Life & Work with Claire Coonrod of Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Coonrod

Hi Claire, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a child, I struggled with anxiety. I didn’t know what the feeling was called at the time, all I knew was that I was that I had a pit in my stomach every time I would go to school and often cried so much during the day I had to be sent home. My world felt small. My parents, trying to help, sent me to therapy. I learned about this new feeling I was experiencing and how to manage it. Over the years, my anxiety started to get better, and with this came a new sense of adventure. My anxiety made me brave and I began exploring the world through travel. The world opened back up to me and I became fascinated with learning about other people’s cultures and experiences. This curiosity led me to study psychology in my undergraduate career. As much as I loved learning, my favorite part was interacting with others through internships and helping people learn about their mental health. Soon, I was getting my Master of Social Work to continue being an advocate. Now, my life has come full circle and I spend my days working as a therapist in private practice. Everyday, I get to help peoples’ worlds open up just as mine did.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As I often tell my clients, “progress is not linear”. My journey hasn’t been easy and there have been many dips along the way. Just like any mental health issue, my anxiety has gone in waves. It sometimes inhibited my life at inconvenient times. I had a panic attack during my SAT’s that made me feel like college was unachievable. However, I was able to retake them, get into college, and get A’s on many tests in the future. I went through a period in college where just going out into public made me anxious. But day by day it got easier, and I am now able to look back at college with joy and love in my heart for the friendships I made. I faced feelings of imposter syndrome starting as a therapist, but not giving up has led to the most fulfilling job I’ve ever had. I now think our biggest dips or challenges are our greatest time for growth.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work as a mental health therapist at Ember Psychotherapy Collective. I specialize in treating anxiety, depression, OCD, and Trauma. Working with anxiety and depression has always been a passion of mine, knowing how these felt. During an internship in my master’s program, I started working with OCD. The gold standard treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This is an exposure-based therapy and I found it uncomfortable to learn. I was unfamiliar with it which made me nervous. However, the more and more I did it, the easier it became for me. This is essentially the premise of exposure work, so I really did exposure on exposure. OCD is now one of my favorite things to work with and advocate for. During my first year as a licensed therapist, I got Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) trained. This is a modality for treating trauma and learning it, opened my eyes to how much trauma can affect everything. Now, I am a trauma-informed therapist who always keeps trauma in the back of my mind. I use all of my trainings and experiences to build therapy around the clients that I am serving. I love getting to know my clients for who they are, showing up with compassion and helping them reach the goals they want to achieve.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Finding a mentor who is kind and whose values align with your own is the most important. Kindness is important so much on both ends of a mentor-mentee relationship. It is important to listen and be listened to. I have had so much help from my mentors and grateful they have all been kind. When starting out, I found it most important to come from a place of curiosity. This curiosity has allowed me to get the most out of my learning and has also helped me network. Getting genuinely interested in another individual’s specialty has allowed me to form meaningful connections. Networking can feel nerve-racking but can be super beneficial and fun. I think showing up as myself has allowed me to enjoy these experiences and help build community. Sometimes networking takes bravery but so do most things that are good for us!

Pricing:

• $170 per session

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emberpsychotherapycollective.com/
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/claire-coonrod-denver-co/1255583