About Aiya

As a creative, queer, sensory-attuned, gifted, and curious out-of-the-box thinker in a world still coming to terms with queer people, I became acutely aware—early on—of systems, culture, suffering, and beauty. I carried many questions about how to live a fulfilling, ethical, and empowered life. As a young adult, I once believed there might be an ideal way to eliminate suffering or create a just world for all. Over time, I was humbled. Though I couldn’t make the world (or my little town) a perfect place for everyone, I discovered how to be at home in my own skin and how to develop thriving relationships and community within the world as it is. I didn’t give up the desire to reduce suffering, but I did learn how to be with complexity and imperfection.

I’ve also come to realize—again and again—that this journey we call life is always shifting and unfolding in unexpected ways. Whenever I think I’ve “arrived,” another hill, mountain, or surprise corner appears, inviting exploration. I no longer believe that arriving is the answer. Instead, I returned to a childhood longing: to connect deeply with other people who are also exploring life’s depths and mysteries—and to ease some of the suffering along the way by doing this together.

This innate curiosity led me toward art-making, contemplative practice, somatic meditation, and dance as ways of relating to reality in deeper, more embodied ways. I wanted to understand what it means to be fully human—alive, expressive, and in relationship. That path brought me into the worlds of body awareness, dance as art, and somatic psychotherapy, particularly Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a relational, body-based approach to healing. Along the way, I discovered that relationships, authentic expression, love, and depth of experience are what truly move me.

I love therapy because I love people. I love how we think, get stuck and unstuck, make messes, love with abandon, whisper our heart’s desires, grieve and yearn, and try—again and again—to unlock the cages of our hearts after we’ve been hurt. I often say, “Once you know someone’s story, you can’t help but love them.” One of my teachers often also quotes George Eliot: “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” I see my work as a therapist as inseparable from my work as a human—to help make the journey less difficult, to build bridges, and to notice moments of wonder along the way.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked in a wide range of settings, including community mental health, youth residential services, outpatient addiction treatment, a mindfulness-based transitional program for young adults, and internationally with survivors of abuse and sex trafficking. My experience also includes work as a primary therapist with a Denver-based Drug Court, within an integrated primary care clinic, with LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults, in private practice, and as a teacher and supervisor for graduate students at Naropa University. These diverse contexts have deepened my understanding of how people navigate life from many different locations. At the same time, I remain most interested in your unique story—your lived experience, your longings, and the dreams you carry for your life.

My therapeutic work supports people in reconnecting with their bodies, creativity, and inherent wisdom. I invite a return to the intelligence of the nervous system and to the parts of ourselves that long to move, create, and feel at home in the world. Integrating somatic and art-based approaches, I support trauma resolution, emotional integration, and authentic self-expression. My practice draws from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Art Therapy, EMDR, and transpersonal and liberatory frameworks, grounded in an understanding of attachment, embodiment, and how experience is held in the body.

Clients often seek me out when purely cognitive approaches no longer feel sufficient and they are ready to explore healing through the body’s language—through image, movement, gesture, or sensation. Together, we attend to subtle rhythms of regulation and connection, allowing new patterns of presence, resilience, and meaning to emerge. I offer therapy as a collaborative and relational process—one rooted in curiosity, depth, and integrity—where healing unfolds not through fixing, but through remembering the body’s innate movement toward balance and freedom.

I hold a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology with a specialization in Art Therapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Studio Art from Southern Oregon University. I currently practice in Boulder as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC), Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS), Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist, and Natural Medicine in Training Practitioner (NMIT).