Elyse Bassman, LPC
I am a psychotherapist with ten years of experience in the mental health industry. I graduated with a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University and am currently a licensed professional counselor located in Boulder, Colorado.
I can trace my journey to be a therapist back to an early age. As a sensitive child, I felt my own pain and empathized with the pain of others. Seeing and feeling the pain that is inherent in life, I felt a deep desire to help bring relief. This initial heart-wish led me down a path of personal healing and eventually to being a therapist.
As a teenager, I stumbled upon mindfulness practices and the work of Tara Brach, who is a meditation teacher, psychologist and author of “Radical Acceptance.” Her teachings on accepting inner suffering with compassion were something that I had never considered and they completely changed the way I regarded and interacted with the young, vulnerable parts of myself.
With the help of these teachings, meditation, and my own therapy (influenced heavily by Internal Family Systems therapy, listed on my Types of Therapy page), I learned to embrace the sensitivity that the world had previously told me was a flaw and to slowly befriend the parts of myself that were in need of love and attention. With a radically accepting heart, I ventured inside and held the hands of the parts of me that needed to grieve or were scared.
This journey informed my approach to the psyche that is rooted in the belief in each being’s innate wholeness, goodness and sanity. We might get separated from this wholeness through trauma, anxiety, and the stresses of modern society, but I believe acceptance and curiosity are key ingredients of the path back there.
Meeting all parts of myself with acceptance and curiosity is still a part of my regular practice and something that I need to do over and over again in my life. I aspire to keep relating to my own internal world and that of others with an accepting heart. All parts of us deserve to be seen, understood, accepted, and loved.
Your journey is different than mine, but we all have part of us that are in need of attention and care (those that have been pushed down or rejected, parts of us that have taken on negative beliefs as a result of stress and trauma or that are desperately trying to get our needs met in extreme ways). I offer a nonjudgmental space to get to know these parts of yourself. I cannot walk your path for you but can hold the flashlight, offer perspective, and help you navigate the sticky places with acceptance and care.
Work Experience
I have worked in the mental health field since 2013 and have been in practice as a therapist since 2017. Some of my early experience includes facilitating therapeutic writing exercises for children who lost a parent and working in residential settings at mental health treatment centers supporting clients in building skills to cope with life’s challenges.
During graduate school, I worked as a therapeutic housemate, as a mentor to teenagers struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues, and as a caregiver for elderly clients experiencing dementia. My internship experiences also included working at a hospice providing grief counseling and in a university setting providing individual and group counseling to undergraduate and graduate students with varying issues, including anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, life transitions, and substance abuse issues.
After graduating, I worked with teenagers struggling with anxiety, depression, substance abuse issues and family discord in a wilderness therapy setting. I also spent a year working in a group practice providing individual therapy to people ages 11 and up struggling with life transitions, depression, anxiety and PTSD before starting my own practice in 2019. I now offer individual therapy for preteens, teenagers, young adults and adults struggling with many mental health issues. I specialize in anxiety and trauma and have training in EMDR, Internal Family Systems therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Sand tray therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment therapy.
In my free time, I enjoy being in nature, nurturing creative outlets (including writing and pottery), doing puzzles (liberty puzzles are my favorite) and spending time with my rambunctious puppy, Oliver who teaches me so much about boundaries and unconditional love.
Education, Certifications & Training
Licensed Professional Counselor
Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University
Specialization in Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology
Internal Family Systems Level 1 & IFS for Complex PTSD Trainings, Center for Self Leadership
SAFE (somatic and attachment-focused) approach to EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy), Personal Transformation Institute
Additional training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Sand Tray Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and trauma-informed therapy