September 10, 2015:
Do you ever find yourself doing things you wish you wouldn't do or repeating habits that you thought you'd stopped doing? Yeah, me too.
For years, I thought change was a matter of willpower and telling myself that I should be different. I would become self-critical when I found myself engaged in old habits. But once I looked deeper, I found solid reasons for why these unhealthy behaviors still lurked under the surface.
So instead of beating myself up about my bad habits, I began to observe them with mindfulness and kindness. And by paying attention to and accepting myself as I am, it has become easier to simultaneously change these habits and improve my relationship with myself.
Read Learning to Love Bad Habits on Elephant Journal.
June 15, 2014:
Join April at a Grief Support Network event for an afternoon of creativity and community. Loss and grief are a normal part of life that we all experience. Participants will learn about the 5 main ways that people respond and adapt after a loss of some kind. We will make collage cards as a way to explore the strategies that people are currently using to cope and make sense of their loss. These collage images may represent how participants are feeling at the moment, some aspect of a memory they want to preserve, or a hope they have for the future.
Art is an age old route to healing; images and movement can help us to express ourselves in ways that words cannot. Giving our feelings, memories and hopes physical form can help us develop a deeper relationship with them and allow us to know our experience more fully. Creating art in community can alleviate the sense of aloneness and isolation that may occur after a loss.
Crisis 101: A Workshop For Mental Health Professionals in Private Practice
Do you dread the day a client tells you they’re suicidal? Have you felt lost or frozen with a client in crisis? Crisis can be a moment of opportunity and at the same time frightening and disorienting for both clinicians and clients. By definition, it is hard to know what to expect, so it’s important to be prepared.
In this workshop learn how to effectively support clients through a psychiatric emergency:
Screen for clients who are at risk of a mental health crisis
Design comprehensive safety plans
Write an M1 psychiatric hold for clients in imminent risk of suicide or homicide
Navigate the systems involved in a psychiatric emergency
Coordinate effectively with police, psychiatric emergency evaluators, and hospitals
Get templates and flowcharts to help with the decision making process
Pre-registration required on Eventbrite.
Groups
Sleeping in the Forest ~ Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
Your Emotional Body: Tools and Permission for Living Fully
Do you get overwhelmed or feel out of touch with your emotions?
Do your emotions get in the way of your relationships?
Move from being a victim of emotions, to feeling empowered by them
Learn to rely on your emotions for wisdom and support through embodiment practices, creativity, ritual and the power of community
April Pojman LPC is a Certified Hakomi Therapist who works to make the unconscious patterns behind our actions visible through creativity and nature. www.lions-breath.com
Hannah Kinderlehrer is a coach, meditation teacher and women's group leader. She is a graduate of Naropa and the Hakomi Institute. www.riseandthrive.care
Sept 29-Nov 3, 2019 - 6 Sundays 12pm - 3pm
$375 for 6 sessions or $325 early bird before August 31st, 2019
Register at: www.simcounseling.com/book-online/your-emotional-body
August 30 & 31, 2014:
Inner Child Nature Retreats: Play Therapy for Adults
When is the last time you let yourself play like a kid? Do you remember what it's like to...
be absorbed in your own imagination...
get dirt under your fingernails...
watch a bug go about its day...
lose track of time...?
This is a playful invitation to go inside yourself, connect with nature and have fun with others. Getting in touch with your "inner child" is creative work that cultivates innocence, wonder, joy, and sensitivity and leads to some of the deepest realms of healing. Listening to younger parts of yourself is a potent way to free up more energy, creativity, and ultimately, a more vibrant adult life!
Rewrite Your Emotional Story
- What if you could rewrite your story?
- What if you found a new way to work with the pains from the past?
- What if you didn't have to repeat the same emotional patterns over and over?
- What if you no longer felt overwhelmed or out of touch with your emotions?
- What if you had more freedom and choice around your emotions?
Join this highly experiential womxn's group and transform your emotional stuckness into wisdom and possibility!
April Pojman LPC is a Certified Hakomi Therapist who works to make the unconscious patterns behind our actions visible through creativity and nature. www.lions-breath.com
Hannah Kinderlehrer is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner, coach, meditation teacher and women's group leader. She is a graduate of Naropa University.www.riseandthrive.care
5 week closed group, meeting 5 Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm from April 4-May 9, 2020 (skipping May 2nd). $375 for 5 sessions or $325 early bird before March 1st, 2020.
Register on Eventbrite
January - March, 2018:
Join one of these ongoing transformative DBT groups to develop greater self-awareness, enjoy better relationships, reduce stress, and bolster emotional resilience.
1. Basic Skills for Everyday Life- a beginning co-ed skills group held on Wednesdays from 9:00- 10:30am. No prior experience necessary, all are welcome.
2. Advanced Skills for Everyday Life: A Skills and Process Women's Group- held on Wednesdays from 12- 1:30pm. Prior DBT or group experience required.
- Mindfulness: Practice staying present, not dwelling on the past, and treating yourself with kindness. (Every class)
- Interpersonal Effectiveness: Practice building and sustaining healthy relationships.
- Emotion Regulation: Practice recognizing, observing, and taking responsibility for your emotions.
- Distress Tolerance: Practice skills to get through difficult life situations without making things worse.
Dates: January 24 - March 14, 2018
Location: 925 Lincoln Avenue, Louisville, CO 80027
Fee: $350 per 8 week segment.
Facilitators: Co-led by Polly S. Douglass, LPC & April Pojman, LPC
Contacts: Polly Douglass psdcounseling@gmail.com or 720 316-7616
April Pojman at april@lions-breath.com or 303-997-2267.
Individual Therapy
Hakomi
Wilderness Therapy
See The Change You Want To Be: A Workshop For Getting Change Done
Do you fail to make changes in your life and then find yourself feeling self-critical? If the change you wanted to make had already happened, how would your life be different?
In this one-day workshop you’ll gain:
- A new opportunity to make a change that just hasn’t stuck yet
- A clear understanding of why making the most significant changes in your life are so challenging
- Tools to uproot your resistance to change without relying on willpower
- A renewed impulse to evolve and grow
This workshop provides experiential methods to help you achieve lasting change. We will use the Immunity to Change cognitive map, a creative collage process, as well as, visualization tools help you meet and explore the parts of yourself that hold you back from the changes you want to make. All are welcome, no prior experience necessary.
Saturday June 24, 2017 from 10-5pm
Early bird before June 1 $65, Regular Price $75
Register at: https://seethechangeyouwanttobe.eventbrite.com
Facilitated by: Chad Bennett, MA, LPC and April Pojman, MA, LPC.
September & October, 2016:
We Ask Too Little of the Body: An 8-week Experiment in Embodied Living for Women
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” ~Mary Oliver
What does your body love? What if you found out that your body loves you, your vulnerability, your truth, your voice and your messy unfolding? Your body loves you in this very moment, in this hurt, this fear, this grief that is already bubbling through you. All the painful experiences and emotions that you have are not confirmation of your brokenness or the need to work harder and achieve more. Your body doesn’t care about the someday when you will finish that important project, find that perfect relationship or reach that career milestone. Instead your body invites you in each moment to wake up to your own aliveness. In this 8-week group we’ll create a safe non-judgmental space to explore our emotional experiences in our bodies. You’ll learn to decipher the messages of your body, unearth some of the unconscious patterns that have been running your life, and stop avoiding the life you desire. Through relationship, creativity, nature and your own breathing body, you can begin to let go of who you thought you were, and become who your body knows you really are.
Dates: 8 Wednesdays from 6-8pm from Sept 28- Nov 16, 2016.
Price: Early bird $350 before Sept 12; Regular $375 after Sept 12. Payment plan available.
Trauma Resolution Therapy
EMDR
Natural Processing
February 2014:
Did you recently return from an experience abroad? These creative half-day experiential workshops led by Karen Dunn, M.A and April Pojman, M.A. will help you understand the experience of culture shock, the loss you may feel in leaving your host country and challenges you may face during reintegration.
Please register on Eventbrite or contact Karina Maria Tibble (720) 315-9282 or karinamariacounseling@gmail.com with any questions.
About the facilitators: April Pojman, MA, MS, LPC, CHT (www.lions-breath.com) and Karina Maria Tibble, MA, LPC (www.karinamariacounseling.com) are Licensed Professional Counselors who graduated from Naropa University. They both are passionate about supporting women in the journey of coming home to themselves.
October 1, 2014:
Are you taking advantage of one of the unique co-working opportunities in Boulder? Shared office space is an ideal solution for those looking for a community of creative entrepreneurs, for people just beginning a new business or those ready to move out of a home office or coffee shop hopping situation.
Make the most of the start-up phase of your project by addressing issues of procrastination, self-doubt, or self-sabotaging behaviors. Your mind and your heart are your best tools, learn how to use them effectively. April Pojman has been supporting social entrepreneurs to get out of their own ways and bring their dreams to life for over a decade.
March 2014:
Two Boulder psychotherapists in private practice, Linda Weber, M.A. and April Pojman, M.A., offer EMDR trauma resolution therapy in Lyons to flood-impacted residents. Some clients may be eligible for the United Way voucher program to cover the cost of therapy. Services are by appointment at Lyons Yoga and Wellness or in Boulder. Counseling available in English and Spanish.
January 2014:
Both acupuncture and psychotherapy can help release difficult past experiences. When something difficult or traumatic happens in your life, your mind may continue to hold onto it and replay the memories. You might feel unable to control what is happening in your mind or body when you re-experience the emotions from the past. These memories and symptoms might leave you feeling anxious and afraid or depressed and hopeless. You might even find that you’re turning to negative coping strategies that make you feel even worse.
Download the flyer to find out more about how acupuncture with Katie Kelly, L.Ac. and psychotherapy with April Pojman, M.A. can help.
October 5, 2015:
You’ve probably heard that we have to love ourselves before we can truly love another person.
Or even that we have to love ourselves before we can be fully loved by someone else. These ideas have always left me with a lot of questions. I’ve wondered:
How exactly do I love myself?
Do I really have to look myself in the eyes in the mirror and
say cheesy phrases from some magazine?
How do I know if I love myself enough? When does it cross the
line into selfishness or even narcissism?
Is it even true that I have to learn to love myself first to gain
the ability to be in a healthy relationship?
Since I first heard this idea, I have done a lot of exploration. And yes, I’ve even come to love myself more.
Read 3 Steps to Loving Myself- For Real on Elephant Journal.
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