About Me: Keith Manchester, MA

Over the years I’ve gained valuable experience in a variety of settings, each with increasing challenges and responsibilities. While obtaining my undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa, I worked as a Psychology Assistant at the VA Hospital in Iowa City where I conducted a variety of psychological tests that set the stage for my interest in psychology. Upon graduation, I explored the dynamics of at-risk children and teens in a residential setting at the Allendale Association in Addison, Illinois. During my tenure at the Allendale Association, I simultaneously attended graduate school at The Chicago

School of Professional Psychology. One of the major factors for deciding on The Chicago School was specifically for its emphasis on cultural diversity, and I continue to enjoy working with people from all ethnicities and backgrounds. My clinical experience was furthered by my graduate internship at Lutherbrook Residential Facility. At Lutherbrook I conducted all the duties required for a residential therapist, including case conceptualizations, individual treatment plans, and assessments, in addition to individual and group therapy, working with both male and female adolescents. Before leaving Illinois I spent over two years working at Chicago Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, an experience which gave me a great opportunity to observe and treat individuals with a wide spectrum of mental health issues. I served as a treatment counselor and intake clinician, assessing the severity of a person’s mental health symptoms. These varied experiences contribute to my competency in addressing clients who are in crisis and in need of a broad range of pertinent interventions.

As someone who has always enjoyed the outdoors I decided to move to Colorado for all the wonderful activities and weather it so graciously provides. My first position working as a clinician for Shiloh Home Inc. in Longmont, Colorado. At Shiloh, I work hand-in-hand with at-risk youth and their families, gaining valuable experience working with trauma, abuse, neglect and other mental health diagnosis. While at Shiloh I also opened my private practice, Empowering Choices Therapy, LLC, and have the privilege of providing my counseling services to Denver and the surrounding communities.

To ensure that I remain a relevant therapist, I engage in a number of different groups and activities that only help build myself as a therapist but also as an active community member. I have been a guest speaker at various colleges, educating students about my Choice Theory background, as well as providing an overview of offense specific treatment. I have also provided volunteer work at Urban Peak, which is an adolescent homeless facility, providing counseling sessions to troubled youths that have no other outlet. Additionally, I serve on the Juvenile Sexual Offender collaboration in Adams County where I conduct training to educate youth about sexual harassment.

If you are seeking a clinician who is outgoing, flexible, honest, caring and responsible, I believe I can help you grow and attain your goals. I can be reached either on my business cell phone at (720) 633-5426 or via e-mail at keithmanchester@gmail.com.

SOMB Experience:

I have attained my Full SOMB (Sexual Offender Management Board) treatment provider certification, which allows me to provide services to adolescents who have been ordered to complete offense specific treatment. I have a sound working knowledge of the outcomes and requirements needed in order to complete treatment for Adolescent offenders. I can create quality treatment plans with goals that are challenging, quantifiable and achievable for the clients’ individual abilities. I attempt to utilize other resources such as teachers, evaluators, and fellow professionals to ensure that I am providing the best care and treatment for my clients. I consult with the other

Multidisciplinary Team Members (i.e. probation officers, CASA worker, guardian ad litem, and caseworkers) and appreciate the collaboration and contribution that each team member provides. Furthermore, I have also been involved and engaged in the clarification and reunification process when applicable. Most importantly, I have been able to successfully discharge clients from treatment with the approval of the Multi Disciplinary Teams. 

Empowering Choices Therapy: Overview

Overall my approach is based in the theoretical perspective, which maintains that if you can accept that everything you do is a choice you can be free to make the choices that make you happy. The goal is to help you understand the simple truth that everything we do is a choice. You can strive to be the most selfless, positive, caring person in the world or you can choose to be the meanest person in the world.

Now understandably many of us don’t want to contemplate that we have the ability to

choose because therefore we are the ones responsible for our lives. Many of us want to believe that we are at the mercy of the world around us. If you are someone who tends to justify their own maladaptive behaviors by stating that someone “made them mad,” then Empowering Choices Therapy can help open up new ways of learning how to be in control of your life. There are so many people out there who blame others for the difficulties in their life and unfortunately life does challenge everyone with varying degrees of pain, suffering, misfortune, loss, stress, and anxiety. Often it feels like these difficult experiences seem to limit our choices. But I believe the reality is that you still have choices. My counseling approach seeks to help you examine these choices in order for you to have more control and power over your life.

Although at first glace this approach may seem quite simplistic (and in some ways it is). In conjunction with this basic principle of choice I do see the value in other interventions, and tools, which I utilize to aide you in finding what avenues will be best to pursue.