Therapy for Healthcare Providers with Vicarious Trauma in Denver, Colorado
You moved to Denver for the mountains and the laid-back lifestyle. You assumed that coming here would give you the perfect work-life balance, but after living here for a while, you’ve noticed that isn’t exactly what happened. You’ve found that the promise of “unlimited PTO” resulted in never feeling like you can take PTO because the stakes are high, you don’t want to appear like someone who doesn’t give work their all, and you don’t want to make things harder on your team. You’re worried about disrupting the care of the people who rely on you for their own wellbeing and healthcare. Even worse, you’ve found that the stories you’ve heard at work have taken up residence in your own body. Even when you do get to the mountains, you can’t enjoy it the way you once did. This is the impact of vicarious trauma: You can no longer relax and you find yourself ruminating on and even experiencing the physical impacts of someone else’s traumatic experience.
Together, we’ll focus on finding ease in the heavy work days. You’ll learn to let go of the traumas you’ve witnessed from work. I specialize in supporting high achieving therapists, social workers, healthcare workers, doctors, and other professionals with vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue.
The Reality Of Being Healthcare Professional in Colorado
Rather than getting to spend time enjoying the mountains, you feel tied to your phone. That work-life balance has become an unfulfilled dream. Getting up in the morning is harder each day. Every morning, you know that you’re going into another stressful day. You crave time restorative time in nature or just being playful with your family. Some days you’re so full of rage that you worry you’ll say the wrong thing at work. You’re not sleeping well, your body feels run down, and your brain is always firing at high-speed. You know something needs to change.
You want to move from a nervous system that always feels “on” to one that is able to relax and find joy in the present moment. I’m here to help you do just that. I am here to help you untangle the “stuck” places. My practice offers a warm and supportive space. You will learn to focus inward to attend to your bodily experience. Rather than ruminating on the things you’ve seen and heard at work, you’ll be able to notice and then let go of the difficult day. With practice, you’ll connect your somatic experience to your thoughts, beliefs, and actions and move forward with intention. Together, we’ll explore strategies that feel meaningful and work for you.
The Result: You will leave therapy with more than just “coping skills.” You’ll leave with a deeper connection to yourself, awareness of your nervous system, and responding intentionally instead of reactively.
Therapy Specialties for Vicarious Trauma in Denver, CO:
- Trauma & PTSD: Using EMDR to help your brain and body finally realize that the “danger” of a workplace trauma is over, allowing you to live fully in the present. I am a certified EMDR therapist and EMDR Consultant-In-Training.
- Chronic Stress & Burnout: For high-achievers, therapists, and parents in Boulder and Denver who are stuck in the grind and need a somatic-based way to recover.
Therapy Fees and Scheduling for Healthcare Providers in Colorado
Virtual therapy via telehealth in Colorado.
My fees are intentionally below the market rate for someone with my experience. There’s a misconception that therapists with low fees don’t know their worth, but I’m intentional with my business expenses and training investments. My goal is to provide quality services to my community of healthcare professionals and therapists.
$225 for initial session, $185 for follow-up sessions (55-minute sessions)
$278 per 90-minute session (EMDR and couples therapy sessions).
$600 per 3-hour EMDR intensive (note: This is higher than $185 for 3 hours to account for the additional prep time required for intensives)
I provide what’s called a “super bill” to simplify using your out-of-network benefits.
I provide what’s called a “super bill” to make it easy to use your out-of-network benefits.
Specialized Offerings for Healthcare Providers in Colorado
3-Hour EMDR Intensives for doctors and nurses
Doctors and nurses have unpredictable schedules that sometimes get in the way of the consistency the standard EMDR schedule requires. These intensives are meant for your if you are a healthcare professional needing support with an acutely stressful event at work, chronic stress/burnout, or compassion fatigue.
Drop-In Virtual EMDR Group Therapy for Burnout, Workplace Trauma, and Compassion Fatigue
In addition to targeted individual therapy for mental health professionals, I am offering a discounted, drop-in group for vicarious trauma for healthcare professionals and social workers. I specialize in working with therapists, social workers, nurses, and doctors. You see it all in your work, and sometimes carrying it home is unavoidable. This short-term group offers relief from the experiences that stick with you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Therapy Services in Colorado
What is a phone consultation?
- You can learn a lot from reading someone’s website, but you can’t get a feel for your therapist without at least hearing their voice. This is your first opportunity to meet a therapist. You’ll want to hear that your therapist knows something about your unique experience and has a plan to help you. Your therapist should be able to speak to that. And, even if someone knows what they’re talking about, they still might not feel like the right fit for you and that’s OK.
- My consultations are 15-minute phone calls. It’s free of charge and there’s no pressure to move forward.
Please share your credentials
- I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Maine, New York, and Colorado. To maintain my clinical license in Colorado, I complete 40 hours of continuing education every two years.
- My graduate work was completed at Columbia University, where I completed a program to earn my Master’s Degree in Social Work and Master’s Degree in Public Health.
- I was initially licensed while working in NYC. To become an LCSW in New York, I completed 2000 hours of supervised clinical experience within 5 years of graduating and passed a national exam on clinical social work practice. New York is strict about only direct clinical contact hours counting towards those 2000 hours, whereas Colorado requires more hours, but allows you to count hours spent on research, supervision, and administrative work to count towards the requirement for clinical licensure.
- Additional credentials:
- EMDR-certified therapist and Consultant-In-Training. To retain this credential, I complete 12 hours of continuing education in EMDR practice within every 2 year period.
- Certified Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner (PMH-C). To retain this credential, I complete 12 hours of continuing education within every 2 year period.
Do you only offer EMDR therapy when treating healthcare providers?
- No. In addition to being an EMDR-certified therapist, I have advanced training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). My additional training in schema therapy, somatic therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and internal family systems therapy informs my therapy practice.
- Because we never dive right into EMDR processing, I use somatic practices, CBT, and DBT skills to help you find stability through the initial phases of EMDR. Some people choose to move into EMDR work for deeper trauma healing and recovery, while others feel comfortable meeting less frequently or ending therapy once they have moved through the acute situation/s that brought them to me.
Why should I trust you? What experience do you have supporting healthcare professionals and therapists with burnout?
- Trauma therapy for healthcare professionals has made up a substantial part of my work since 2020. At that time, healthcare professionals came into my practice to process the trauma of their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. They came to me feeling exhausted, disconnected, and numb. We’ve worked through burnout, grief, acute workplace traumatic events, and vicarious trauma to find relief, connection, and the ability to experience the joy at their weddings, births of their children, and other life events.
- I have supported therapists and social workers with burnout and vicarious trauma as a supervisor and as a therapist. The work we do is hard and I know the systems you’re facing and the depth of the work you do well. My focus is supporting therapists through their burnout, compassion fatigue, and workplace trauma, so that they can reconnect to the meaning that brought them into the field. Therapists who come to me feeling numb and withdrawn leave therapy feeling embodied and present with their loved ones.
Are there benefits to paying outside of insurance?
- There are a couple of benefits to paying out of network. One is that it keeps therapy out of your medical record. While mental health care is now more accepted as an important part of self care, it is still stigmatized in certain fields and communities. People also have real concerns about how their diagnosis or mental health treatment might impact their professional growth. Being out of network offers discretion and privacy.
- Additionally, paying out of network means that there aren’t restrictions on the work we do. We will talk about length of treatment, costs, and treatment planning from our very first phone consultation. Insurance plans sometimes restrict the number of therapy sessions they’ll reimburse or only reimburse for certain modalities for specific disorders. EMDR is a great example of this: Many insurance companies will only reimburse EMDR therapy if you have a PTSD diagnosis, despite trauma having pervasive effects that may not meet the diagnostic threshold for PTSD.
What support do you offer with out of network claims for healthcare professionals in Maine?
- I offer a monthly “super bill” to support your reimbursement. This bill will include your information, a diagnosis, and the billing code and cost for your session.