Colorado Wellness Center for Girls

As Director of Family Therapy at the Colorado Wellness Center for Girls, I have a keen insight into the truly amazing shifts that the girls in our care are able to make. They are in a warm environment that is dedicated to their total well being making space for them to discover who they really are in this world. They find their voice… their inner strength and shed the anxiety, depression and loneliness that have been haunting them. Being a girl is downright amazing and every girl deserves to feel that way. The wellness center helps them dig out their own «amazing»! The girls learn to navigate their way through this time and have their hands held.

The Colorado Wellness Center for Girls in Denver (Wheat Ridge specifically) is a unique down to earth place where girls who are struggling, in all sorts of manners, can find a safe place to begin to work on and celebrate the self.
I was amazed at what a warm, at home environment this center offers to young women. Amenities include: a welcoming state of the art kitchen with meals made on site; An incredible classroom with online schooling to help girls get back on track with grades (and each girl gets her own computer set up); Space to spread out for things like reading in the library, laughter yoga, art making, specialty classes, bungee type exercises and more. Its definitely not a residential place, so no bars, locked units or anything like that. I believe it is a closed facility (girls and staff safely locked/​secured during their school day) and open 8:30a to 3:30a allowing girls to still have a social and family life outside of the Center.
CWCG is a very new, innovative and non-​traditional take to helping Colorado’s adolescent population. For mental health purposes there are 2 therapists onsite, one focusing on making sure the families are involved too which is so great to see. The Center functions on 6 ambitious domains of wellness such as emotional, psychological, relational, nutritional, physical and educational so all that makes a girl unique is celebrated. The staff is terrifically dedicated to helping girls thrive and are a welcoming presence from the moment you walk in the door. These women and men bring a plethora of knowledge to the table for helping girls spanning from personal experience raising teen girls to nutritional and educational backgrounds to social work and psychotherapy expertise. They genuinely care about each girls well being, the struggles that bring her to the center and helping her figure out how to process and move to the next step. I believe that supporting and genuinely respecting our female friends to be strong, nurturing goddess– happy girls and women only strengthens the culture in which we live.