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Grief Therapy in Boulder and Louisville, Colorado
For outdoor professionals, athletes, adventurers, first responders, and anyone carrying a loss
You've always been able to get outside, and your stressors just seemed to disappear. Why does it feel like your chest is tight and you're more on edge doing the same trail runs you've always done?
Hopping on your bike to stay present was easy and used to be second nature. Now it feels hard to even think about wanting to ride, let alone finding the joy and relief you once did.
You can't even think about climbing without spiraling out of control and feeling angrier and more frustrated. Why does grief have to impact every aspect of your life?
Grief follows us, and not only can it be relentless and overwhelming, but it also seems to turn our life upside down, taking all of our best coping skills and throwing them out the window. Grief doesn't only come after a death. It shows up after an injury that pauses a season or a career, break up, the end or a friendship, or a job loss. There are many different types of grief, and there is no specific way a person "should" be grieving.
Loss is an inevitable part of life, and unfortunately in our Western culture, it can be incredibly stigmatizing and isolating. It is common for people to avoid asking someone about their grief, because they are worried they will make that person upset. They don't want to remind that person of the pain they are feeling, or make them cry. Let's debunk these theories. They only lead to isolation and the impact of someone carrying the loss of something on their own.
At In Bloom Psychotherapy, we work with people whose lives are built around movement, risk, and showing up for others. Many of our clients are used to being the strong one. Here, you can set that down for an hour.
Who we work with
Athletes, adventurers, nature appreciators
Loss in the outdoor world can be sudden and public: a partner lost in the backcountry, a close call, a career-ending injury. We help with the grief, and with the question of who you are when the thing that defined you changes.
First responders and outdoor professionals (guides, rangers, search and rescue, EMS, fire, law enforcement)
Repeated exposure to loss adds up, and there's often little room to process it. Therapy can be a place where it's allowed to land.
Anyone grieving
You don't need to climb, ski, or run toward emergencies to belong here. If you're grieving a person, a relationship, a pet, a diagnosis, or a version of your life, you're welcome exactly as you are.
How grief therapy works
Grief looks different for every person, so your sessions will be unique to you and your own process. We don't hand you a script or a timeline because grief is not linear.
However, we will help you understand and make sense of what's happening in your brain, body, and surroundings. We help you create a relationship with your grief, because as much as you may want to push it away, the only way through grief is to mourn. The only way to mourn is to feel your feelings. Not feeling has its own set of consequences.
Depending on the therapist and what you need, our work draws on Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychodynamic therapy, somatic and mindfulness practices, EMDR, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and wilderness-based practices.
Meet the Team
Brooke Shaffer
MA, LPC
She/her/hers
Jonathan Bastian
MA, LPCC
He/him/his
Brooke has been working with the American Alpine Club through their Climbing Grief Fund (CGF) program for over five years. Through CGF, Brooke works with individuals who have lost community members and loved ones to climbing and mountain related accidents. She supports clients through grief by helping them find ritual, connection to the natural world, and community. It's hard to get back into the lifestyle you love and need when things are vastly different. Brooke gets it.
Jonathan was trained as a grief counselor working at Hospice of Santa Barbara, where he worked with anticipatory grief, complex grief, and general themes around end of life. His work now includes working with athletes involved in fatal backcountry accidents, as well as people dealing with life-changing diagnoses. He uses mindfulness, creativity, and nature as ways to work with grief. It's hard to sit with the pain of something that is simply not fixable. Let Jonathan sit alongside you.
Gather and Grieve in Nature
A winter hut grief retreat
Brooke and Jonathan will be leading an intimate grief retreat in the winter of 2027. This retreat will be for individuals who have experienced a death of a loved one and are seeking a way to "do grief" differently. Participants will be guided through individual and group therapeutic activities to help build a different relationship with their grief. Let the remarkable Rocky Mountains hold your grief with you.
