Meet Taylor

---

Taylor is a peer support and EMDR trained Licensed Professional Counselor. She uses a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of care which strives to affect the mind, body, spirit, social and emotional aspects of a person to bring about change. A graduate of Colorado Christian University, she incorporates Christian principles in her practice while welcoming diversity, and does not discriminate based on religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.  

In addition to counseling, Taylor has worked in the emergency response field for the past 16 years as a firefighter/EMT/Captain. She is a certified ACE peer fitness trainer, CrossFit Level 2 and CrossFit Kids certificate holder, and has worked as a fitness trainer for the past 7 years. Taylor has been trained in the core skills of Motivational Interviewing and is a certified Peer Support Team member. She is currently working on becoming a Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC) and Domestic Violence Counselor.  

We are very excited to have Taylor join our regional peer support family.

While her medical center experience is diverse, including stand-alone, community owned facilities, as well as large multi-facility organizations, Karen has always worked within integrated delivery systems. 

Karen has been a part of the Weld/Larimer Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT), first joining the steering committee in 2004.  She has been a CIT trainer since the establishment of the first Weld/Larimer class, a coalition which later expanded to include Boulder County. She became a mental health consultant for the Larimer County Regional SWAT Team in 2013, completing the FBI Negotiations Course in September of that year. Karen also responds to crisis negotiation calls in Boulder County through the Longs Peak Crisis Negotiators.

Karen has instructed on identifying and de-escalating psychiatric crises for Colorado State University law enforcement personnel, as well as for the Ranger Excellence School. She has studied forensic psychology under Roy Hazelwood, Reid Meloy, Kris Mohandie, Phillip Resnick and John Douglas.

We are excited to have Karen join our team of culturally competent clinicians serving our first rResponders and their families, as well as interfacing with medical/behavioral health clinicians, facilities (inpatient and outpatient) and various departments to coordinate the logistics of their specific care needs.

After completing his BA in Anthropology at UNLV, Mark moved to Colorado to attend graduate school at CSU for Human Development and Family Studies (with a Marriage and Family Therapy focus). Growing up in a military and first responder family influenced Mark to respond to 9/11/2001 by enlisting in the Army National Guard as a Military Police officer. Later, Mark volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan in 2010 and conducted convoy security, detainee operations, trained ANP, and worked alongside German MP’s and other NATO forces on various missions. After serving for 7 years and reflecting on his experiences in the military, Mark decided to change the mission of his life to be more in line with his values and experiences. After separating from the military and completing his Bachelor's Degree, Mark spent 10 months backpacking through Europe, southeast Asia and Oceania to explore and learn from other cultures, which led to him deciding to become a therapist. Mark is passionate about supporting the healing of trauma in ourselves, our relationships, and collectively so that we can learn to thrive as one species on this one planet we all call home.   

Today, Mark lives in a blended family with his wife, three children, dog and two ball pythons. Together, they love to feel/experience adrenaline and grounding on their slackline, SUP boards, bicycles, rollerblades, and longboards. Mark also loves doing yoga with his wife, Joy, who is a yoga instructor and Reiki practitioner. They are passionate about physical, relational and spiritual evolution, and love to nerd out on related podcasts and documentaries.   

Mark has additional training in Gottman Level 2 couples therapy and is currently attending the Sexual Health Alliance to become a sex therapist. Mark specializes in supporting couples in moving from gridlock to dialogue about their life dreams, insecurities, fantasies, and more. He enjoys supporting clients who practice a wide range of relationship or loving lifestyles/identities such as monogamy, nonmonogamy, kink, LGBTQIA and other marginalized or unique populations.

Mark worked for 3 years at CSU in student counseling and cofacilitated groups for anxiety and Dialectical Behavior Therapy before deciding to pursue private practice. Mark is also excited about the possibilities and future of psychedelic assisted therapy and appreciates the power of nature to remind us of who we are.

Belinda knew that her path direction was set early, as her father was a US Army Vietnam war veteran. Growing up with a father who was career Army, Belinda became well acquainted with military life from a young age.

With a desire to serve her country herself, Belinda enlisted in the US Air Force and discharged after 6 years of service to pursue her Master's degree in counseling. Upon graduation, Belinda was able to serve military service members and their families as a volunteer counselor on the various installations she was attached to with her then spouse who was active duty Air Force. With her continued desire to help returning veterans and their families, she began working for the Department of Defense, counseling children of military service members.

After another relocation, she began working as a Behavioral Health Counselor for the Department of the Army at Fort Rucker, where she counseled active duty military, veterans and their families for 11 years. Noticing the impacts of combat, Belinda transitioned to the Department of Veterans Administration serving as a Readjustment Counselor at a Vet Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. She joined a team specializing in treating veterans who have had issues returning from combat deployments and/or have experienced sexual trauma. 

Belinda's vast experience, coupled with her desire to serve those who serve others are valuable assets. A great majority of first responders have military experience and we are very excited to have another culturally competent clinician serving our member agencies! 

It isn't any wonder that Jarah has developed into an industry leader in Crisis and Trauma counseling for both individuals and families. Jarah began her career in emergency departments for two large hospital systems in northern Colorado. However, the true desire to serve the First Responder/family population runs much more deeply and personally.

Jarah grew up around the First Response community as the daughter of a law enforcement officer and sister of a combat veteran. Visits to her grandmother brought additional tales of emergency services. Her grandmother was a 911 operator and was involved in the Fire Service, and marrying a law enforcement officer ultimately set her path. The pride of assisting others and seeing firsthand the emotional toll emergency service took on her loved ones, their families, and her coworkers opened the doors of empathy and care and helped Jarah create her own slant of mitigating trauma in others. Seeing First Responders in the emergency room, meeting with patients, and witnessing the toll the calls were taking on them deepened her commitment to serving the behavioral health needs of First Responder communities.

Jarah has been successfully serving the behavioral health needs of others since 1997. With her unique history and skill set in the emergency services,  First Responder Trauma Counselors is proud to add Jarah as another culturally competent, EMDR and FRTC National Peer Support Academy trained therapist.

Jeff is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Addiction Specialist in the state of Colorado, practicing as a therapist since 2009. Jeff has practiced in a variety of settings and, along the way, acquired additional training in several modalities that address trauma, substance use, and couples/family counseling. 

Someone can feel perplexed by disruptive habits or patterns in their lives, which can include but is not limited to depression, anxiety, substance use, relational struggles, and the lingering affect of trauma. All of these concerns can be shaped by social-cultural aspects of one’s identity and lived experience, and Jeff is sensitive to including

this when the person/couple feel it is important. 

Jeff believes that counseling is effective in discovering an open and transformative place where old ways of feeling and living can loosen and carry forward into new, enhanced ways of living.