Sam Harkness, LCSW

I have been in the Flathead since 2008. Before earning my Masters of Social Work from the University of Montana in 2018 I spent more than ten years working in outdoor leadership and school settings. Since then, I have worked in residential and acute psychiatric settings with adults and adolescents, and homeless services. My work has ranged from direct service through shelter, residential and hospital settings to coordinating homelessness and supportive housing service for the City of Missoula. I opened Big Mountain Mental Health in 2023 in order to offer outpatient therapy in a more flexible and client-centered way that reflects my values as a therapist.

I work with a wide range of people and presentations. Whether you come in with vague feelings of discontent or symptoms you can’t quite make sense of, or you have a very clear idea of what’s wrong and what you need, I am happy to work with you from wherever you are. I follow research and emerging best practices and bring my own clinical experience to developing a case conceptualization together. I value collaboration and prefer to work transparently, sharing my understanding of your situation and helping you to draw on your own expertise and insight as we go.

I find that therapy usually develops over time. Early sessions are about gathering information about present symptoms and situations as well as your past and forming an idea of what’s wrong and what might help. From there some clients will move into more structured approaches to treat trauma, or use therapy as a weekly support to deal with stressful situations in the present, or work on developing new skills to meet the moment. For clients who stick with therapy over time, a deeper relationship can develop and relational or attachment work can open up.