About Wade
Make Difference - My highest value
"More than anything else, my highest value in this life is to make a difference."
Wade Lang, LPCC, LADC, NCGC-II
Trauma & Addictions Specialist
Master ART Therapist and Former ART Instructor
Minnesota Board Approved Supervisor for LPCC & LADC
Since 2007 I have been counseling others, helping them with their process, and sharing experience, strength, and hope along the way.
My early years were spent as a Combat Signaler MOS-31K, then building homes as a Framer, selling homes as a Realtor, and owning and operating a franchise carpet cleaning company. Then on a literal dare by my wife, of now 27 years, I decided to try my hand at academia at age 33. What a gift, to have someone believe in me, even when I did not believe in myself. As just about any adult learner will tell you, managing a life, family, work, and school is as close to insanity as anyone should ever get! But, in my opinion, and I’m sure in the opinion of many others, I was fortunate to be trained by some of the top professors and institutions in the country, I spent my undergrad studying Business Management at Western International University, and Human Service Management at the University of Phoenix, AZ. My graduate years were in Center City Minnesota at the prestigious Hazelden Betty-Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies during the day, and at night, I moonlighted at Adler Graduate School for a second comprehensive education in Abnormal Psychology with a focus on trauma and abuse.
I completed my practicum work at HBFGSAS in Center City and then Project Turnabout located in Granite Falls Minnesota, both high-intensity residential mental health & chemical dependency and gambling treatment centers. My first years in practice were at the only homogeneous center in the world for Compulsive Gamblers, Vanguard at Project Turnabout. I gained a unique clinical perspective working with a population that has the highest mortality rate per-capita of all mental health disorders. After leaving Vanguard I decided to enter public mental health in New Ulm Minnesota where I served as a co-morbid specialist in clinical practice serving a wide range of clients with a wide spectrum of psychopathy. It seemed like a natural and healthy choice from there to open a private practice and did so in 2015. The practice grew so quickly, largely due to my new tool, Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), that I made another paramount decision to open a Mental Illness/Chemical Use Disorder Intensive Outpatient in New Ulm, MN specializing in the treatment of trauma using ART.
Life is ever changing and today I am enjoying the process. Returning to private practice has been exciting and refreshing! I didn’t realize how much I had missed it until now. I continue to work as a consultant to the DoD, and sectors of the VA, but clinical practice is my primary focus and in my spare time when I’m not fishing for Bass or riding “Bonnie”, my blue Harley CVO, I’m brainstorming on the next generation of memory reconsolidation and how to affect change in the populations I serve.
Some Cool Facts
Numbers Speak For Themselves
Observing a patient learn new concepts, pick up principals and apply them, is the real reward for the work that I do.
In Love With the Process
In the years of being a paster, counselor, and psychotherapist I can say with all authority that the process is real…and it works! In the military we say “Embrace the Suck” and in civilian culture the principal is the same but the words are bit more vanilla.
ART has helped the process be a bit less “suckish” or at least thats the way I see things. ART has given way to resolutions for my patient’s that may have never found freedom from their pain, mostly due to the non-verbal aspect of the therapy. You may also have heard the saying that, “Words get in the way” , well not any more.
Teaching Is a Gift
There are many great teachers, and there are many great therapists, however, there are very few great therapists that can teach. As a therapist I excel at finding the root cause of a client’s issues. I’m not sure if its my lived experience, insight to the plight of others, intuition, or a synergist combination of them all. What I will say is that I thankful for the gift of helping others. This ability to connect with my patient’s transfers to my ability to recognize the learning needs of my students. Teaching and instructing just comes easy and naturally to me. The process is fun, exciting, and fulfilling for both me and the class.