Top Rated Boulder Therapists: Lunasa Counseling & Wellness
Takeaway: Are you feeling lost and dissatisfied? Do you want your life to be different but aren’t sure how to make the changes you want? Do you want a better relationship with yourself and others? If so, you’re not alone. Our therapists in Boulder help people like you find more connection, make meaning, and build a life that feels good. Start the process to work with a licensed professional counselor today.
Beginning the therapy process can be overwhelming. Whether you are looking for support around mental health issues or difficult life transitions, knowing how to navigate options and begin the healing process is hard. Regardless of how and where you receive mental health care, therapy is an effective tool for navigating life's challenges.
Research shows that psychotherapy improves overall well being across a range of issues. Whether you are dealing with addiction, depression, relationships, social anxiety, self confidence, or trauma, therapy can help create change. Lunasa Counseling and Wellness offers trauma focused services and a compassion based approach to healing with a licensed professional counselor. We are here to help answer frequently asked questions about starting therapy.
Does this sound like you?
Have you been considering starting therapy but aren't sure where to begin? Perhaps you feel like you are under constant stress and don't feel present. You might be feeling like things that have happened to you in the past are impacting your health and happiness now. Toxic family dynamics, perfectionism, boundary issues, people pleasing, and poor sense of worth are all ways experiences from the past can influence how you function today.
You might also feel like you could have a mental health diagnosis like depression, or you might feel generally unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Maybe you are ashamed of the idea that you might need counseling services. You aren't alone. In 2021 around 1 in 4 adults (18-44) received mental health treatment. Therapy with a licensed professional counselor can help you address your unique challenges and build skills to face life's difficulties.
Boulder psychotherapy can help.
Working with a licensed professional counselor can help you heal and make changes that support your health and well being. The therapeutic relationship creates a safe place for you to take inventory of your concerns, gain perspective, and work towards meaningful change.
Humans are social animals, and we are not meant to face our pain alone. Partnering with a Boulder psychotherapist is a great way to receive a genuine human connection informed by clinical expertise. Therapists will offer understanding and empathy. You can move at your own pace, and your therapist will work alongside you to help you practice new skills and build awareness that supports your goals and growth.
Lunasa Counseling and Wellness in Boulder takes an intentional and personalized approach to therapy based on the most current research. In the next section, we highlight our private practice's philosophy and how it is helpful to our clients.
Our approach to psychotherapy in Boulder, CO
Every human struggles. However, every person is unique in how they experience emotional pain. Lunasa Counseling and Wellness offers psychotherapy in Boulder that is tailored to our client's unique needs and concerns.
Our practice specializes in helping folks heal from complex trauma. This means that we look at how the experiences in your life have accumulated in a way that impacts how you function and feel. Our trauma-focused approach asks what happened to you? Rather than what is wrong with you?
We are non-pathologizing, which means we don't think you are broken or defective based on the mental health symptoms you experience. We believe mental health issues (general anxiety, social anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, substance abuse, stress, etc.) and patterned functioning (people pleasing, low motivation, relationship issues, self-confidence, etc.) are normal responses to difficult experiences that collect throughout life.
We use diagnosing as a guide to track symptoms rather than as a way to label you. We don't believe people can be reduced to a simple diagnosis. Humans are complex, and we honor that in our approach.
While we work with you to form a unique plan for your needs, our new clients can expect some similarities across all our therapists in Boulder.
Self-Compassion Counseling
Self-compassion heals the relationship with ourselves. Research shows that increasing self-compassion is supportive in improving a spectrum of mental health issues. We are more likely to take real steps toward change if we come from a place of compassion and understanding for ourselves rather than from a place of criticism.
Mindfulness-Based Interventions
Mindfulness has become a buzzword. This is because it is well-researched and shows effectiveness across many mental health diagnoses. Many of the evidence-based modalities for treating trauma include a significant mindfulness component. Mindfulness can be practiced in so many ways. Our therapists in Boulder will work with you to find a version of mindfulness that fits your lifestyle and personality.
Somatic Approach
In our busy modern world, we live much of our lives from the neck up, spending lots of time in our heads. Our attention to the whole person helps restore the balance between the mind and body. A disconnection between the mind and body can leave us feeling numb, sick, and not present. We will help you use information from the mind and body to create insights about your feelings and needs for healing.
Therapy services we offer
Our licensed professional counselors offer individual and couples counseling to older adolescents, young adults, and adults. Common reasons clients seek therapy with us are relationship problems, substance abuse, grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, low self-worth, and a general sense of dissatisfaction with life.
Life Transition Counseling/Wellness Counseling
Many people seek counseling after something difficult happens or while something difficult is happening. Sometimes people want to find a therapist because things just aren't going well. These feelings may be related to family or relationship issues, job transitions, parenting, grief, body issues, and lack of fulfillment.
Our team will help you examine all the areas of your life to help you move toward wellness. We will help you get in touch with your authentic self, values, and needs to create goals that support the kind of growth you want.
Anxiety Treatment
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people, especially young adults, seek a therapist. Feeling anxious is an emotional process the brain uses to try and protect us from harm and threats. We will work with you to identify what your anxiety is trying to protect you from and help you build skills and insight that bring you a sense of safety.
Our counselors use evidence-based methods like IFS, ACT, CBT, somatic awareness, and client-centered counseling to help you cope and achieve growth.
Trauma and PTSD Treatment
Trauma presents itself in many ways that don't fit neatly into a diagnosis. Coping with trauma can feel like being stuck without a sense of control. Since trauma lives in the nervous system, we take a nervous system-based approach. We help you learn your nervous system, triggers, and needs for a sense of safety. With your consent and at your own pace, we can untangle the roots of your trauma response and find a path to a more meaningful and secure future.
Our practitioners use evidence-based interventions like nervous system mapping, mindfulness, IFS, poly-vagal theory, attachment theory, and somatic awareness to help you heal from how the past has shaped the present.
Couples Therapy
All relationships face challenges. Our approach to couples will help you re-establish trust and intimacy by learning the skill of non-violent communication. We also use attachment theory to understand and bring compassion to patterns that create and sustain conflict. We will work with each couple to identify their relationship goals and find constructive methods to reach them. We happily work with all relationship configurations and identities.
Our specialties
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Complex Trauma
Complex trauma is the accumulation of difficult experiences over the course of a life that leaves a lasting wound. This type of trauma often begins with our family in childhood but can also start in adulthood as a result of abusive relationships or repeated exposure to harmful events. Complex trauma impacts how we function in every area of our lives and often shows up in our relationships with other people and the world at large. This type of trauma changes our personality as a means of coping.
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Addiction
Addiction and substance abuse is a common coping mechanism for many adults and adolescents. It is often related to trauma. We see addiction as a means to deal with pain. We work to help you tend to the pain that is underlying the addiction and find a recovery journey that fits you. We can offer alternative recovery resources and take a non-dogmatic approach to addiction recovery. We also offer support for process addictions like shopping, work, sex, etc.
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Health at Every Size Orientation
We hold health at every size (HAES) values. This means that we believe we believe that fat bodies can pursue and experience health without needing to change the size, shape, or weight of that body. It is not the fat body that needs to change but the oppressive system which dehumanizes fat people. We refer to this oppressive system as anti-fatness or anti-fat bias. It is important to note that fat liberation is intersectional and is grounded in feminism, disability rights, queer rights, and anti-racism.
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Women's Issues
We are passionate about helping women heal from grief, sexual abuse, relationship abuse, family dynamics, body issues, and experiences of oppression. We are social justice oriented and recognize that many women's issues are related to systems of oppression and harmful cultural dynamics.
FAQs about working with a therapist in Boulder, CO
Navigating mental health care can be challenging and frustrating, especially in the abundant wellness community of Boulder. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions. You are welcome to contact us with any additional questions or concerns you may have.
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The terms therapist and counselor are often used interchangeably. However, the term counselor is broader and can apply to other fields like nutrition counseling, religious counseling, and school counseling. It's important to check the credential of the practitioner you are seeking services from.
Types of Mental Health Professionals
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC): Requires a Master's degree and significant training in providing therapy. Often works in private practice.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW): Requires a Master's degree and significant training in mental health or social care programs. LCSWs are licensed to provide therapy and often work in community-based organizations.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist: Requires a Master's Degree, significant training, and specializes in family and relationship issues.
Licensed addiction counselor: Requires a Master's degree, significant training, and specializes in addiction.
Licensed Psychologist: Requires a doctoral degree. Psychologists can provide therapy and often work in a more clinical setting.
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While seeing a therapist may be difficult, studies show that the majority of people benefit from the process. Psychotherapy has been shown to be more effective than standard medical interventions for mental health issues. Psychotherapy can help improve functioning, physical health, and emotional well being. Beginning the therapeutic process is a personal choice you get to make when you're ready. Positive outcomes are common but not guaranteed. Benefiting from therapy is often supported by client engagement and desire.
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At the beginning of treatment, it's best to see your therapist weekly. This helps establish the relationship and treatment plan. Your therapist can serve you better when they know you. When you feel you have made progress and are focusing on maintaining, you could move to every other week.
The American Psychological Association suggests that 15-20 weekly sessions are necessary for clients to see significant improvement. You can work with your therapist to find a plan that fits your needs.
Connect with our therapists in Boulder today
Many clients find the compassionate, mindful, non-pathologizing approach to be effective and supportive. Creating a space of non-jugment is one of the top priorities at our practice. Our clinicians have master's degrees in clinical mental health and hold the licensed professional counselor credential. If this sounds like a good fit for you, reach out for a free consultation to start the process.
We are accepting new clients! We offer virtual counseling to clients living in Colorado and see clients from all over Boulder County and the front range in our Boulder clinic. We offer some sliding scale spots. Feel free to inquire about sliding scale availability.