danelle chapman blog
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change, Mental Health
Some Days Are Harder Than Others, and That’s Part of Healing
If you follow the news or spend time on social media, it’s hard not to get pulled into difficult stories, especially ones that stir up trauma you thought you had worked through. Why difficult news hits so hard Our nervous systems don’t always distinguish between something happening to us and something we’re watching happen to...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change, Mental Health
Working with Depression: Understanding It and Finding Support
If you or someone you love has experienced clinical depression, you know how painful and exhausting it can be. Sadness is a normal part of life, and moments of overwhelm can even lead to a sense of hopelessness, but that’s very different from clinical depression. Clinical depression (known medically as Major Depressive Disorder) is more...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Moving Through Midlife
Every stage of life I work with teaches me something different. But midlife can be messy, magical, and often both at once. This resonates with me personally right now as well. I want to take a moment to honor what I’m witnessing, in my clients and in myself: a season of change, loss, and hard...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Feeling Better Doesn’t Mean Feeling Less
I was reminded of this idea while listening to David Kessler’s Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. He talks about how meaning begins and ends with the stories we tell, that storytelling is how we heal, and that healing doesn’t mean the loss didn’t happen. It means the loss no longer controls us. I...
- Brainspotting
Feeling Stuck? Brainspotting Might Help You Move Forward
I remember learning about Brainspotting decades ago and, honestly, was a bit turned off by the name, it seemed strange. But after 20 years as a therapist, I’ve become more drawn to approaches that work below the surface of talk therapy to support real healing. Brainspotting also felt less formal than EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
Boundaries Through Connection: Raising Tweens and Teens Who Trust Their Own Voice
The more we learn as parents, and the more we’re inundated with information online, the easier it is to fall into a fear-based or anxious parenting approach. What I’ve learned, both as a mom and as a counselor in schools and private practice, is that this doesn’t empower our tweens and teens. It often leads...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
To The Anxious Moms Out There, I See You!
In my work as a therapist, my approach honors each person’s story and each person’s why, instead of jumping to labels and judgments. And while this is easy to talk about, I know first-hand how hard it is to practice as an anxious mom. For those anxious moms out there: we gotta get a grip...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
Trust the Parent You Already Are
As a parent and mental health professional, I’m often asked for advice on parenting. And I know in anxious, overwhelming moments as a parent I’m googling, listening to podcasts, and searching for books myself. It makes sense, we care deeply and want to get it “right“. And is there such a thing as getting it...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
Being a Healthy Sport Parent
We hear more and more stories of professional and Olympic athletes speaking openly about their mental health, and to me, that means it’s time to listen. Because it starts long before the professional level. It starts with us, as parents of young athletes. Yes, most of our kids are not going to go pro, and...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Befriending Grief
“For the most part, grief is not a problem to be solved, not a condition to be medicated, but a deep encounter with an essential experience of being human.” – Francis Weller The Wild Edge of Sorrow Grief is a universal human experience. As Francis Weller reminds us, everything we love, we will lose. This...
- Safe and Sound Protocol, Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Befriending Your Nervous System: Finding Safety, Choice, and Calm
Viktor Frankl talked about how the greatest freedom we have is the freedom to choose our response in any given situation. This freedom isn’t always easy to access — especially when we feel anxious, overwhelmed, or disconnected — but it’s something we can strengthen through mindfulness, self-compassion, and nervous system awareness. Learning to Ride Life’s...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
How to Foster Good Mental Health in Our Homes
In today’s fast paced digital age with information overload, packed schedules, very real economic stressors, and social media algorithms that seem to be out to get us, we really have to be intentional and tune into what our families need to feel balanced, responsive, connected, fulfilled, and happy. The World Health Organization defines mental health...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
We’ve Got to Go Through It: Confronting the Tough Stuff
I’m not the first person to write about the connection between the morals in the children’s book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury and confronting the tough stuff or the challenges in our lives. Throughout the book on the family’s bear hunt adventure they confront obstacles such as rivers,...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Digital Wellbeing – Are you digitally well?
My clients and I have increasingly been talking about the impact of screen time on our overall wellness and mental health. For me, I know checking my email, texts, and social media can be an anxious habit to fill quiet time. And for some reason, having no emails or texts to respond to gives me...
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills, Mindfulness
Easy-ish Mindfulness Meditation
We hear about mindfulness and meditation and mindfulness meditation frequently in the wellness and mental health world, and for good reason, it can be very beneficial and effective in helping to manage the chaos that can ensue in our lives and mind. And if this chaos is left unchecked can lead to great disruption and...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
The Power of Positive Self-Talk and Visualization
I was reminded of the power of positive self-talk recently with my son. One morning I was getting ready for work and he came into the bathroom and said “Mom can you come write down I can do it, I can hike dinosaur ridge in a thought bubble for my picture.” I was taken by...
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills
The 3 A’s of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of being awake, learning to inhabit your life, and becoming more intentional with your actions. The 3 A’s is a handy way to check in with yourself and practice mindfulness. At any time you can pause, take a moment, and check in on the following: 1. Attention – What are...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
3 Types of Strength to Practice with your Children and How
“Building resilience in children is not about making them tough. Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties and manage how you feel.” One of my favorite YogaCalm® lessons to teach to young people and their families is about Strength. When we think about being strong we often first think about physical strength, and sometimes...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
3 Practices to Help You be a More Mindful Parent & Partner
“The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn One of my favorite questions to ask myself and those in my practice is “What do you want to remember, how do you want to live your moments?” For many of us those moments are in relationship. And what we know is that...
- Parenting Support & Therapy
5 Simple Practices to Build Community in Your Home
Our families are our first community, they are our central community, they are our heart. It is in the family community that children learn what it means to be in relationships with a group of people. Communities both support and challenge us and families are no exception. As parents we often want nothing more than...
- Counseling with a Mindful Movement Approach
How Family Yoga Tools Can Increase the Harmony in your Home
Have you ever had those moments where during family conflict or chaos you lay your head down and wave an imaginary white flag of surrender? If you have, I hope you know that one you are not alone, two you are normal and so is your family, and three we know we cannot stay in...
- Counseling with a Mindful Movement Approach
Mindful Movement and Mental Health Part 2 – A Mind-Body-Brain Approach to Wellness
“As we begin to re-experience a visceral re-connection with the needs of our bodies, there is a brand-new capacity to warmly love the self. We experience a new quality of authenticity in our caring, which redirects our attention to our health, our diets, our energy, our time management. This enhanced care for the self-arises spontaneously...
- Counseling with a Mindful Movement Approach
Mindful Movement and Mental Health Part 1
Many people ask how and why do I incorporate mindful movement into my mental health practice and what is it? Great questions! To me mindful movement is a mixture of yoga, mindfulness meditations, breathing, and guided relaxation exercises. I was first introduced to yoga in 2010 when I went to a Yoga Calm ® training...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
How do we Live a Balanced Life in an Unbalanced time?
II often find myself using the phrase “I need to find a balance” or “strike a balance.” How do we do that when our life or community can feel like they are in turmoil? We may be striving to find a balance between work and play, exercise and rest, healthy eating and indulging, talking and...
- Counseling with a Mindful Movement Approach
Mindful Movement Practice – Compassion and Self-Care
It is not uncommon to feel a bit tired in the winter months. Darker days, the adrenaline rush (drama and trauma for some) of the holidays are over, and we can fall into a rut anticipating spring. For those working in helping professions; teachers, counselors, wellness professionals it is a busy time supporting and providing...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
When Body Positivity Backfires
“Although the trance of feeling separate and unworthy is an inherent part of our conditioning as humans, so too is our capacity to awaken. We free ourselves from the prison of trance as we stop the war against ourselves and, instead, learn to relax to our lives with a wise and compassionate heart.” – Tara...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Listen and Live with a Compassionate Heart
“Compassion, a sense of universal responsibility, thinking of others as your brothers and sisters and all human beings as one family — that is the antidote for fear, hate and jealousy.” – Dalai Lama As a parent, counselor, and human I feel strongly about cultivating and practicing compassion. I believe this most strongly when I...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Anchoring with Imagery
I recently got my second tattoo and while my brother lovingly and jokingly says “You are one more tattoo away from a biker gang”, I realize the power of grounding and anchoring in imagery these days. Now, you do not need to get these images tattooed onto your body to find your steadiness and...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Forgiveness is for the Forgiver
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Forgiveness is a practice, and a painful and difficult one at that. It is one...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Loving Your Body from the Top Down
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” ― Patrick Rothfuss Practicing self-compassion, especially for women when it comes to body image, is not easy. I work on my practice of having a...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Lessons Learned as a School Counselor
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou I’m approaching the end of my career as a School Counselor and as I move through the grief of this transition I feel excitement, sadness, and an immense amount of gratitude for all the...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Spring Renewal by Seeing the Goodness
All beings are flowers blossoming In a blossoming universe. —Soen Nakagawa Spring time is upon us and the season of spring often refers to a time of hope, youth and growth. Flowers start to bloom symbolizing new life and growth and there can be a sense of hope that the drudgery and difficulties of winter...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
A Peaceful and Steady Heart
Keeping a peaceful and steady heart in the midst of human suffering is one of the most important practices I can think of during times where we feel shattered, hopeless, and afraid. We all have or will have these moments of losing faith and struggling to return to some sense of wholeness. I wish our...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Feel your Feelings in 2018
I have been tossing around the usual new year blog ideas; goals, intentions, making changes and none of them resonated with me like the skill and practice of “feeling your feelings”. That may seem like an obvious and unavoidable practice to some, but in my work as a Counselor I am often working with my...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Practice Compassion towards Self and Others
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Reflections on Gratitude and Joy
“When you go to a garden do you look more at the thorns or the flowers?” – Rumi We are entering the seasons of Gratitude and Joy, we see these phrases all over and yet, how often to we slow down and reflect on if we are truly practicing and cultivating these feelings? And what...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Surrendering to the Genuine Practice of Self-Compassion and Loving-Kindness
Talking about Self-Compassion and Loving-Kindness comes easily to me, truly practicing them with open-heartedness, now that is tough part. I am very proud of my hard-working midwestern roots. “Work hard, be positive, don’t complain, be grateful, don’t upset the apple cart.” These are the messages I remember from my youth. They are not bad, they...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Loss, Grief, Healing, and Transformation
“Awareness may not diminish the enormity of our pain in all circumstances. It does provide a bigger basket for tenderly holding and intimately knowing our suffering in any and all circumstances, and that, it turns out, is transformative and healing.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn Loss, Grief, Healing, and Transformation are four powerful and universal experiences. Loss...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Connecting to our Wisdom, Our Inner Guide
Who is your enemy? Mind is your enemy. Who is your friend? Mind is your friend. – Buddha For an upcoming yoga support group, Reflect, Relax, Renew, I have been exploring the idea of wisdom. We throw around the word wisdom, but do we really know what it is and what it means to embody...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Nurturing Love by Practicing it
We all wish for and long for love and it is not something that just magically happens, it is something that must be nurtured and taken care of in order to grow and flourish. I had a wise professor tell me once that he believed people fell into hope versus fell into love. I think...
- Counseling & Therapy for Life Transitions, Anxiety, and Change
Spring Renewal from the Attitude of Equanimity
“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” ~ Proverb I thank my yoga teacher, Kimi Marin, for the inspiration behind this blog post. She helped me ease into my discomfort around admitting to myself I have been feeling quite tired or “blah” for lack of better words for the last couple...
- Trauma-Informed Therapy for Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Regulation
Creating Space and Relieving Stress with Mantra
When we are under an immense amount of pressure and feeling stressed our minds are often preoccupied and racing with thoughts and our body and muscles may ache from the tension of holding them tight. Stress is inevitable. We may have some stressors we can take off our plates, but for the most part we...
Hi, I’m Danelle Chapman!
I am a Licensed School Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Nationally Certified Counselor, and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT). I offer mindful movement and individual counseling services to anyone ages pre-teen to adult in the Parker, CO area.
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