The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are and who, for better or worse, we are becoming. 
~Frederick Buechner

Sara Bryan, LPC

  • Colorado Licensed Professional Counselor, LPC #11428

    California Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, LPCC #12877

    Approved IFS Clinical Consultant 2022

    Certified IFS Therapist, 2021

    IFS (Internal Family Systems) Level 1 Trained, 2019

    IFS, Level 2 Trained, 2019

    EMDR Trained 2015

    Enrichment Student, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, 2009

    M.A. in Clinical Counseling from University of Northern Colorado (2007)

    B.S. in Psychology from Colorado State University, Cum Laude (2001)

    • Complex Trauma and CPTSD- with particular focus on those who have experienced trauma within the context of a core relationship(s) during their formative years.

    • Love and Relationship concerns, including relational discord, attachment wounds, and relationally addictive behaviors

    • Therapy for therapists- holding the stories of the story holders.

  • As a Level Two Internal Family Systems trained therapist, and deep admirer of Narrative therapy as well, counseling with me is a mix of the two. If you don't know what IFS is, please read the "Internal Family Systems" tab on my intro page to learn more about IFS in particular.

    As a counselor, I am deeply passionate about providing counseling that is trauma informed, which means a felt sense of safety and a kind and considerate pace are the most important thing in the room. I lead with curiosity and compassion and seek to create an atmosphere where clients can freely explore their inner world.

    I do not practice shame based modalities because I am a firm believer that no genuine healing comes through shame. My approach is non-pathologizing and considerate. I truly meet people right where they are.

  • I have been in the healing field for over 20 years. In this time I have worked with adults with special needs as a support person, spent time in Romania for six months working with babies in the orphanage system, worked with children living on the streets of Brazil, owned and operated an eldercare business (including time spent caregiving and doing hospice work), worked as an early childhood specialist in community mental health, and for the last six years have been a complex trauma specialist in private practice. That’s a lot! My heart has always been to care for, connect with and to seek to know the most vulnerable among us.

    
I have devoted my life to healing, to exploring what healing means and have relentlessly pursued discovering what makes genuine healing possible. I have witnessed much healing in my years of being a counselor and consider it an immense and sacred honor to walk alongside people in their healing journey.

    On a personal note, I am married with a son and a daughter. To summarize why I do what I do, a quote from Henri Nouwen seems to best give words to it, “We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.”

“When asked why I am a counselor my first response, which often feels overly simplistic, is because I love it. Besides that, and the deeper reason, is that I feel profoundly called and connected to this sacred work. In my practice I specialize in relational complex trauma and often work with those with early childhood trauma. I also walk with many who desire to ponder life direction or who are simply longing for a place to reflect more deeply and intentionally regarding their life and heart. I would be honored to journey with you”

Welcome! I am so glad you are here! I am so curious what brought you here, why you landed on my page, what you are hoping for, and what in you is asking for your attention and care through seeking and considering counseling. Whatever your story that has brought you here, I am so glad you are considering a counseling journey, and I honor the courage it takes to consider that.

People usually come to therapy because the time is ripe.  It may be because the fruit of their lives have been left neglected too long or some goodness or joy was stolen by another, or in one’s haste to taste of sweetness, they did not let their lives reach full fruition.  It is not uncommon to hear a person who feels that in spite of all they have sought to fill them, they are still left feeling empty or lost or alone. 

I believe that therapy is a place to begin the beautiful and courageous work of knowing the stories of your heart, of connecting to unknown, overlooked and often neglected parts of who you are and were and long to be. We long for a witness to our lives, but more than that we need a WITH-NESS. We need to have another be with and we need to learn how to be with ourselves in new ways too.