Community Highlights: Meet Erin Jacklin of The Catalyst Center

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Jacklin.

Hi Erin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The Catalyst Center was born from my unwavering determination to create a healthy workplace for therapists and their clients. Having witnessed firsthand the toll and stress that clinicians faced in several systems where the administration was out of touch, I was resolute in my determination to build an environment that provided unwavering support to therapists, enabling them to deliver their absolute best work. Clients thrive when their therapist is healthy and a good fit.

As such, we at the Catalyst Center are committed to connecting clients with clinicians who are not only highly competent in the specialties that they offer but also deeply passionate about their work. Our team comprises therapists with diverse backgrounds who work seamlessly together to help their clients achieve the best outcomes possible. We are dedicated to collaborating within our organization and with other providers in the area to achieve the best possible outcomes for all our clients.

When I started the Catalyst Center, I observed a desperate need in the community for specialized trauma and perinatal care. We observe over and over in many studies the impact of attachment at the early stages of life and how it affects children into their later lives and often reduces trauma. As a result, we trained everyone on our team in trauma, attachment, and EMDR. Over time, we have expanded our specialties to include Eating Disorder Recovery, Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, Child, Family, and Play Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, Neurofeedback, and other central nervous system supports, all driven by our unwavering commitment to providing the best possible care to our clients.

We are also proud to have established ourselves as a premier teaching site, taking on graduate students from DU’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology almost 9 years ago. This led to the creation of a non-profit mental health center, The Ardent Grove Foundation. Ardent Grove is a low-fee clinic that serves the greater Colorado area, providing therapy and assessment both in-person and online.

We created a highly supportive environment for our therapists to gain valuable experience in working with people with trauma. Through grants and donations, we can pay for each of the clinicians at Ardent Grove to get trained in EMDR, underlining our absolute commitment to providing the best possible care to our community.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The mental health field is incredibly challenging, especially when it comes to managing burnout for therapists and staff. It can be emotionally draining to constantly be there for clients without having a proper support system in place. The past few years have only added to this challenge, with the world experiencing so much turmoil. The pandemic, in particular, brought with it a lot of uncertainty for everyone involved. Our clients were understandably stressed, and as therapists and staff, we were right there with them. It was a difficult time for all of us, but we managed to get through it by supporting each other in any way we could. We even formed a band at one point!

Despite these challenges, we remain committed to providing our staff with the best support possible. We offer daily consult hours and non-work-related activities to help our staff unwind. We also make sure to stock our kitchens with tea, coffee, and tasty snacks, which might seem like small gestures, but can make a big difference in maintaining morale. Additionally, we take an annual company retreat, which provides our staff with a much-needed break from the stresses of work. We also celebrate milestones and events with our staff and their families, creating a sense of community that feels more like family.

While there are always challenges that come with running a small business, we have been fortunate to have a relatively smooth road. This is thanks to the incredible people who work with us, who are always willing to rise to the occasion and tackle any obstacles that come our way.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Catalyst Center, INC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We work hard to individualize care for each of our clients and make sure that they have found the right fit in a provider. Even when that isn’t us. We believe that trauma recovery only happens when you are with a provider that you can be yourself around and make a strong connection with.

We love to learn new approaches to therapy that have a high efficacy rate. We strive to provide our clients with the best tools out there in our field. Ten years ago, I saw one of my colleague’s clients continually getting better faster than mine with the use of EMDR so I was trained and now that is an approach we all use.

More recently, I was reading more and more about the use of psychedelics in therapy, and I was skeptical about it. But the more studies I have read, the more convinced I became. A few years ago, about half of our team decided to take a year-long training program in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and it opened my eyes to the amazing benefits of this approach in therapy. I have now witnessed firsthand life-changing results for clients who have undergone this type of therapy. Currently, we offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Our approach is a little different than others in that your therapist is always with you during the experiential session and then we follow up with integrative therapy sessions. We believe that this is vital, especially for people who have experienced a lot of trauma.

One of the things that also sets us apart is our integrative approach to therapy, assessment, and psychiatry. We look at the whole person and take into account all or as many factors as possible that provide answers to a better understanding of them as a person and a path forward for treatment. That can include anything from their family system growing up, current stressors, to Central Nervous System Regulation. We provide neurofeedback and Safe and Sound Protocol to help support the nervous system.

We also work with a lot of other providers outside of our practice, from PCPs, nutritionists, acupuncturists, cranial sacral, physical therapists, etc… to provide our clients with a truly collaborative team.

Trauma is an interesting thing in that your body can hold it in different ways, and not all approaches are the same for everyone. We need diverse approaches to help people recover and thrive. We do a great job of matching people to the providers they need, and we are honored to be part of that for each individual we serve.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
As the founder of this business, I strongly believe that passion and a quality team are essential elements for any thriving business.

That’s why I am committed to providing personalized care and learning as much as I can about cutting-edge techniques to treat trauma and other disorders. We have trained all of our clinicians in EMDR, which has significantly changed how we treat trauma, and we are always exploring new approaches.

Seeing our clients getting better is truly rewarding, and it profoundly impacts the community as a whole. Better mental health leads to better relationships, better work performance, and overall well-being. We all benefit when we can reduce the impact of trauma.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://catalystcenterllc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catalystcenter/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catalystcenterllc

Image Credits
Mitch Gaiser, Devonshire, Priscilla Du Preez, and Pablo Heimplatz