LGBT therapists in Durango, CO

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor who works primarily with children, adolescents, young adults, and families navigating emotional intensity, relational stress, and life transitions. My practice focuses on helping young people feel more regulated, understood, and confident in who they are, while supporting caregivers in strengthening connection and emotional safety at home.

I have training in attachment-based and experiential therapies, including Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and I incorporate trauma-informed approaches to help clients build insight and resilience. I am especially passionate about supporting youth through nature-based therapy and providing affirming care for LGBTQ+ clients.

My background includes working with adolescents experiencing anxiety, depression, family conflict, identity exploration, and emotional dysregulation. I strive to create a space where clients feel safe, respected, and empowered to grow.

At the heart of therapy is a simple, powerful goal: change. Whether you are looking to quiet anxiety, lift the weight of depression, or navigate the complexities of trauma, you are on a unique path toward your best life. While I can’t make those changes for you, I am deeply committed to walking alongside you. With compassion, dedication, and hard work, we will forge a path that helps you actualize the lasting growth you deserve.

I am a multi-state licensed therapist across California, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, specializing in helping adults navigate deep-seated mental health challenges alongside intense personal and professional transitions.

With vast clinical experience, I have served as a university career counselor, a specialist for healthcare professionals, and a dedicated clinician within both the US Navy Family Advocacy Program and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

My practice provides a highly supportive, practical space for college students, working adults at all career stages, healthcare workers, service members, Veterans, and the LGBTQIA+ community.

I blend empathetic listening with deep clinical insight to help you manage and heal from:

Core Mental Health & Neurodivergence:

Anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, and identity exploration.

Trauma & Life Impact:

Complex trauma, PTSD, grief, loss, and managing chronic medical conditions.

Daily Survival:

Severe career burnout, relationship problems, and navigating life's overlapping pressures.

Hello - My name is Nicole Forester. I welcome you.

I recognize the energy it takes to seek support.

I focus on what matters most to you at a pace you are comfortable with.

Thank you for trusting me to be part of this process.

I believe healing happens when we no longer carry our stories alone. I strive to create a space where you're celebrated and understood exactly as you are now. Together, we'll deconstruct stories shaped by shame to create narratives rooted in agency, authenticity and self-compassion.

As a queer, non-binary, non-monogamous therapist with lived experience of trauma, I specialize in working with queer, transgender, and non-monogamous adults (18+) navigating complex trauma (CPTSD), identity formation, depression, anxiety and neurodivergence.

I’m bilingual in Japanese and English and bring a multicultural lens to my work with individuals and couples. I work with clients who are navigating trauma, relationship difficulties, emotional disconnection, or patterns they understand intellectually but have difficulty changing. Therapy is a process of building emotional, mental, and physiological safety; exploring how your experiences have shaped the way you relate to yourself, others, and the world; processing unresolved emotions; and moving toward becoming more whole.

Hello, dear one, and welcome. I'm so glad you're here. I help those who feel everything — the ones who need more recovery time than everyone around them, who've been called "too sensitive" or "too much" by people who never had to carry what you carry. You're not too much. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was built to do. Many of my clients come to me with anxiety that won't quiet down, depression that's settled in like fog, trauma that keeps showing up in the body, or the kind of exhaustion that doesn't lift no matter how much they rest. For some, it's meant holding everything together — the high achiever, the one everyone calls for advice, the one who looks fine from the outside while running on empty. Burnout isn't a personal failing here. It's what happens when you've been rewarded for ignoring your own needs and limits for too long. For others, it's meant leaving a faith that no longer fits, questioning who taught them to distrust their body and intuition, or untangling the belief that they have to hustle harder, earn their rest, prove their worth, or make themselves small to keep others comfortable. If you see yourself in any of this, you're in the right place. Together, we start understanding what those experiences are trying to tell you, instead of treating them as something to fix. You aren't broken — you are responding to what was asked of you. We figure out what doing this differently could look like, at whatever pace feels right for you. Whatever brings you here, this is a safe, unhurried place to ask the questions you learned not to ask.

I believe counseling is a collaborative process and starts in the first session as we work together to understand your concerns. My first intention for you is to feel empowered, nurtured, and strengthened by the work we do together. I will work with you to create a safe and trusting space in which you can explore challenges that have hindered your ability to take full advantage of your potential. Together we will work on resolving difficult issues to promote increased self-awareness, understanding, and connection.