Behind The Chair
For therapists doing trauma & anxiety work, and living it too
Therapists hold everyone else. Who holds you?
As the holidays approach, many of us are bracing for a familiar season in our practices. Clients arrive carrying grief that sharpens around empty chairs, family dynamics that resurface old wounds, and anxiety that tightens as the year closes. We hold all of it, often while carrying our own.
Behind the Chair is a confidential virtual group for therapists who do trauma and anxiety work and know it from the inside too. It's a place to set down what you carry, to be witnessed rather than always witnessing, and to resource yourself for the months ahead. The group unfolds in two seasons. Season 1 supports you through the heaviest stretch of the clinical year, and Season 2 goes deeper as we move into spring.
November 12 – March 4 · 8 sessions
Sessions 1 + 2: Building a Safe Container
We begin by creating the conditions that let everyone feel safe and held. Together we'll co-create group agreements, talk openly about what each of us needs to feel contained, and name what brought us here, including our hopes and hesitations about joining a group like this. You'll get to know each other as people first, not as clinicians.
Sessions 3 + 4: Regulating the Nervous System and Meeting Our Parts
We'll learn somatic tools for grounding and regulation drawn from Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), nervous regulation practices from CBT, and the wisdom of Claire Weeks in order to better know the parts of us that show up in our work. I'll guide practices in session, and members will share their own wisdom about what helps them, both in the therapy room and outside it.
Sessions 5 + 6: The Parts That Carry the Weight
With resources in place, we'll turn toward the parts that feel burdened, the ones that whisper we're not competent enough, and the ones that feel pressure to carry the weight of the world. We'll meet the parts that set aside their own needs to look like they have it all together, and offer them the compassion we so readily give our clients.
Sessions 7 + 8: Imperfect, Human, and Reconnected
We'll normalize being imperfect therapists and imperfect humans, and explore what it looks like to return to our work from a place of connection rather than depletion. We'll reflect on what has shifted, name what we're taking with us, and close intentionally, giving each other a real goodbye. For therapists, who manage endings for everyone else, that is its own kind of healing.
Group Structure
Meeting Dates
November 12 · December 3 · December 17 · January 7 · January 21 · February 4 · February 18 · March 4
Holiday break:
No sessions between December 17 and January 7
Investment
Founding Cohort Early Bird Price: $580 ($100 off full price)
Payment plan option:
$290 due at enrollment
& the remaining half ($290) is due after the third session on December 17
This structure supports commitment to the group and helps build the cohesiveness that makes this work meaningful.
Spots are limited.
Please reach out to chelsea@safe-haven-therapy.com for special payment options if this is a barrier for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Individual therapy focuses on your personal healing, and consultation groups focus on your cases. Behind the Chair sits in the space between them. It's for the experience of being a clinician who carries anxiety or trauma of your own, alongside peers who understand that from the inside. Many members find it complements the support they already have rather than replacing it.
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Yes. Behind the Chair is a facilitated therapy group offered through Safe Haven Therapy. Because it's therapy, members must be located in Colorado during sessions.
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Confidentiality is central to this group. We'll create our agreements together in the first sessions, including how we handle overlap outside the group. Your screening consultation also helps us identify potential dual relationships, such as a supervisor, supervisee, or close referral partner, before the group begins.
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No. Season 1 focuses on building trust and a shared container. We build resources before we go deeper. You choose what you share and when, and you're welcome to listen until you're ready.
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Yes. What connects this group isn't years of experience. It's doing trauma and anxiety work while carrying your own story. Early-career and seasoned clinicians each bring something valuable, and in this room nobody is the supervisor.
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You don't need to be struggling "enough" to deserve support. Many therapists hold themselves to a standard of always being okay, which is part of what makes this work so isolating. This group is as much about sustaining yourself and preventing burnout as it is about moving through hard seasons.
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The group meets for one hour on Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 pm MT, about every two weeks, with a built-in holiday break. That keeps it manageable alongside a full caseload, and the busy season is when resourcing matters most. The group is virtual to accommodate seasonal travel and busy schedules. Because the group relies on consistency and trust, members are expected to do their best to attend all 8 sessions, and payment is split into two installments to support that shared commitment.
You spend your days making room for everyone else's story.
This is a space to make room for yours.
Over eight sessions, we'll blend nervous system regulation, parts work, and shared wisdom within a community of clinicians who understand this work because they live it too. Together we'll make room to be imperfect, to be human, and to reconnect with our work without losing ourselves. Whether you're newly licensed or decades in, you don't have to do this alone.
Once you submit the form, we'll schedule a free 20-minute consultation.
I'll answer your questions and we'll explore together whether Behind the Chair is the right space for you in this season.
Meet your Facilitator
Chelsea Augusto, MA, LPCC is a trauma-informed therapist who supports adults navigating complex trauma, OCD, anxiety, relationship wounds, addiction recovery, and neurodivergence.
Her work integrates evidence-based approaches including ERP, Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), IFS-informed parts work, ACT, DBT skills, and somatic tools. Rather than focusing solely on symptom management, Chelsea helps clients better understand their nervous systems, make sense of the patterns that once helped them survive, and build greater safety, trust, and connection within themselves.
As an AuDHD woman herself, Chelsea also brings a neurodiversity-affirming lens to her work and is passionate about creating spaces where people can show up as they are. Her approach is grounded in warmth, compassion, dignity, personal responsibility, and belonging.