When You're Usually the One Others Turn To

Helping professionals often become very skilled at noticing what other people need while becoming disconnected from what is happening within themselves.

You may notice:

• Feeling emotionally or physically depleted after work

• Carrying clients' or others' experiences with you long after the day ends

• Compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma

• Feeling numb, detached, irritable, or overwhelmed

• Difficulty transitioning out of "work mode"

• Feeling responsible for the wellbeing of others

• Burnout or questioning whether you can continue doing work you once loved

• Knowing the coping skills intellectually but struggling to access them for yourself

• Difficulty allowing yourself to need support

• Personal trauma or grief resurfacing alongside the work you do

• Feeling disconnected from your body, relationships, or the parts of your life that once helped you feel grounded

You don't have to wait until you're completely burned out to seek support.

Therapy can also be a place to understand how the work is affecting you, reconnect with yourself, process your own experiences, and create more space for the life you want outside of your professional role.

Therapy for Therapists & Mental Health Professionals

There is a particular vulnerability in being a therapist who goes to therapy.

You may already understand trauma responses, attachment patterns, nervous system regulation, boundaries, and coping skills. You might even catch yourself analyzing your own reactions while they're happening.

But insight doesn't make you immune to being human.

Therapy with another mental health professional can offer something different from consultation or supervision. This isn't about how you're treating your clients or whether you're doing your job correctly.

This space is about you.

We can explore the impact of the work you do, including compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, burnout, professional identity, and the emotional weight of continually being present with others.

Or we can leave work out of the room entirely.

Your own grief, relationships, trauma, transitions, and struggles deserve care too.

Sometimes You Need to Take the Therapist Hat Off

I understand this experience from both sides.

There was a time in my own career when I was deeply burned out. After years of working in the mental health field, I was carrying compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, while also navigating the very real challenges and losses happening in my own life. I reached a point where I questioned whether I wanted to remain in the field at all. And even as a therapist, reaching out for support wasn't easy.

So often in this work, we learn how to show up, put our own experiences aside, and be fully present for the person sitting across from us. There is value in that. But sometimes, we need a place where we can take the therapist hat off. A place where we don't have to have the answers. Where we don't have to analyze what we're feeling, know the right coping skill, or be the one holding space.

Sometimes we simply need permission to show up as our full, human selves.

Finding a therapist who enjoyed working with therapist clients gave me that space. I was able to work through the burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma I had been carrying without having to explain the weight that can come with this work.

That experience is part of why supporting other therapists and helping professionals is so meaningful to me.

We are helpers, but we are also human. We experience grief, trauma, relationship challenges, transitions, stress, and loss just like anyone else. Sometimes we need to make room for those parts of ourselves instead of continually asking them to wait while we care for everyone else.

Taking time to prioritize yourself isn't only about being able to continue showing up for your clients. You are worthy of having a space that is yours, too. A space to reconnect with yourself, tend to what you've been carrying, and find your way toward feeling more like yourself again—for you, for the people you love, and for the work that matters to you.

Learn more about me and my approach to therapy

Support for First Responders & Other Helping Professionals

Some professions require you to repeatedly step toward situations that most people spend their lives hoping they never encounter.

Over time, repeated exposure to crisis, trauma, loss, responsibility, and high levels of stress can affect both the mind and the body.

You may be very good at functioning during a crisis and find that the impact shows up later—when things finally become quiet.

Therapy can provide a confidential space to process difficult experiences, understand the ways stress and trauma may be showing up in your life, and reconnect with yourself outside of the role you perform for others.

I welcome first responders, healthcare and mental health professionals, social workers, counselors, therapists, yoga teachers and wellness professionals, and others whose work involves caring for and supporting people through difficult experiences.

When Your Body Is Carrying the Weight Too

Stress, trauma, grief, and repeated exposure to other people's suffering aren't experienced only through our thoughts.

Sometimes the body is where we notice the impact first.

You may feel constantly activated or on alert. You might struggle to settle even when nothing is wrong. You may feel exhausted but unable to truly rest—or disconnected and numb after spending so much time responding to what everyone else needs.

My approach to therapy recognizes the connection between the mind and body.

Depending on what feels supportive to you, our work may incorporate EMDR, Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), mindfulness, nervous system awareness, and other trauma-informed and body-based approaches alongside traditional talk therapy.

There isn't one right way to heal. We will work collaboratively and at a pace that respects your needs, boundaries, and sense of choice.

You Don't Have to Earn Your Own Care

When caring for others is part of your identity, it can be surprisingly difficult to turn that same care toward yourself.

You don't need to be in crisis.

You don't need to prove that what you're carrying is "bad enough."

And you don't have to know exactly what you need before reaching out.

Therapy can simply be a place where, for once, you don't have to take care of anyone else.

You get to be the one who is supported.

Online Therapy for Helping Professionals Throughout Colorado

I provide virtual individual therapy for adults throughout Colorado, including therapists, counselors, social workers, mental health and healthcare professionals, first responders, yoga teachers, and other helping professionals.

Whether you're navigating compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma, processing grief or trauma from your own life, experiencing burnout, or simply looking for a space that belongs to you, you're welcome here.

Ready to see if we might be a good fit?

I offer a free 15-minute consultation where we can talk about what you're looking for, answer any questions you may have, and see whether working together feels right.

Not quite ready to schedule?

Learn more about pricing & insurance or visit my frequently asked questions.