Dr. Brenden Troster, LMFT

Dr. Brenden Troster is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with seven years of clinical experience. He also brings extensive background as a coach spanning over 25 years. Dr. Troster works from Minnesota and supports people facing a broad range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, ADHD, grief, and relationship or intimacy challenges.

He has worked in school-based mental health, addiction treatment, residential care for children and teens, and outpatient settings. That variety shaped his practical approach to everyday problems and complex struggles. He has helped people with self-harm, anger, recovery from abuse, and severe or persistent mental illness.

Therapy begins by listening to the client’s story and clarifying personal goals. Sessions focus on building useful skills, testing new behaviors, and finding workable strategies that fit each person's life. Dr. Troster emphasizes respect, compassion, and dignity in the therapy space.

He uses familiar, evidence-informed approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), client-centered methods, and the Gottman Method when relationship work is relevant. Treatment is tailored rather than one-size-fits-all, with collaborations on pace and priorities.

Practical tools and step-by-step plans are common in his work, along with attention to emotions and values. Whether someone needs help managing stress, coping with life changes, or recovering from past trauma, Dr. Troster aims to support steady, sustainable progress.

How therapeutic approaches translate to online care

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors. Online CBT sessions often include short skill-building exercises and homework to try between meetings, which can be reviewed in video or messaging formats.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) combines mindfulness and values-based actions to help people live more in line with what matters to them. In remote sessions ACT can involve brief in-session exercises and simple practices to use during daily routines.

Client-centered therapy centers on listening, empathy, and supporting the client to lead the process. This approach guides how sessions are run online, with the therapist following the client’s pace and concerns.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, habits, and what feels most useful, then recommend a mix of techniques that match those needs. That choice is collaborative and may shift as progress is made.

Online care offers flexibility with video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for skill demonstrations and guided exercises, phone sessions work well for lower bandwidth or when a quick check-in is needed, and messaging supports short updates or ongoing practice between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and keep momentum between meetings.