Meet Mallaree Blake, PsyD, CST of Authentic Connections Therapy and Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mallaree Blake, PsyD, CST.

Hi Mallaree, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Coming from a family history of mental health and addiction issues, I felt the drive early on to become a therapist. Witnessing the suffering and resiliency of those around me emboldened me to pursue a career that focused on healing and growth. While attending the University of Dayton, I became enthralled in my sociology and psychology classes about how society and individual people interact and influence each other. This is also where my dedication to issues around social justice began, a guiding arrow I have used throughout all of my education and training. While in college, I decided that becoming a therapist would allow me the opportunity to support both individual people and the greater society and systems surrounding them. I later completed my Master’s at Boston College and my Doctorate at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, programs that embedded diversity and social justice work into the curriculum and training. Throughout my training and work experience, I have provided therapeutic services in community mental health centers, university counseling centers, hospitals, schools and now, private practice.

In 2020, I started my own private practice, Artemis Psychology, which specialized in women’s issues, pregnancy and postpartum concerns, sex and sexuality, trauma, and relationship concerns. Shortly after, I got the opportunity to take on a doctoral trainee and quickly realized just how fulfilled I felt when providing training that was intentional, dynamic, and relational. My friend and previous co-worker (now business partner and work wife), Dr. Brittany Woolford, and I decided to open a training consortium between our two private practices (Lone Wolf Psychological Services and Artemis Psychology). We wanted to provide training for students in doctoral programs around relational therapy and relational issues. That consortium grew rapidly and in the beginning of 2025, we launched our joint business: Authentic Connections Therapy and Wellness.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
2020 represents a very difficult chapter for our society. It felt nerve-racking to start a business in the middle of a pandemic when everything felt uncertain and scary. With the killing of George Floyd (and so many others), Black Lives Matter protests, the #MeToo movement, and other pivotal events, it felt like suffering was everywhere. It was one of the first times in my professional career where I consistently felt helpless and powerless as a therapist. I had no answers to give, no reassurance to provide, and little hope for things to get better. This helped me reorient my position as a therapist towards recognizing that I had limits in what I could do to help and heal, which allowed me to recognize that witnessing suffering without fear or shame could often be enough in the room. It also emboldened me to start a training consortium that prepared therapists to intervene around areas of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is a core quality and value of ACTW, especially as we continue to navigate horrors in our world, communities, and administration.

As you know, we’re big fans of Authentic Connections Therapy and Wellness. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Authentic Connections Therapy and Wellness is a team of 18 therapists, across 3 office locations, that provide a range of therapy services to support people on their journey to live authentically and create thriving, fulfilling relationships. Our therapists are highly trained and educated, as well as dedicated to our values of connection, authenticity, and social justice. We value being a boutique and specialized therapy practice that focuses on creating lasting transformation for our clients.

At ACTW, we believe that true well-being comes from deep, meaningful connections—with others and with ourselves. Our dedicated team of therapists and providers has come together with one shared mission: to help you build healthier relationships and create a more fulfilling life. Many of us are told that relationships are essential, yet we’re rarely taught how to nurture them. That’s where we come in. Our therapy sessions provide a supportive and empowering space where you’ll gain valuable insights into how past experiences shape your present. Through this process, we help you break free from patterns that may be holding you back—so you can cultivate the love, trust, and connection you deserve.

We offer individual therapy, couples therapy, premarital therapy, sex therapy, EMDR, and ketamine assisted psychotherapy. Our providers are all trained in Level One or Level Two Gottman Method Couples Therapy as well. As a team, we participate in weekly didactic training as we’re dedicated to life long learning and improving our competency and effectiveness. Many of our providers accept Aetna and Lyra EAP and every provider offers some reduced fee session cost on their caseload to support clients who may have reduced ability to pay out of pocket.

We specialize in relationship concerns, trauma, sex and sexuality, divorce and break up recovery, attachment dynamics, non-monogamy and polyamory, pregnancy and postpartum concerns, and LGBTQIA+ identities and relationships. Our clients feel us showing up as humans first, therapists second. We hold the relationships that we develop with our clients as central to the therapeutic work, which leads to longer lasting growth and change. I believe this is what sets us apart.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My business partner, Dr. Brittany Woolford, is the visionary of our practice. She and I have an incredible dynamic that provides us with amazing growth that is intentional and thoughtful. Brittany is the bigger risk-taker between us. She helps me to visualize where ACTW can grow, while I explore how those efforts will impact the here and now of our business. Last year, Brittany was able to recognize that we needed to expand our business location and office space to accommodate our growing team, as well as new hires we hoped to bring on. This endeavor felt scary as we were looking at a brand new building with a 5 year lease in a brand new neighborhood for our business. Brittany felt the risk was worth it and I fully trusted her perspective. Less than a year into the space, all of our offices are very full and we have a beautiful new location that has allowed us to expand our services and reach to the community.

We have also taken on risks that were in alignment with our values, but not necessarily the best financial decisions for our bottom line. We moved our team of therapists from 1099s to W2 employees so that we could offer benefits (401k and match, PTO, health and wellness stipend, training stipend) and protect our team if we ever endured another pandemic or economic crisis. We also decided to provide a stipend to our trainees and post doctoral residents to compensate them fairly for their work and reduce financial stress during their early career years. ACTW was willing to take these financial risks because it was in alignment with who we are as people, not just business owners.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.authenticconnectionstherapyandwellness.com
• Instagram: @authenticconnectionsdenver
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/authentic-connections-therapy-and-wellness