Meet Chanel Nye | Licensed Professional Counselor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chanel Nye and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chanel, what do you attribute your success to?
Intentional Healing Counseling is a dream come true for me! Ever since I started the process of becoming a therapist, I knew I wanted to own my own business and run a private practice one day. That dream recently came true in April of 2024 and I couldn’t be more grateful for those who have helped me along the way in this journey and provided the support and knowledge that I needed to get started. I think the most important factor that has led to my success as an individual therapist however, is my commitment to being my genuine and authentic self. This may be surprising to a lot of people because we view therapists as these secret vaults that contain so much knowledge about the people they serve and don’t share anything about themselves, but at the end of the day we are all human too. I consider myself to be a very humanistic therapist and what that means is that I put my relationship with the client first and foremost. I do this by building rapport right away, earning trust and being myself. I play an active role in my client’s therapy by providing insight, laughing at their jokes and crying with them in their struggles. I’m not immune to the harsh realities of life and I carry a ton of empathy for my clients and I don’t think it’s a weakness to share that with my clients. Now this approach doesn’t work for everyone and that’s okay! There are different therapists for different clients in the same way that there are different restaurants for people with different taste profiles. However, I find that the clients that do appreciate my approach, find our work to be incredibly fulfilling and rewarding for them.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am the owner and primary psychotherapist of Intentional Healing Counseling Services. Ever since I took my first psychology class in high school, I have been fascinated by human behavior and what motivates us to do the things that we do. I went on to study psychology at Gonzaga University and graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology before getting my Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Denver. I always knew that I wanted to do private practice someday, but was never quite sure how I was going to get there. Growing up, my parents both owned their own businesses and I watched them hustle in order to provide the life they wanted for me and for themselves. I knew that working for myself was inevitable to live the life I picture for myself and after obtaining my counseling license this past March, I decided to take a leap of faith and start my own practice. I have spent the past year conducting research and consulting colleagues to figure out how I wanted my practice to look like and honestly, I’m still figuring it out a bit. All I can say for sure is that I want to provide a place where people can feel safe to be themselves and to open up in a vulnerable way that can lend itself to personal healing. Running a business can be incredibly isolating and one thing I wanted to ensure for myself is still having a community aspect. I do this by renting an office in a shared space so that I can connect with other therapists in the building and have the feel of a group practice while running my practice the way that I want to. I am also a part of a couple consultation groups for Brainspotting, a newer trauma therapy, and I am hoping to open my own supervision group for new therapists here in the future!

If there’s one piece of advice I could give to clinicians who are just starting out or feeling burnt out and reconsidering their career path, it would be this: just do it.

Oftentimes, mental health practitioners get burnt out because they are overworked and underpaid and this inevitably leads to high turn over rates, poorer client outcomes and overall dissatisfaction with the field. To those that are feeling this way, I want you to know that the work you do is meaningful, it makes a huge difference for your clients, and I know you got into this field for a reason. You deserve to do the work you do, while also feeling valued. That’s why I started my practice. I wanted to finally feel valued for the work that I was doing and now I do. You deserve that too!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Gosh, how lucky I am to live in Colorado! I love this place and I absolutely love when my friends come out to visit so that I can show them around too! If I had a friend in town for a week, I would take them to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day to hike and explore the awe of the Colorado outdoors and wrap up the day with a hearty meal at Voghera or Coperta – two of my favorite Italian places in the city! Next, I would take them to Boulder to see Pearl Street, do some shopping, enjoy lunch or dinner at T|aco and wrap up the night at License No. 1 for a nightcap and some underground comedy. For a day in Denver, I would take them to Snooze for brunch, hike Chief Mountain and come into town in the early evening for a champagne cocktail at Corridor 44 to see Larimer Square before heading to Union Station and then Barcelona Wine Bar for dinner. Another day I would take them on an adventure down in Canon City to see the Royal Gorge and do some white water rafting on the Arkansas River, then stop by Colorado Springs on the way home to get some grub at the Skirted Heifer and a drink at the Rabbit Hole. Lastly, I would do a day trip to Breckenridge to show them a mountain town, see the troll and stop by Breckenridge Tap House for some tacos (can you tell I like tacos?) and Gold Pan Saloon for the Ring Hook game and to check out one of the oldest miner bars in the country! If there’s any time leftover, a concert at Red Rocks would cap it all off!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are simply too many people to thank that are a part of my story and that have helped me develop into the therapist that I am today, so I’ll try to keep this brief! First and foremost, I want to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support in this endeavor from getting into grad school to opening my own private practice. It has been the most rewarding journey of my life and I truly believe I’ve only been able to be successful because of the encouragement and love I received from them when I needed it most. Next, I want to thank my initial mentors and professors from the University of Denver. Starting my journey in the midst of the pandemic was no easy feat, but my instructors made it appear easy and seamless. Thank you especially to Dr. Hannah Koch, Dr. Timothy Pasternak, Dr. Jennifer Gafford and Dr. Lisa Brownstone for instilling strong, foundational skills to be a therapist and for providing me the tools that I needed to discover my own unique approach. I also want to thank Dani Hollister from Healing Trails Counseling for allowing me to be a part of her practice and grow as an individual therapist so that I could learn how to have a practice on my own. Lastly, thank you to the team at Aspen Ridge Recovery for being my home base the past three years and for being a shining example of what well-rounded care for clients looks like.

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

Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/1302925