Frequently Asked Questions

Sessions are offered in a professional office in my home in the south end of Fort Collins, CO near Trilby and Lemay. Since the pandemic, I have done most of my work on Zoom, but I am once again accepting clients in-person.

9:00 am – 6:15 pm Mon. – Thurs.

Full 60-minute sessions (instead of the typical 50-minute “therapy hour”).

For a free 30-minute phone consultation with Paul Chubbuck to learn more, please use the contact form here , call 970-493-2958, or click the Book Now button below.

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A cancellation less than 24 hours before the appointment is charged at the full fee, except in cases of serious illness or medical emergency. Phone or online appointments may allow even these appointments to be kept.

Age 21 and older.

Adults, both men and women. I do not do couple’s counseling.

The individual therapy I offer is different from conventional talk therapy. We won’t need to spend hours or months uncovering your childhood and family history in detail.

But we will talk, to get acquainted and to explore what is important to you, to find the best starting point. My “body-centered” style of psychotherapy doesn’t involve touch or massage. Instead, there will be various awareness exercises to help you to become more centered in your physical experience of your own strength and aliveness.

We will explore….

• Ways to safely and gradually come out of the “freeze state” so common to trauma survivors
• Building “resources”; i.e., experiences which help us feel joy, optimism, freedom, and love
• Awakening awareness of feelings and sensation
• Reducing over-reactivity to triggers leftover from past trauma, abuse, or neglect, especially in intimate and family relationships
• Skills in “centering”; i.e., getting “out of your head” and “in your body”
• Discharging anxiety, grief, stress, and anger in safe and healthy ways
• Learning to be present to yourself and to others
• Internal and external boundaries and how to say “yes” and “no” effectively
• Releasing compulsions, addressing underlying healthy needs

I frequently give “homework,” and I strongly encourage clients to buy and keep a “Therapy Journal” as a place to log new awareness and insights, feelings, things to bring to the next session, homework assignments, and the outcome of such assignments.

My original training as a therapist (Master’s degree in Counseling, 1976) was quite broad, including many then-current modalities such as Gestalt, Client-Centered Therapy, and Transactional Analysis. Later, for ten years I trained in deep-feeling release work as support for recovery from addiction. In the last 20 years, I have focused my practice on Somatic Experiencing, a set of body-centered understandings and practices which have consistently offered the most powerfully positive results for my clients. I have also studied and been certified in Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) and Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR). To learn more about Somatic Experiencing, click here.

I have a Masters in Counseling from Kansas State University and am a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (S.E.P) with additional certifications in Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) and Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR), both powerfully effective in the treatment of abuse, loss, injury, and other trauma. My 47-year professional and personal growth path — seeking and finding solutions to my own challenges — forms the foundation for what I offer to others. Many kind and wise teachers have generously helped me on my path.

The number of sessions required depends entirely on what you are wanting and dealing with. In cases where there is a specific painful or traumatic event in the recent past, such as a car accident within the last couple of years, I’ve had clients clear all the anxiety and muscle constriction around that sort of event within 5-10 sessions.

Some people only want to get out of acute emotional pain. Frequently, working together, we can do that within several sessions.

Others are experiencing negative thinking and dysfunctional emotional patterns learned as children which have been persisting for decades. This is sometimes called Complex Post-Traumatic Disorder (CPTSD). They want to be free of the fear and negativity or the self-sabotaging, painful, repetitive old life patterns. That is entirely possible, but takes longer.

In the case of childhood abuse or severely traumatic events happening many years ago, you may have formed your personality around defending against the overpowering and uncomfortable feelings associated with these events. There may be various ways you avoid feeling any of this discomfort, anxiety, and anger, such as addictions, or unconsciously re-creating the earlier experience of trauma in your present life.

These patterns can be released, often without even necessarily remembering the historical details. It is a process of gently, gradually becoming aware of these patterns as we discharge the anxiety around the feelings from the original painful event(s). Usually, a slower pace of change is actually more advisable, because it will help you integrate the changes and feel comfortable that they are permanent.

This not a race. Healing is a life-transforming process. If you really want to heal, you will get there in your own time. Your own time is the only time you need to be concerned with.

However it happens for you, the experience of uncovering and releasing these old, painful patterns is an exciting one of self-discovery, an inner adventure with real-life outer results, such as increasing your ability to have satisfying relationships, to be creative, and to feel happy. These make the investment of effort, time, and money hands-down the most worthwhile of all investments you’ll ever make.

No! In my experience, spiritual or religious resources, such as a feeling of connection to a source of spiritual help, can be a help to therapy, but only if it comes naturally for a client. I don’t promote a religion or spirituality and am respectful and supportive of whatever religious or spiritual teaching is helpful to you, including none at all.

When we meet, I help you to be present to your physical experience… right now; it sometimes happens that deep feelings, such as grief, come up – maybe a whole lot of it. There’s no expectation from me on that. It’ll happen for you if and when you feel the need and you feel comfortable. It’s a mystery. But if you do have tears come, the tissues will be there… and so will I.