Can we care deeply without carrying everything? Ashley and Morgen are navigating political hope, systemic injustice, and the emotional weight of standing up for what matters.

In this coffee chat episode, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas share their weekly highs, lows, thumbs up, thumbs down, and middle fingers for the mental health field. They celebrate the blue wave, call out therapist burnout and attacks on transgender youth, question whether we're pathologizing normal emotions, and challenge proposed changes to anti-racism requirements in social work education.

Grab your coffee (or orange juice). This one's about finding your voice, holding onto hope, and choosing peace without abandoning your values.

Here is the link to provide feedback to CSWE that we mentioned during the episode. It expires on November 20, 2026.

Podcast Host Bios:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

What does neurodivergent-affirming therapy look like in practice? Ashley sits down with Shelby, a queer and neurodivergent therapist, to explore ADHD, autism, late diagnosis, and unmasking. They discuss moving beyond diagnostic labels, adapting therapy to clients’ sensory needs, and how showing up authentically as a therapist can create space for clients to do the same.

Guest Bio: Shelby Nolan, LPC, is a queer and neurodivergent therapist living in Colorado and is the owner of A Divergent Lens Counseling, where she specializes in working with complex trauma and other queer and neurodivergent folks. She is working on completing multiple workbooks – one for neurodivergent clients and one for lifters seeking therapy for the first time. She is also passionate about building community with other mental health providers. She runs multiple consultation and learning groups, and she offers clinical supervision for LPCCs seeking the LPC credential and mentorship for those already fully licensed. Outside of being a therapist and a business owner, Shelby enjoys reading fantasy novels, watching anime, playing with her four huskies, and LARPing.

Shelby's website: www.adivergentlenscounseling.com

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

This one opens with Morgen screaming about the “blue tsunami”—a voice memo full of relief and tears and swear words. Then we rewind to the conversation Ashley and Morgen recorded before the election results came in.

Podcast Host Bios:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Hosts Ashley and Morgen sit down with guest Heidi Lindeman, LPC, and IFS therapist, to talk about suicidal thoughts in a whole new way. Not as something to fix, but as parts of us that are trying to find relief. Heidi opens up about her own journey through suicidal ideation. The conversation also touches on motherhood, emotional intelligence, and why there really are no bad parts.

Heidi is giving a gift to our listeners to help them get through hard moments. She has 10 Messages for Moms Audios all free to you. Each audio message is a short 2-4 mins. When you are stuck in a shame spiral there's one to listen to, when you just yelled at your kids there's one to listen to, each audio is tailored to different moments that commonly happen as moms (and parents). To access your free gift go to  https://selfgroundedtherapy.org/free-audio-youre-still-lovable-in-the-mess/ click on "purchase the bundle", on the payment page enter code THERAPYART and you get a 100% discount! This discount code is good until April 19 2027. 

Guest Bio:

Heidi Lindeman is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Longmont CO. She has a passion for supporting mothers parent the way they want to; to move past shame and align into their authentic selves. She's a level 3 trained and certified IFS therapist who uses creativity, compassion, and curiosity to help moms truly have some Self care. Along with IFS Heidi brings in Human Design, Astrology, and spirituality to more wholistically guide parenthood. In her personal life she is a single mom by choice to two young girls and loves being playful with them. She has her own podcast where she tells real stories highlighting all the emotions in her home called The Raising Emotionally Intelligent Humans Podcast.

Podcast Host Bios:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Ashley and Morgen share highs and lows from a heavy week. Ashley clarifies her stance on NHL accountability and opens up about self-doubt in her work, while Morgen celebrates the joy of clinical consultation. The two also get candid about the real financial costs of being a therapist.

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Would you do a therapy session from the driver’s seat? Ashley has heard of therapists doing exactly that. And it’s not the only ethics gap she’s seeing in pre-licensed clinicians.

In this coffee chat episode, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas share their highs and lows of the week. They also give out their thumbs up, thumbs down, and middle fingers for the mental health field. They talk about why basics like informed consent, a private space, and being fully present in session still aren’t being taught. They cheer the growing awareness of perimenopause, menopause, and PMDD in mental health care, and call out how slowly academia changes. Ashley shares how one hockey rivalry brings out a side of her she doesn’t like. Morgen helps her trace it back to a deep need for fairness. They also push back, hard, on blaming mental illness for school shootings.

Grab your coffee (or sparkling apple cider). This one is real, a little raw, and a reminder that therapy has always been political.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Here is the link to the Wheel of Power and Privilege mentioned in today’s episode: https://decolonizeyourpractice.com/wheelofpowerandprivilege

We are not affiliated with Decolonize Your Practice, but we deeply appreciate the work and the thoughtful resources. We encourage you to explore!

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

You’ve been told to take care of yourself. Set boundaries. Prevent burnout. But what happens when the system you work in pushes back every time you do?

In this episode of Coffee with Ashley C. and Morgen V., therapists Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas share their highs and lows from the week. Ashley talks about finally becoming the family black sheep, and the strange freedom that comes with gray rocking. Morgen shares a surprising family reconnection she credits to her own IFS work. She also explains the card deck she uses each night to have hard talks with her son about patriarchy, body image, and friendship.

They also look at how the news cycle weighs on your nervous system, and how to become an informed voter without getting stuck in an echo chamber. Ashley walks through what’s actually on a Colorado ballot, from amendments to judicial retention. She also explains why funding a fire department can mean a two-minute response time instead of 15 minutes.

Then they get to the weekly thumbs up, thumbs down, and middle finger: certification red tape, a payment system that undervalues therapists, and calling it self-care when the real problem is the system.

Grab your coffee and listen in. If this one hits home, follow, like, and share it with a therapist friend who needs it.

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

She picked her college to study with one French horn teacher. Then came nursing, pre-med, two near-misses at medical school, and 10 years in research. Today, Allison Harvey runs a therapy group practice with 11 clinicians and keeps spots open for student therapists.

Allison is the founder and clinical director of Benediction Counseling. She joins Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas to talk about the winding, very human road to private practice. She opened her practice while five months pregnant. A few weeks after her daughter was born, her mom died. In her words, the practice “was founded with a lot of grief.”

In this episode:

• Growing a group practice naturally instead of chasing numbers
• Why supervising new therapists is her most rewarding work
• Medicaid cuts, insurance pressure and fewer new clients coming in
• Where AI fits (and doesn’t) in an ethical therapy practice
• Making room for clients’ spiritual and religious lives
• Holding on to an abundance mindset when your caseload isn’t full

Guest Bio:

Allison Harvey founded Benediction Counseling in 2014 and serves as its Clinical Director while still seeing clients. She holds a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Northern Colorado and an M.A. in Counseling from Denver Seminary.

Allison is passionate about mentoring and supervising early-career therapists. She believes therapists grow stronger and healthier when they befriend and support each other. She trains therapists to serve clients with knowledge, sensitivity, cultural awareness and strong ethics.

Outside of work, Allison is a wife, an adoptive and biological mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend. She loves long walks, quiet music, good coffee and slowing down with a book of poetry.

Allison’s Website: www.benedictioncounseling.com

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

What other job pays you for your work and then takes the money back months later? In this first episode of the new unscripted format, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas pour the coffee and talk about what being a therapist actually feels like these days.

They check in with their highs and lows, as people and as clinicians. They talk about how hard it was to watch the Cornell case unfold, and what to do with that anger when justice may be years away. Ashley explains what Kaiser Colorado’s review of clients with more than 20 sessions a year means for care. She also shares why proving medical necessity can feel like it’s working against the client in front of you.

There’s good news too. Their former guest Jill passed her LCSW exam. Morgen learned to do things scared during a nor’easter. And a shelter dog finally let herself be held.

They wrap up with their likes, dislikes, and middle fingers of the week: clawbacks, differential diagnosis, multi-state licensure costs, and the supervisees and consultees who make the work feel new again.

Grab a cup and join them.  

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

At five years old, Crystal Hines learned about grades and thought, “This is a way out.” That drive carried her through foster care, a full college scholarship, grad school, and a solo move to Colorado with no job and no connections. Years later, deep in her own healing, she realized something bigger. She became a therapist to help her own little parts heal.

In this episode, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas talk with Crystal, an EMDRIA-approved trainer and consultant and an approved IFS clinical consultant, about what trauma work really takes. She shares how EMDR and IFS changed her life as a client first. She explains why she doesn’t care about “big T, little t” trauma. And she talks about trying to change two toxic systems at once. (The systems won, so she built her own.)

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How Crystal defines trauma, and why support matters more than the event itself
• What it’s like to work as a school-based therapist in community mental health
• Why so many therapists are craving their own deep work
• Her thumbs up, thumbs down, and middle finger to the therapy field

GUEST BIO:

Crystal Hines, LPC, is the founder of Align Therapy and Consultation and the creator of IFS-Informed EMDR. She is an EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Consultant and an IFSI Approved Clinical Consultant with more than 14 years of experience in trauma work. She offers therapy for therapists, consultation, and training programs for clinicians who want to blend IFS and EMDR.

A complex trauma survivor with an ACE score of 10, Crystal found EMDR and IFS as a client first. She believes each person is the expert on their own healing, and that therapists living sustainable lives can change the world.

Crystal’s Links:

• Website: www.aligntherapyandconsultation.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-hines-lpc-emdr
• Instagram: instagram.com/align_therapy_and_consultation
• Facebook: facebook.com/aligntherapyandconsultation

YOUR HOSTS:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Your client finally gets close to the real work. Then the clock hits 50 minutes. “Let’s pick this up next week.”

What if the 50-minute hour is part of the problem?

In this episode, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas talk with trauma therapist Alli Christie Disney, LPC. Almost all of Alli’s practice is now therapy intensives. She uses EMDR, IFS, and somatic experiencing to help high-achieving women heal in days, not years.

Alli explains what an intensive really is. (Hint: it means more time, not more emotional intensity.) She shares her “surgery vs. physical therapy” analogy for knowing when a client needs an intensive and when weekly therapy fits better. She also talks about EMDR 2.0 research that questions how long we spend on stabilization before trauma processing.

Then the conversation turns to the system. Why does insurance get to decide how long healing takes? And why is some of the most effective care so hard to afford?

IN THIS EPISODE:

• What counts as a therapy intensive (and what doesn’t)
• Why weekly sessions can leave clients with emotional whiplash
• How many clients process their worst memory in 90 minutes or less
• What EMDR 2.0 says about preparation and stabilization
• How the insurance model shapes the way therapy is delivered

Guest Bio:

Alli Christie Disney, LPC, is a trauma therapist who helps high-achieving women heal through therapy intensives. Her clients are ready for deep, lasting change, and they don’t want to spend years getting there.

Alli has more than 18 years of clinical training. She draws on EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) to get to the root of anxiety, self-doubt, old patterns, and unresolved trauma. Instead of short weekly sessions, she works in focused blocks of three hours or more, so clients can make real progress in days rather than months.

The result? Women who trust themselves, feel lighter, and move forward with more confidence and freedom.

Learn more about Alli and her work at www.allichristiecounseling.com.

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

“Trauma-informed” gets used a lot, but what does it look like in practice? Morgen and Ashley talk through SAMHSA’s four Rs and six guiding principles, with examples of how we respond when clients miss appointments, express anger, use substances, or don’t want to talk about trauma. They discuss getting curious about what’s going on before making assumptions, what trauma-informed supervision looks like, and changes therapists can make in their everyday worou can know everything there is to know about PTSD and still run a practice that leaves clients feeling powerless. Knowing about trauma and being trauma-informed are not the same thing.

In this episode, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas take on one of the most overused phrases in mental health: trauma-informed care. It’s on websites, job postings and mission statements. But a weighted blanket and a line on your website don’t make you trauma-informed.

Ashley and Morgen trace where the framework came from. They walk through SAMHSA’s four Rs and six guiding principles and explain each one in plain language. Then they show what trauma-informed care looks like in the therapy room, inside agencies and in the bigger systems our clients live in.

In this episode:

• SAMHSA’s four Rs: realize, recognize, respond and resist re-traumatization
• The six principles, from safety to cultural, historical and gender issues
• Small choices that give clients back a sense of control, like asking how they want the lighting
• Why labels like “non-compliant” and “the angry client” miss what’s really going on
• Why no one should ever be forced to talk about their trauma
• How trauma-informed care keeps boundaries and accountability in place
• What trauma-informed supervision looks like
• Simple changes you can make tomorrow

Helping clients calm their nervous systems is only half the job. The other half is looking hard at the places that keep throwing them off balance.

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

It’s 1:00 AM on a Tuesday. Someone can’t sleep, so they type “why do I shut down emotionally?” into Google. They aren’t searching for a “developmental trauma therapist.” They don’t know that term yet. So will they find you?

In this episode, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas talk with Anna Khandrueva, LCSW. She’s a trauma and relationship therapist in Broomfield, Colorado, and she also helps therapists with SEO. Anna spent more than a decade in finance, opened her private practice right out of grad school, and later learned she is autistic and has ADHD. Ask her if the therapy field is oversaturated and she’ll say no. We don’t have too many therapists. We have a matching problem.

In this episode:

• Why marketing is really about fit, not sales (and how that takes the ick out of it)
• Finding your ideal client, who might just be you 10 years ago
• Self-disclosure as a neurodivergent therapist
• “Flow clients,” and how to bring up a poor fit with a client
• Interest vs. specialization vs. calling yourself an expert
• Hot takes on AI therapy chatbots and credentialing platforms like Headway, Rula, and Alma

Grad school didn’t teach you what Google wants from you. This conversation fills that gap.

Guest Bio:

Anna Khandrueva, LCSW, is a trauma and relationship therapist and the owner of Courage to Heal Therapy in Broomfield, Colorado. She works with late-diagnosed neurodivergent women and with couples navigating the beautiful complexity of neurodivergent partnership, using EMDR, parts work, and mindfulness. Anna holds a master’s in social work from Metropolitan State University of Denver and a certificate in marriage and family therapy from the Denver Family Institute. A former finance professional, she also helps other therapists with marketing and SEO. Outside of work, she knits, watches horror movies, and explores local restaurants and food trucks.

Website: https://www.couragetohealtherapy.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/couragetohealtherapy

Work with Anna on Therapist SEO and Marketing: https://www.couragetohealtherapy.com/seo-for-therapists

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Tell most therapists you love couples work and they look at you like a deer in headlights. Maury Holliman, LMFT, finds it easier than individual therapy. And she can tell you exactly why.

In this episode of The Art of Being a Therapist, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas sit down with Maury. She’s a certified Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) couples therapist and an EFT supervisor candidate. Ashley has known her since 2012, so the stories run deep (they promised to be selective).

Maury talks about leaving Alabama for a Craigslist house in Denver and burning out in day treatment. She also shares why she picked an MFT program over social work, even though it meant lower pay. Then she walks through EFT in action. She explains how attachment science helps anxious pursuers slow down and avoidant withdrawers lean in. She also shares why she calls them protective mechanisms, not defense mechanisms.

You’ll also hear how to vet a couples therapist before you refer, why she won’t keep secrets between partners, and what burned-out parents of young kids are up against.

Her bottom line? The relationship can’t come last. Even when life says it has to.

Guest bio:

Maury Holliman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who specializes in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). She is certified in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy. As an EFT Supervisor Candidate, she supervises LMFT and LPC candidates and offers EFT and relational consultation. Maury believes good therapy looks at the whole person, including their identities, relationships, and personal history. She is also the Peer Support Leader at her group practice. In that role, she creates chances for connection and helps build a more inclusive and diverse culture.

Guest Contact info:

Website: https://thrivefamilyservices.com/meet-maury-holliman/

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Leah Band applied to about 50 therapy jobs after grad school, and nobody called her back. So, she took the one job that did call: knocking on doors as a child welfare intake caseworker.

It was the hardest work of her life, and she doesn’t regret a minute of it.

In this episode, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas talk with Leah, a child and teen therapist in Louisville, Colorado, about what CPS looks like from the front lines. They talk about who decides what “safe enough” means, why the system works more like a band-aid than a fix, and how the systems that harm our clients are often the same ones that made us good clinicians.

Then the conversation moves into the playroom. Leah explains Synergetic Play Therapy, why she won’t do it over telehealth, and what it means when a child leaves your playroom in total chaos. (It’s rarely just a mess.) She also shares why good play therapists bring parents into the work. And yes, you can bill insurance for it.

In this episode:

• Life as a CPS intake caseworker
• Who defines child safety, and what “safe enough” costs
• Parental rights vs. the best interest of the child
• Synergetic Play Therapy and nervous system regulation
• What a messy playroom tells you about a child
• How to involve parents in play therapy

Guest Bio:

Leah Band, LCSW, is a Certified Synergetic Play Therapist with nearly 20 years of experience. She earned her MSW from the University of Denver in 2011. Over her career she has worked in child welfare, residential treatment, schools, community mental health, and group practice. Today she runs a private practice in Louisville, CO, where she works with kids, teens, and their parents. She also provides clinical supervision to pre-licensed clinicians on their way to independent practice.

Leah's Psychology Today Profile

Leah's Supervision Website

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

At orientation, Lindsey’s grad program told her that skipping a single reading meant failing her future clients. At graduation, they laughed and said, “We know you couldn’t have possibly read everything.”

That gap tells you a lot about how therapists learn to burn out.

In this episode, Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas sit down with Lindsey Boes, LMFT, an AAMFT-approved supervisor in Colorado. She works with therapists, healers, and caregivers in burnout recovery. Lindsey hit her own wall eight years into private practice. At the time she was teaching, supervising, reviewing notes, and seeing a full caseload. She rebuilt from there. She raised her rates by $40 and didn’t lose a single client. Now she takes a month off every year.

Together, they talk about:

• Why so many therapists start as the emotional caretaker in their family of origin
• How shame gets used in grad school and supervision, and what it teaches new clinicians
• Burnout as a systemic problem shaped by capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy culture
• How Lindsey blends narrative therapy and IFS to help clients drop the stories that keep them overfunctioning
• Modeling real boundaries for supervisees, sabbaticals included

If you’re sure you just need to work harder, this one’s for you. You’re not failing. You’re human, and you have permission to do less.

Guest Bio:

Lindsey Boes is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AAMFT Approved Supervisor in Colorado. She has over a decade of experience helping therapists, healers, and caregivers recover from burnout and build better boundaries. Her work is rooted in feminist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist values. She sees burnout as a systemic problem, not a personal one. Lindsey runs her private practice, Guided Journey Therapy. She also founded Guided Journey Studio, which offers tools for people who give a lot and are learning they deserve care too. Find burnout recovery and boundary resources at guidedjourneystudio.com.

Guest Contact Info:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-boes-ms-lmft-s-a1b22890/

Website: www.guidedjourneytherapy.com

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Two months before graduation, Khara Croswaite Brindle’s internship supervisor told her she wasn’t ready to be a therapist. The reason? She was “too composed.” They wanted her to cry in supervision.

Her body knew it wasn’t okay before her mind did.

That moment became Khara’s first experience of leadership trauma: being hurt by a boss or supervisor in a way that makes you question your worth. Khara is an LPC, approved clinical supervisor, certified financial therapist, TEDx speaker, and best-selling author. She joins Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas to talk about leadership trauma and the wider problem of career trauma in therapists. Her research found that about half of the therapists she surveyed had been through professional betrayal, and nearly half had thought about leaving the field.

You’ll hear:

• What leadership trauma is and how it can turn into perfectionism or overwork
• The 6 career traumas: client suicide, sudden client death, client violence, professional betrayal, subpoenas, and grievances
• How to tell the difference between growing pains and real harm
• Why “I believe you” is often where healing starts
• Two tools you can use right away: the self-disclosure “short stack” and the DAP note “Reuben sandwich”

If you’ve ever wondered whether it was just you, it wasn’t.

Guest Bio:

Khara Croswaite Brindle, MA, LPC, ACS, CFT, loves giving people aha moments that create goosebumps and spark real action. She is a TEDx speaker, Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Financial Therapist, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and 2x Amazon #1 best-selling author based in Colorado. As a professor, consultant, and serial entrepreneur, Khara helps therapists build second income streams that protect against burnout. When she’s not writing her next book, she’s spending time with her daughter, walking near water, or enjoying gluten-free desserts with her family.

Guest Contact Info:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kharacroswaite/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kharacroswaite/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khara.croswaite

Website: https://croswaitecounselingpllc.com/

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

On safari, a tracker unclipped a radio from his belt. Ashley Charbonneau suddenly flashed back to her days doing therapy in a jail, where she had to carry the same tool everywhere she went. Different setting. Same job underneath: watch for danger and get everyone home safe.

In this solo episode, Ashley picks up where her last vacation episode left off and shares three more lessons. She talks about why therapists never really stop being themselves, even on vacation. She also gets honest about a lifelong habit of hustle that makes rest hard to learn, and about how slowing down helps you notice more, in a new city and in the therapy room.

Then she opens up her vacation reading list. It covers disease and power in Pathogenesis, body image and ballet in Don’t Think, Dear, and the Red Rising trilogy, plus a few fiction picks with lines she can’t stop thinking about. Each one ties back to therapy: trauma and memory, why “panic” is sometimes your body protecting you, and how often we sort people into categories.

The common thread is perspective. The more of it we can hold, the more compassion we bring to our clients and to ourselves.

Your Host:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com

You lean in. You validate. You say, “That must be so hard.” Then the person on the other end of the couch says, “Hard for you? What about me?”

The skills that work so well with individual clients can fall apart in a couples session in about 10 seconds.

In this episode, Morgen Villegas and Ashley Charbonneau sit down with Dr. Laura Eubanks Gambrel, a certified Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) couples therapist, supervisor, and trainer with more than 20 years of clinical experience. Laura explains why couples therapy is not individual therapy with two people in the room, and why taking couples without training can harm clients.

You’ll hear:

• What “catching bullets” means in EFT, and why a single sigh can restart an old fight
• How to hold a firm, engaged container without telling couples what to do
• Why even Sue Johnson, the founder of EFT, had “dentist days”
• What makes a good supervisor, and why supervision should feel like a secure base
• The broken system where clients with the highest needs get the newest, lowest-paid therapists

Guest Bio:

Laura Eubanks Gambrel, PhD, LMHC (WA), LMFT (NC), LPC (CO), is a couples therapist, supervisor, researcher, author, and trainer with more than 20 years of clinical experience. She is a Certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist, an EFCT Supervisor-in-Training, an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, and a certified mindfulness instructor. She has supervised hundreds of therapists as a faculty member and in private practice. Dr. Gambrel meets clinicians at their learning edge, balancing support with challenge as they learn to trust the EFT process. Through her private practice, Relational Mindfulness - Therapy and Consultation, she offers therapy, supervision, and training in Bellingham, Washington, and virtually worldwide.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: www.relational-mindfulness.org

LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/gambrel

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

Before her first session as a therapy intern, Lindsay was terrified. She went to her supervisor and asked what she was supposed to say. The answer: “I just need you to be in the room with this person.”

That one sentence changed how she does therapy.

In this episode of The Art of Being a Therapist, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas sit down with Lindsay Colegrove, a social worker (and Ashley’s sister) who took the long way into the field. Her path ran through school psychology, early childhood education, and a few years managing a restaurant. Along the way, she learned to walk with her self-doubt instead of fighting it.

Today Lindsay works through an existential lens. She helps clients explore identity, purpose, grief, love, and belonging. These are the parts of being human that no assessment can measure.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• Why sitting with uncertainty can matter more than having the right intervention
• Why the “blank slate” therapist is a myth
• How one hard session taught her about boundaries and therapist safety
• The gaps grad school leaves new therapists to fill on their own
• How she blends policy advocacy with clinical work

Do you wonder if you’re the only new therapist who feels this lost? You’re not. Lindsay interviewed 15 interns for her capstone project, and every one of them felt it too.

Guest Bio:

Lindsay Colegrove, M. Ed., MSW, SWC, ADDC, started her career in early childhood education. There, she saw how social-emotional and developmental challenges affect children and their families. That led her to graduate training in school psychology. In 2023, she moved into social work to better address the systemic and social factors that shape mental health.

Today, Lindsay’s work centers on advocacy and policy. She’s especially passionate about LGBTQ+ mental health, anti-oppressive practice, and advancing equity through an intersectional lens. She believes healing happens when people feel truly seen, heard, and valued. Her approach is warm, relational, and strengths-based. She brings creativity, curiosity, and connection to her work with trauma, identity exploration, grief, anxiety, and life transitions.

https://beecounseling.com/lindsay-colegrove-msw-swc

Your Hosts:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com