Mollie Montgomery, LCSW

Specializing in interpersonal trauma, the mind-body connection, mood disorders, and interpersonal relationships.

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” –Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross

About Me and My Psychotherapy Practice

I am originally from northern Michigan and after finishing my undergraduate degree in International Studies at Hope College I went on to complete my Masters in Social Work at the University of Michigan. I am an introvert that has always had a deep appreciation for the resiliency of the human spirit. Starting my field work at domestic violence agencies and chronic pain clinics I quickly became drawn to the intimate, vulnerable, and worthwhile work of healing our inner worlds. I began my private practice in Brooklyn, New York in 2018 and have since left the city and moved out to Denver, Colorado, transitioning my practice to a fully virtual setting so I am able to see people statewide in both New York and Colorado ensuring therapy is accessible and on the clients terms. 

I absolutely love the mind-body connection and helping people understand in a general as well as personal way how the brain, hormones, and nervous system influence our thoughts/beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. In sessions I help people connect how life experiences have influenced and formed their physiological state (and vice-versa), how this creates a blue-print for our perspectives and outlook on life, and the amazing opportunities we have through neuroplasticity to heal and grow from things that once felt overwhelming and totally unmanageable. Trauma, and particularly trauma that is deeply interpersonal, changes our brains and our bodies, and along with that how we see ourselves, others and the world. Sometimes this trauma runs so deep, we’re unable to see how it connects; sometimes, the trauma runs so deep, we can’t help but see it everywhere that we look. I see my role as your therapist to be someone who uses real science to offer explanations, can help you make these connections, heal past wounds and mourn those loses, so there is space to choose your response to things in a way that aligns with your values rather than simply reacting in ways that may now feel outdated and unlike your true self. Ultimately, my goal is to help you connect to and embrace the fullest version of yourself!

It All Comes Down to Relationships

Dr. Bruce Perry, expert in treating effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) states “The most powerful predictor of your functioning in the present is your current relational connectedness and then the second most powerful component that we see is your history of connectedness.” How true this is and how much in our western, individualized, capitalist perspective we are robbed of the natural resources and essential qualities we find in safe relationships and fulfilling social communities. Interactions in our younger years form our expectations of how we move through and exist in the world and give us a preliminary road map of how we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. With confirmation bias wired into us to seek what we know as a mechanism of safety, many of us continue to use this road map throughout life despite it being outdated at best, and more often simply inaccurate. Strong, meaningful, safe connection to our authentic selves and to others is the number one best thing we can do for ourselves and our health, and consequently for others too as prioritizing our healing allows us to show up in more grounded and present ways and is an automatic invitation for others to do the same. Healing from trauma, especially interpersonal trauma, is not about blaming or shaming anyone, it’s about understanding with compassion the context in which things happened, how we survived them, how we bear the scars (visible and invisible), then gracefully and with gratitude releasing what no longer serves us to allow space for what’s next to take root.

How We’ll Work Together

Every person is different, and even within the same person how and why you enter therapy can be different at different times in your life. So, our work together will start with identifying where you are and forming a personalized treatment plan from there. You may want to see specific goals met or gain new skills, you may want to explore various aspects of your identity, you may come in wanting to heal and mourn specific pains or traumas. However you show up, I will meet you where you are and together we will form a picture of what it looks like when you are where you want to be. Once a treatment plan is formed, my approach in every session will be to hold a safe, compassionate and curious space so we are able to be present and non-judgmental towards anything that comes up for you. We do not heal, grow, or become the fullest versions of ourselves through force, shame or judgment so not only will I never use these approaches in session, I’ll help you catch where you may be doing them to yourself, or point out where others may have used them against you and we can work to uproot those internal barriers to healing. Treatment plan formed, safe space protected, this is where through various therapeutic techniques I help you tap into your internal world honoring its intuitive wisdom while gently tending to the places trauma and suffering interrupted its natural progression. With these things created; relational contract, safety and curiosity, we watch your system move towards the way it ultimately wants to be; safe, happy, healthy and lively. As each person is different the expression of this is different, but at our core all being human, we honor this is our natural movement. We give you the flower, the right soil and watch you blossom. 

I find this is such an exciting time to be in the field! Research and understanding of the mind-body connection and how trauma, stress and even aspects of our cultural norms interrupt our natural progression is expanding and to that end producing complementary therapies and techniques to help us be humans in a world that looks very different from when our first ancestors formed an internal blue-print of how to interact with their environment. In my commitment to continued learning, both so I am able to show up well in my role as a therapist and simply because I love learning these stuff, I have completed the following trainings and will draw on these techniques, principles and findings in our sessions together; 

I truly believe the work of healing and exploring our inner worlds, asking “why” and being curious is a deeply rewarding, humbling, and a beautiful expression of being a human. Of the many things that can be said about trauma I believe one of the truest is, it is something that robs us from really experiencing all it means to be human. I am excited to take this journey with you and I commend you for doing the hard (but I promise worthwhile!) work of healing.