Prenatal and postpartum therapists & psychiatrists in Grand Junction, CO

I have worked with clients who experience anxiety and depression for over 15 years, 8 years of that as an LPC. I have experience in multiple settings including outpatient and inpatient.

I have worked my entire career within a hospital setting and specialize in working with first responders, healthcare providers and doctors.

I’m an LCSW, and my practice name, Life Shift Happens, comes from a truth I see every single day: people don’t come to therapy because they’re broken. They come because life stopped unfolding the way they expected, and they feel entirely stuck. A lot of the humans I work with are incredibly thoughtful and trying so hard. They usually don't lack insight; they’ve read the coping skills and talked things through with friends. Yet, they still find themselves procrastinating, shutting down, or feeling completely frozen by past stuff. When that happens, change isn’t a matter of forcing more willpower. It requires slowing down to look at the patterns and defense mechanisms we build to protect ourselves when life gets heavy.

My style is collaborative, deeply conversational, and entirely human. I’m not here to judge, lecture, or pretend I have all the answers. Instead, I’m active in our sessions through asking questions, noticing patterns, and gently pushing back when I see you getting in your own way. We will work on the practical things like boundaries, follow-through, and managing emotions, while sitting with the messy overthinking, panic, burnout, or feeling checked out underneath it all. Therapy with me is a relationship where we make sense of the sudden crises and quiet paralyses that come with life shifts. The goal isn’t a perfect, flawless life, but rather a therapeutic space where you can figure out what changed, sprinkle in compassion, and learn how to move forward in a way that feels genuinely your own.

If you've been told your anxiety, exhaustion, or emotional shifts are "just stress" or "just aging" — and something in you knows it's more than that — you're in the right place. I'm Kristal, a licensed therapist with over 15 years of experience supporting people through life's most challenging transitions. That career — rooted in crisis intervention, child welfare, and working alongside people experiencing homelessness — built in me a deep capacity to sit with complexity, pain, and change without flinching. That foundation now drives my specialized work with women navigating perimenopause and menopause. I bring both clinical expertise and lived experience to this work. I've walked this road myself — which means when you show up, you will be genuinely seen and heard, perhaps in a way you haven't been in a long time.

Check me out on the Grit to Growth Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTvAK4pRlkM

I have wanted to be a counselor from a young age. I received my undergraduate BA degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado and my graduate degree M.Ed clinical/ school counseling from the University of Phoenix. I also spent two years studying at the Denver Seminary to learn how to incorporate faith into counseling. I started out as a middle school counselor and also worked as a therapist in a counseling clinic. My passions are parent coaching, helping with anxiety disorders as well as depressive disorders.

Hello. I am a clinical psychologist that has been practicing for ten plus years. I have had extensive training with evidence based trauma treatments.