My education and experience:
    I received my MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Art Therapy, at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado in 2004. In addition to private practice clients, I have worked with adjudicated adolescents in residential treatment, correctional settings, and during transitional parole. During my internship I worked with adults in emergency services professions challenged with symptoms of vicarious/secondary trauma.
    Prior to receiving my degree, my experience has been in victim advocacy/crisis intervention/emergency services: two years volunteer experience as a victim's advocate; forty hour training in crisis intervention given by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA); 20 hour secondary trauma resiliency training; and eleven years experience as an emergency services 9-1-1 dispatcher. I received my B.A. in Visual Arts from Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado in 2001.

My therapeutic orientation & methods of therapy:
    My foundational therapeutic orientation is Transpersonal Psychology. The basic assumption of Transpersonal Psychology is that all of who we are is more than a psychological ego or self, we are spiritual beings. A person's life experiences are of value and meaningful, no matter how painful or meaningless they may appear as presented. Growth and transformation can occur as a person has the capacity to access the healing place within themselves. This requires the therapist to be present through compassionate listening, nonjudgmental acceptance, and understanding that the growth and transformation of the person is facilitated within the client/therapist relationship. Transpersonal Psychology is grounded in traditional psychotherapeutic approaches.
    Within the foundational framework of Transpersonal Psychology I utilize the following methods:

• Art Therapy: Art therapy is based on the belief that the creative process involved in the making of art is healing and lifeenhancing. Through the process of creating, art making, and talking with an art therapist, one can increase awareness of: self; symptoms; stress; traumatic experiences; and enjoy the life-affirming pleasures of creativity. Art therapy practice is based on knowledge of human development and psychological theories which are implemented in the full spectrum of models of assessment and treatment.
• IFS (Internal Family Systems) Therapy: IFS offers a non-pathological, self-honoring, and self-transforming understanding of human challenges. IFS therapy provides an opportunity for one to understand and relate to themselves in a different way. By working with the natural multiplicity of the mind, one can come to understand and appreciate the benefit of living their lives from a place of effective self leadership.

Kendra Harper, LPC - 1440 Blake St., #330, Denver, CO 80202 - 303-469-1474