Stephanie Hardison
I am Stephanie Hardison, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and I specialize in therapy for adults and teens navigating anxiety, burnout, family pressure, and their relationship with their bodies. A lot of the clients who come here are bicultural Latinas carrying the weight of being the strong one, the translator, the peacekeeper, and the one who holds it together for everyone else. Other folks are queer, neurodivergent, and people who have spent years being told their body is a problem to fix. Many arrive after years of putting everyone else first, burned out, anxious, and disconnected from their bodies, often without realizing how long they have been running on empty. My approach blends talk therapy with somatic work, psychoeducation, and Brainspotting, because healing is not just talk. The body holds just as much of the story as the mind does. I am licensed in California and Colorado, and I offer fully virtual sessions.
You've been strong for everyone else. This is where you finally exhale. Therapy for First-Generation & Bicultural Latinas in California & Colorado
First session
Your first session is a time for us to connect, for me to listen, and for you to begin feeling what it might be like to work together. My primary goal is to ensure you feel safe, respected, and seen—never judged. A warm, welcoming space. First and foremost, we are building a relationship. I know showing up can be vulnerable, especially if you're new to therapy or have had negative experiences in the past. I will be guiding our conversation with gentle questions to help us both understand what brings you in. You are always in the driver's seat; you can share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. We'll talk about what brings you here. We'll discuss the challenges you're facing, whether it's burnout, navigating a career change, the weight of being a cycle-breaker, or struggles with body image and fatphobia. We'll also explore your hopes and goals: What would you like to be different in your life? What does healing look like for you? This is a collaborative process. This is your journey. By the end of our first meeting, we'll start to sketch out a loose plan for our work together. We'll discuss how my approaches—including Brainspotting—might help us address your specific goals. I'll answer any questions you have about the process, and we'll decide together if we feel like a good fit. There's no pressure to "get it all right." There is no perfect way to do therapy. You don't need to have it all figured out. Just showing up is the most important first step. I will hold this space for you with compassion and cultural humility, honoring the strength it took for you to get here. I look forward to meeting you.
Strengths
My greatest strength is creating a deeply affirming, culturally-grounded sanctuary for healing where you don't have to edit your identity or experiences. My approach is distinct in three key ways: 1. My practice is rooted in liberation, not just treatment. I don't just offer therapy; I offer a partnership in liberation. My active, fat-liberation and social justice lens means we will directly confront and dismantle the impacts of systemic oppression—like fatphobia, generational trauma, and racial stress—as a core part of your healing journey. You can expect to be fully seen, celebrated, and empowered. 2. I bridge the gap between talk therapy and deep, somatic healing. While talk therapy helps us understand your story, I am skilled in Brainspotting to help you process it on a neurological level. This allows us to move beyond cognitive understanding to release the deep emotional pain, trauma, and somatic stress that talk therapy alone can't always reach, leading to more profound and lasting change. 3. I specialize in guiding "cycle-breakers" to sustainable change. As a first-gen professional myself, I have a unique affinity for helping high-achievers in the BIPOC community break cycles of burnout and trauma without losing their cultural identity. The result is not just symptom relief, but transformational growth: clients report feeling lighter, setting empowered boundaries, and stepping into their roles as leaders and healers in their families with resilience and purpose.
Ideal clients
I work with BIPOC and first-gen professionals struggling with anxiety, burnout, and body shame—the kind that shows up even when life looks "successful" from the outside. Most of them have generational trauma underneath it all that's never been addressed. As a queer, first-gen therapist myself, I use Brainspotting to help them process that trauma so they can finally stop carrying what was never theirs to hold. I'm a good fit for folks who are tired of just managing symptoms and are ready to heal—in a space where their full identity isn't just welcomed, it's understood.
Origin story
I started this practice after sitting in several multidisciplinary team meetings where colleagues attributed a client's depression and anxiety entirely to weight, ignoring everything else going on. What struck just as hard was what was missing from the conversation altogether. No curiosity about the client's cultural background, no awareness of how intersectionality shapes experience, no acknowledgment that the same symptoms can mean something completely different depending on the identities a person is holding. They reduced folks to a number on a scale and a diagnostic checkbox, leaving everything that made them a whole human being out of the room. These moments made something undeniable. Healthcare trauma and fatphobia were happening in real time, and so was the failure to see people in full. I built this practice as a direct response. The Climb Counseling is named for the way healing actually works. The path is steep in some areas, while smooth in others.. Sometimes it is frightening, and sometimes it is breathtaking. It is rarely linear, and it is rarely what was expected. I do believe it is worth the journey, especially when it is not being walked alone.
Treatment methods
Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting gives us a tool, within this clinical relationship, to neurobiologically locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
Ignoring cultural nuances can lead to misdiagnoses, ineffective treatment plans, and poor outcomes. Utilizing a culturally sensitive lens can aid in improved trust, increase communication and understanding in symptom expression and also acknowledging stigma and cultural norms.
Somatic
Implementing somatic therapy cultivates an awareness of bodily sensations, and teaches clients to feel safe in their bodies while exploring thoughts, emotions, and memories which can be supportive to those who have historically felt disconnected from their body.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Top specialties
Other specialties
Doesn't specialize in
Licensed in
- CaliforniaLicense 96929
- ColoradoLicense CSW.09929447