Hello and welcome! I'm AJ
I’m a licensed clinical social worker and a certified marriage and family therapist who specializes in perinatal mental health concerns, including postpartum depression, trauma, and family and couples therapy. I’m also a Colorado native with a spouse and two children, and I am intimately familiar with the ups and downs of every stage of parenthood.
I have worked with families, adolescents, and children in multiple settings since 2008. I am trained to assess, diagnose, and treat maternal mental health disorders, and I enjoy helping people in all stages of parenthood to manage difficult emotions and become competent and confident mothers and fathers.
My goal is to offer non-judgemental support and a safe place to address concerns that may be difficult to discuss openly. You deserve to be heard and to find solutions that will work for your family. Therapy was a way for me to explore my own struggles, realize my strengths, heal what was hurt, and discover a new enjoyment of life. I hope to offer the same support to you.
Parenthood isn’t always traumatic, but when it is, the effects on your daily life can be devastating. My expertise as a trauma therapist gives me the insight to help you examine how trauma (whether one-time or ongoing) has affected your life and to identify tools and strategies to help you heal. I am trained to use EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) as well as many other evidence-based techniques that can help you minimize the effects of trauma and move forward from your traumatic experiences.
Working with me
I try to make getting the support you need as easy and convenient as possible: I offer face-to-face appointments in my office in addition to home visits or Zoom meetings, depending on your availability and flexibility. Children, spouses, partners, and friends are all welcome in the therapeutic space if their presence is important to you.
I’m committed to providing a safe environment for anyone who needs my services. I don’t discriminate, and I serve my clients of all racial, sexual orientation, gender, and religious backgrounds equally. If for whatever reason we aren’t a good match, I will do my best to refer you to someone who is — building a trust-filled and effective therapist-client relationship is one of my most important jobs.
You can expect me to begin working on decreasing your levels of distress and increasing your feeling of stability before creating goals that you can work toward. I will also explore your personal and family history to help you integrate your past with your current experience. And through my expertise as a licensed social worker, I will help you explore any existing untapped resources and refer you to any that interest you and complement your treatment.