are tired of generic coping strategies and talk-therapy that no longer feel effective, and who prefer clear goals, a rationale for what we are doing, and work that carries into everyday life.
- Adults seeking practical, evidence-based counseling without pressure to relive the past or perform emotionally.
- Thoughtful individuals who want to function better, think more clearly, and see change that lasts beyond sessions.
Where I Work
Counseling in your comfort zone.