Nia Durham (she/they)
MA (Counseling, in progress)
nia@intrepidtherapy.com
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My aspiration is to co-create trust-building and healing paradigms with people who are caught in mental and emotional stagnancy or suffering and who want change. I hold truth, accountability, vulnerability and perspective expansion with deep reverence.
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I will have reflective questions for us to sit with that confront your current perspective. Reality checks are imperative in this work. This is the beginning of a commitment to a practice to change. Your self-discovery regarding a sense of joy and aliveness, any grief process you may be facing, any longing for expansion and or sense of belonging are all materials with which we work. I commend you for being present with the state of your soul and honor your process to love your expressions more.
Clients who do well with my approach are open-minded, come prepared with precise intentions for each meeting, are driven by the possibility of change, and are those who consent to the trust-building process that comes with a coaching dynamic.
The nature of coaching is co-creative, confrontational, and compassionately dynamic. It relies upon mutual trust, consent, confidentiality, integrity and participation. This time together is not one based on my giving you a formula for how to answer the call of your life—rather, during our sessions we have the opportunity to feel into what is true for you in the here and now. And we proceed from that space–whether that means being with what is or befriending change.
A practitioner of person-centered coaching, I use approaches such as the Hakomi Method, astrology, Family Constellation, motivational interviewing, and boundary-affirming somatic exercises to support what it is you want to claim for your mental and emotional wellness.
My offerings may lead to realizations about what is missing within you and how to secure a sense and a life of belonging in your body, in this world, and with your source of faith. During sessions, we always circle back to your intentions for change, healing, and way of being. This may involve Hakomi, mindfulness, deep inquiry, and meditative practices. Any strategy used is consent-and-curiosity-based; I'm here to be of service to your inner growth, communication skills development, and capacity to emotionally regulate.
Committing to wellness may be the hardest decision you have ever made, and may continue to be difficult as you reassert your desires and intentions to live well. I offer you support, tools and compassion amid all the gradations of change. These may include senses of sadness, uncertainty, hopelessness, low-energy, frustration and anger. These may also include catharsis, hope, restoration and health. There is space for all of your emotions/experiences within the scope of my practice.
Coaching is one way of accessing inner wisdom. Your senses of meaning, gratitude, joy, fulfillment, presence, change, and individual truth are worthy of compassion and attentiveness.
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My personality is described as high-energy-yet-introverted. Much of my time is spent introspecting in nature which supports my practices of mindfulness and self-care. Growing food and mushrooms, raising dogs, being married, and committing daily to presence all influence my pleasure and nourishment sources.
As someone who experiences gender in a femme-presenting-yet-non-conforming way, I hold relationships that allow for all of safety, expression, belonging, confidentiality, and relatability. The complexities of gender (or really, any identifying feature of having a body and a personality) are meaningful to me and I love to be present for people who are coming into a greater acceptance of themselves and their self-esteem. The therapeutic process we share is inclusive of getting healthy emotional needs met–maybe for the first time ever. I am driven by depth and want to offer you an experience of being wholly seen and attended to.
Barriers to my own therapeutic process have included a lack of feeling truly seen by a practitioner, exploring and witnessing actionable ways to change my life, power imbalances, outgrowing the practitioner, commitment-aversion, and becoming disenchanted when anyone positions themselves as an expert on my life. My approach is intuitive, respectful, compassionate, improvisational, accepting, patient and ignited by who you are now and who you are becoming.
Transpersonal tools continue to be instrumental to my sense of self and wellness, many of which I cultivated during my five years living in Asia, and on trips to the Peruvian jungle—realizations, recovery and practices that were learned during these times continue daily on my meditation cushion. Merging yoga with subtle energy healing, astrology and adventure gives me context for recovery and a chance to practice reframing my perspectives on boundaries, truth, safety and presence.
Being child-free allows a different way to see and be in the world—this choice centers distinct ways of giving life, unique freedom, spaciousness, and time dedicated to my outlying senses of purpose.
I’m also vegan, but not annoying about it.
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Self-esteem and boundary building, intuitive development, self-inquiry, anxiety, grief, highly-sensitive people, establishing and maintaining a mindfulness practice, emotional regulation, body image, psychedelic integration, religious trauma
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*Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (in progess) New Mexico Highlands University
*Bachelor of Arts in Literature, Minor in Educational Studies
*Motivational Interviewing (12hr)
*Hakomi Professional Training with Embodywise (60+hr)
*De-escalation Training with Serna Solutions (8hr)
*Trauma-Informed Care with Serna Solutions (8hr)
*Motivational Interviewing Training Level I with Serna Solutions (16hr)
*Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga with Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Level I and II (30hr)
*Various Astrology Trainings via the Pluto School
*Advanced practitioner training via Kabira School of Yoga and Energetics (125hr)
*Kabira School of Yoga and Energetics RYTT (220hr)
*Three-day wilderness solo and water fast in New Mexico
*10-day plant dieta in Peru
*10-day silent meditation retreat at the Tushita Institute in Dharamsala, India
*Decade of personal yoga practice
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Online Psychotherapy and Therapeutic Coaching
$60 session fee
Insurance: not accepted
Schedule directly through online scheduler.
If you’re unable to find an available time that works for you, please reach out to nia@intrepidtherapy.com
