Linzie Ridings, LPCC

About Linzie

What brought me to this work was case management, after my undergraduate degree, across nutrition clinics, shelters, domestic violence advocacy, and home health. The common thread I kept hitting was that the care I was trying to provide ran into a wall of mental health barriers, this stuck point that no amount of resources could get past. Seeing that over and over filled me with the desire to sit with people in a way that helps them move out of those stuck places toward the life and well-being they actually want.

I’ve been here sixteen years and I’m in love with Southwest Colorado. Outside of therapy I’m a river rafter, I’m part of a few dance communities and have gotten into Zouk lately, a partner dance that’s all about connection and body movement, and I love yoga, my dogs, and the trails and sunshine. Taking care of myself outside this room feels like an ethical responsibility, and it’s also just how I fill my own cup. Part of what I care about most here is helping people sustain the life they’ve chosen in a beautiful, high-cost tourist town where the pay doesn’t always match the cost of living.

Linzie’s Approach to Care

My main priority is to create space for you to explore, with someone who can tune in and stay curious alongside you. I’m eclectic in the modalities I use: emotion awareness and education, dialectical behavioral therapy skills, somatic work to connect the mind, heart, and gut, values exploration, and EMDR for more trauma-informed care. Lately I’m gravitating naturally toward complex PTSD, where a lot of the early work is building safety and distress tolerance before we touch the wounds that run deep.

I care a lot about the mind-body connection, because it’s easy to get caught up in the head and try to solve everything with the intellectual brain alone, and then get stuck. The information about what we need and feel lives in the body too. I’ve done my own somatic work for about a year and a half, and I remember the first session, when something unlocked and I actually felt through the body sensations connected to some big emotions. That process has to be gradual and delicate, and a lot of it is just bringing gentle awareness to what’s happening in real time, noticing tight fingers or antsy movement, and getting curious about it.

I’ve also been drawn to LGBTQ+ affirming work, partly because of the communities I relate with. Affirming care, to me, is more than being neutral. So much of what queer and trans clients carry is connected to who they are as a person, not what they do, and rejection aimed at who you are is a special kind of pain. Affirming care means naming that I see you and accept you as you are, and being honest that some challenges are ongoing and may not change, so we work on building a higher quality of life, community, and self-love in spite of them. I’ll also tell you honestly that I struggle with anxiety myself, and it’s taught me how to build the skills to tolerate that distress and keep showing up for what matters to me.

Linzie’s education and experience

I’ve served the Four Corners area in human services and healthcare since 2011, and I hold a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling through Adams State University, after a bachelor’s in psychology from Fort Lewis College. My earlier work included client case management with a non-medical home healthcare company, managing a nonprofit program providing housing advocacy for victimized populations, and three years of wellness and nutrition coaching in the community. I’m trained in EMDR and trauma-informed techniques, with a background in grief and loss, and I’m influenced by interpersonal neurobiology and polyvagal theory.

Linzie’s license information

Credential: Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate (LPCC)
License: #0020814
State: Colorado