Meet Cindy Campbell | Psychotherapist

Hi Cindy, what is the most important factor behind your success?
It All Started With The Lunch Lady

By Cindy Campbell MA LPC

Basically, synchronicity and spirituality have been my guiding forces. These two things go hand in hand for me. A re-occurring theme through-out my life and work journey …. The universe nudging me, trying to tell me something, pushing me toward a realization of my gifts…telling me I am of value and can make a difference. When I am able follow the flow of synchronicity magic happens. And the way this plays out for me is through other people and circumstance. On my own I struggle to recognize my value. I seem to only see my value reflected in and by others, a work in progress.

The first memory of this dynamic of reflection was the lunch lady at my elementary school, I must have been 7. I never knew her name. She showed me she valued me, just for being me. She lit up for me for about 5 minutes every day during lunch hour. At a time when life at home was in chaos and turmoil and school life was brutal (the southern schoolteachers just did not like children at that time). But the lunch lady for some reason, she saw me for me and I felt it.

This early lesson is on my heart today at age 70. I have no idea what she connected with, what she saw in me or what her story was… but the learning, the lesson of that daily 5 minutes…. We are energy and through our energy we can impact a life through connection, understanding and acceptance, and we don’t need to know the end of the story. The lunch lady knew I would leave elementary school yet showed up for me knowing she would not know her impact on my life or the end of my story.

In the world of psychotherapy, as therapists we often are not privy to the end of a story or the long-term impact we make with our clients. We are just a brief part of the journey. But I have a belief that this energy dynamic has a ripple effect, like the lunch lady who gave me hope and courage. If everyone I touch can in turn touch someone, how many hundreds of these ripples touch people and illicit feelings of hope, courage, being heard, understood, validated and or valued, maybe for the first time in their life.

My flow comes when I am teaching, helping, and connecting to and with others in a therapeutic context. It lends me a space to connect with self. I can be a conduit of sorts in these moments. The Sync dynamic helps me with accessing things like my spirituality, what the universe needs from me, how to help and show up, be intuitive and authentic. And a guide in how to manage and accept my personal wounds with relationships, especially with family of origin.

I cannot seem to harness this synchronistic flow though, if I over-function to “make” things happen, I mess it up and learn a hard lesson. When I can lean in, be curious, be still and listen, it finds me.

When the synchronicity is there, when I’m giving a presentation or in a teaching moment I couldn’t be out of “flow” if I tried. The hard part is wrestling with the doubt and anxiety leading up to the thing, much like writing this article. It is not easy for an introvert like me who has perfected avoiding the spotlight having learned early in live it is safer to fly under the radar and even be invisible. (This could be my superpower). The real power comes from willingness to be uncomfortable and do the thing in service of what is valued, which gives space for the synchronistic flow to happen.

There have been other moments when doors opened that should not have, when I was in the right place at the right time, when that gut feeling came with a knowing, when an understanding came from nowhere, when that thing that was carefully planned goes sideways but the new outcome was so much better. When the universe dreams bigger than I do… and I lean in!

I wish I could teach synchronicity and spirituality, but I know it is more personal and complex. And do not misunderstand, this in-sync flow reflection spiritual thing, its not all pleasant, sometimes lessons and events are difficult, tragic, and inconceivable to a point that cannot be understood in our humanness. One of my favorite quotes by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” We are sometimes broken in and by our humanness. I feel privileged to hold space for the brokenness of others and to learn about and understand my own.

My hope is that through the work I do with those who are hurting and healing, I can hold space for understanding, exploring and being curious about their journey and process… be a reflection, light up for them, cause a ripple (be their lunch lady).

Synchronicity:
“A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Nothing is invincible……

…If you act as you think
The missing link
Synchronicity”

By Sting

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have had 2 great careers with just an associates degree in hand. Through a chain of events I found myself at age 50 getting my BS then going on to get a Masters from Denver Seminary for Counseling. I was inspired by an undergrad professor Sandra Yellow Horse ,while taking her psychopathology class at Metro State University, to move toward counseling.

My journey into the world of psychotherapy was unusually intense. Because of my more mature age, I was given more challenging cases. For the first time in my life I learned about Satanic Ritual Abuse and DID in my internship. I believe I got a glimpse of evil and quickly learned to pray protection prayers. I also knew this would not be my direction. After a 2 year break living in LA I came back to Colorado and worked for 8 years in PHP and inpatient eating disorder treatment. This lead me to where I am now, private practice. My work is influenced by: Daniel Siegel, Bessel van Der Kolk, Steven Hayes, Gabor Mate, Brene` Brown and my life experience. My foundation in therapy is based in ACT, EFFT and Trauma/EMDR work. Building trust and positive regard in a short period of time is my greatest asset to move clients to a comfort level, to go deep, especially into their family of origin stories and trauma experiences.

What sets me apart? Probably my authenticity and ability to (in the most polite way) call BS. I’m not the therapist that nods the head and asks how does that make you feel. My gift is hearing what is not said as well as what is said and reading the energy. I have a knack, working with what I call “the strong woman’s curse”. The strong women know what that means. If I ever write a book it will be on this issue. I also have the ability to work with couples using intent and focus on what the real issue is while providing usable tools.

I am most proud of out-living the label I carried through my childhood of being the one least likely… because my family was poor, because I was shy, because I did not have the grades and went to Jr. college. I was one of the children that fell through the cracks and made it anyway. That makes is sound simple and easy, it was not, but it is what shaped me into who I am today…. ultimately leading me to becoming a Therapist! A good Therapist!

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.
Where would I take my best friend? … to Flying J and or Evergreen Lake for a daily walk or hike in nature. To Shaffers Crossing especially if it is fall. A trek one day to see the white buffalo that live by Evergreen Memorial Park, Red Rocks in Morrison for a look or a concert, concerts at Hudson Gardens, theater at the Buell. A little Jazz, dinner and drinks at Nocturne, a Candlelight tribute concert.

Dinners at Bar Dough, True Food Kitchen and Sushi at Ushi in Denver, Bistro in Morrison for dinner and for happy hours and hands down dessert at D Bar in Denver every night because it’s my best friend right? Maybe a side trip to Zombee Donuts.

My hanging out time looks different these days… I find great pleasure in having good friends gather on my deck at my home in Evergreen. There we will enjoy our favorite wine, hubby cooks for us on his Traeger Grill or entertains us with his guitar and song… and if we’re lucky the local fox, deer and an occasional bear saunter by.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My Shoutouts! Perhaps the most impactful reflection back to me has come from and through my son Kyle who I believe is an “old soul” having gifts of insight, intuition, and intelligence well beyond his years even as a very young child. He has given me a connection with a felt love I had never known and maybe had given up on and he causes me think, laugh, and reflect.

And there is my long-time friend from Jr. High School Julie, a friendship that has lasted over 50 years. Time, distance, silence or conflict could not sever the connection. She believes in and accepts me. My friend Gale who has taught me dignity in the face of tragedy and the will to keep going. And all my close girlfriends, we hold each other up, learn from each other, reflect to each other… are in each other’s life for a purpose.

My partner David who makes me laugh, entertains me and always holds me up and reminds me that the work I do is of value. Synchronicity brought us back together from holding hands in high school to some 40 plus years later finding each other again. He is a constant in my life that I have not had throughout my journey.

Shadow my soon to be therapy dog, a rescue mutt that was the last of his litter to be adopted. He was rejected by many for being too timid. My search for a pup had been unsuccessful as I was rejected time and time again for not being the right “fit”, …. Until Shadow and I were a match…And that timid thing… well that was really his gifts of intuition and feeling others energy. Now those gifts will help people with their healing process. He gives me unconditional love, is my hiking buddy and makes me smile.

My grandmother Nanny who taught me there is a power greater than us and gave me the gift of faith. My mom who taught me about persistence when navigating adversity.

Brene` Brown who taught me: “Showing up is our power. Story is our way home. Truth is our song. We are the brave and brokenhearted. We are rising strong.”

Website: https://campbellcounselingllc.com/