303-868-4207 | 10255 E. 25th Ave Suite 5 Aurora, CO 80010 hello@kindred-counseling.com

About

If you’ve found yourself on this page, you’re probably trying to figure out if I’m the best therapist to help you. The process of finding the right therapist can be hard. My hope is that the information below will shed some light on who I am, who I serve, and how I can help you. If you have additional questions, please reach out. 

Let’s Get to Know One Another

 

Hi! I’m Brittni – I’m a therapist and Love & Logic® Parent Educator…but you might call me a heart healer, relationship recharger or boundary builder instead.

My Devotion to Your Healing

I can help you get unstuck, 
ditch your guilt, and
love your people better 
by guiding you towards real self care,
helping you strengthen your boundaries,
and healing your past
so that you can be your best self.

Meet Brittni

Who I Serve

I specialize in helping adults who may be struggling with:

  • The struggles of being a parent
  • Anxiety
  • Trauma & PTSD
  • Letting go of the past and navigating the future
  • Self-esteem
  • Perfectionism
  • Excessive care-taking of others
  • Feeling overwhelmed

MY Story:  Why I Do What I Do

I started my counseling career as a school counselor, where I soon realized that no matter how much I helped a teenager heal and develop coping skills at school, they could only heal as much as their parents had healed in their own journies. In other words, if anxious and depressed teenagers go home to overwhelmed/anxious/depressed parents, they’re unable to fully get the support they need. 

Think of it this way:  it’s like on the airplane where the stewardess tells you to put your own oxygen mask on first…if Mom and Dad can’t put their own oxygen masks on first, they won’t be able to respond and support their teen as well as they could if they were able to fully take care of themselves.

Around this time, I had three kiddos under age 5 at home, and quite frankly, I didn’t even know where my oxygen mask was. I felt I was EVERYTHING to EVERYONE and yet I STILL WASN’T ENOUGH. It’s safe to say that my own children would have benefitted from me learning how to cope with the stress and overwhelmed feelings I was experiencing without guilt.  

This was the magic moment when I realized that my children’s wellbeing was a direct result of my own wellbeing. I ditched the mom martyr mantra, prioritized my own self-care without guilt, and started setting more boundaries that allowed me to first be a happier, saner, and more content version of myself, and ultimately to be a more loving, balanced, and present mom and wife.

It turned out that my belief that I had to be everything to everyone was a pretty significant piece of my own codependence. I dove headfirst into training in healing codependency and was amazed that the model I was taught was relevant to almost every problem a client presented. My life changed…and my clients’ lives did too (and so could yours)! 

 My Approach

Courageous action, collaboration, self-discovery, and education are vital pieces of therapy that can generate lasting results in your life. Together, we will interweave all of these pieces so that we can heal the past, change the present, and prepare you for the future you want and deserve.

Courageous Action

Talking things out is certainly a part of therapy, but therapy can be so much more than that. Lasting change occurs when we consistently act or think in a more adaptive way. I’ll be giving you tailored resources, worksheets, and homework along the way to help you make lasting changes. Each session you’ll leave with a big take-away that you can apply to the week ahead.

Collaboration

Therapy is a team effort. I am not the expert, you are the expert in your own life. I’m just the guide to help you get where you want to go. During our sessions, I won’t just be sitting there nodding my head with the occasional, “Uh-huh, go on …” Instead, I will be getting my hands dirty too, so to speak, as I’m equally as invested in your growth as you are.

What does this mean? It means that outside of our session together, I actually spend time studying your history, pondering your current problems (and how they might link to your history), and intentionally planning our next steps together.

Self-Discovery

Together, we take a gentle look at your past to find patterns of difficulty in your life. This involves identifying some of the messages, both the direct and indirect ones, that you received from your parents (or major caregivers) while you were growing up. Often, these are impacting your choices, values, relationships, and actions in ways you aren’t aware of.

We will take time to recognize both the difficult and delightful aspects of what made you who you are today.

We will heal what needs to be healed, honor what needs to be honored, and grieve what needs to be grieved.

Next, we can connect what we’ve learned to the present to help you feel better today, and then figure out why certain issues keep coming up in your life. Then—here’s the good part— we’ll learn how to diminish these patterns and restore contentment for good.

Consequently, going to therapy now will help you avoid repetitive problems and more therapy in the future. My goal is to provide you with the type of lasting healing that puts myself out of a job—so you don’t need me in the future.

Education

I use a psychoeducational approach, which is just a fancy way to say that my clients learn a great deal while in counseling. I want you to leave having a better understanding of not only yourself but others as well. In this way, your counseling experience can lead to deeper and more authentic relationships with all the people in your life that matter most to you.

Results

The result of all of this is that you are actually healing the core issues that keep surfacing in your life instead of putting a bandaid on it. We’ll be getting to the root of the problem.

I also use assessments to help us both ensure things are getting better for you. I know your time and resources are valuable, and using regular assessments helps us ensure your time with me has been worth it.

 

Tell Me More

Through several years as a therapist, school counselor, Love & Logic parent educator, and mama of three kids, I’ve had the privilege of guiding people towards healing. 

That all sounds good, but I get that you might want to know if I *actually* know what I’m doing. Let’s start with all the letters you see behind my name:

MA – I hold a Master’s degree in both Clinical Counseling & School Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado.

LPC – I am a Licensed Professional Counselor. I received this license after getting my master’s degree and completing two years and 2,000 supervised clinical hours in Colorado.

NCC – I am a Board Certified, National Certified Counselor.

What does that mean to you?

I am committed to counseling.

National Certified Counselor (NCC)Becoming a National Certified Counselor is voluntary. Professionals who complete this voluntary process distinguish themselves from those who only pursue credentials that are required for practice. As an NCC, I am dedicated to providing quality services to my clients and to the counseling profession.

I voluntarily submit to an established conduct review conducted by professionals in counseling.

Counselors work with sensitive information. If there is a question about my actions, clients or others may follow an established process to obtain a neutral review of their concern.

I am required to remain current with developments in the profession.

Board certified counselors complete continuing education in order to maintain their certification and stay current with developments in the profession.

Prior to my licensing, credentialing, and graduate school, I was a double major (sensing a theme here?!) at Miami University, where I earned a BS in Education and a BA in Journalism. In graduate school, I completed an internship at the Eating Disorder Center of Denver and several school counseling internships.

On top of all of this, I am a daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother—and it’s possible these roles have taught me the most of all.

What Makes Me Different?

I am one of the few therapists in Colorado who is trained in Pia Mellody’s Post-Induction Therapy model.

Combined with my training and offerings in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and EFT (Emotion Freedom Technique, otherwise known as Tapping), clients regularly tell me I help them in ways other therapists haven’t been able to. I attend trainings, seminars, and consultations regularly because I simply love to learn how to help others better.

What Does All This Mean to YOu?

Basically, I take all the fancy research, theories, and methodologies and use that to help you get unstuck – but to you, it will feel less like theory and more like genuine empathy. Someone who gets you, someone who is on your side, a kindred connection.