Meet Mica Adesso: Psychologist and Yoga Teacher

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

Hi Mica, what role has risk played in your life or career?
For me, risk taking starts with inviting a courageous conversation within myself. It’s hearing that bare and revealing inner dialogue that I must first call my own. It’s finding the place within my body where my voice resides. It’s paying attention to how/when/where/why the fire of that voice gets dampened by fear and self-doubt. It’s understanding this process in which fear and doubt collapse my chest, constrict my lungs, tighten my airway and shrink my self. It’s learning how to inhabit my full body. It’s discovering the stuck places within my body where griefs and traumas have created a blockage. It’s tending to those wounds. It’s the choice to stand by these wounded parts, even if it burns my present identity to the ground. It’s knowing that my inner world is my home, the grounded place for my belonging no matter the outward change in circumstances. It’s turning towards those parts of my body, my soul that I had disowned, claiming them as my own again. It’s saying no to everything except the thing most precious to me, my self. It’s a yes that every part of me utters in unity… yes! It’s cultivating an inner life knowing that what is most important to me must be realized in the outer world. Therefore, the risk in my life and career is to see my soul at stake; and my mission is to respond: one step at a time, over and over again.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a licensed psychologist working in private practice. My path to
private practice has included working at college counseling centers,
intensive addiction treatment centers, a human rights organization,
immigrant and refugee programs, an integrative medicine institute,
jails and hospitals. I’ve gotten a front seat to the drama/mystery/
comedy/ action-adventure story of human lives unfolding in real time.
And it’s been absolutely riveting. It all began with curiosity– why do
people do what they do? what matters most? how does one recover from
heartbreak, from loss, from rock-bottom? what are we capable of? I am
fortunate that my curiosity was nurtured and fed by so many important
people in my life.

Now I’m most curious about how our bodies serve as truth-tellers and
how our counseling and healing services must include our bodies.
Traditional counseling typically addresses a person from the shoulders
up: what you can say about what you are experiencing. However, we
experience the world through our bodies, and trauma and grief are
full-body experiences. By working with the mind & body, and more
specifically the nervous system, we can shift patterns of feeling
scared, stuck, and disconnected into feeling at home in our bodies,
safe in connecting with others, and courageous in taking on the risks
of living. My mission is to provide counseling and healing services
that bridge the mind-body gap in order for the whole of a person to
heal.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Fort Collins offers a world accessible even in our socially-distanced times. The foothills of the Rocky Mountains are my Narnia. Alpine lakes for jumping in during the summer, the pure magic of the elk-bugling in fall, and endless miles of trails for hiking, running, or skiing during any season.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Always and forever, I bow to my parents and my siblings who teach me to have as many courageous conversations as I can, to be a faithful partner to my life force and sense of vitality, and to strive to be just half a shade braver with my hopes and my dreams,

Website: drmicaadesso.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micaadessophd/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-adesso-12422b24/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/micaadessophd
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mica-adesso-ph-d-fort-collins
Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/mica-adesso-fort-collins-co/433542