Hello!

Therapy works best when you do not have to spend your sessions explaining your life. Nico Barden (she/her) works with adults on anxiety, depression, relationships, and life transitions, and she has a special focus on queer, transgender, and gender-diverse clients. In Nico's room, your identity is not a lesson you have to teach. It is the starting point, and the work begins from there.

 

Nico helps clients work through identity and self-acceptance, relationships of all kinds (including non-monogamy), religious trauma, and the stress of major life changes. She also works with parents of trans and gender-diverse kids who want to understand and support their child and need a space where they can ask honest questions.

 

Her approach is practical and warm. She draws on CBT and DBT skills you can actually use between sessions, narrative therapy to help you make sense of your story, and trauma-informed care throughout. Community and belonging are part of the work too, because nobody should have to figure this out alone.

 

Nico is a Master of Social Work (MSW) clinical-year student practicing under the clinical supervision of Christy Rushfeldt (former Rainbow Health/MN AIDS Project lead therapist) at PeopleFirst Clinic in Woodbury, MN. She is currently accepting new clients, in person and by telehealth.

 

Special Interests:

LGBTQIA+ & Gender-Affirming Therapy • Neurodiversity • Identity & Self-Acceptance • Narrative Therapy • Religious Trauma • Life Transitions • DBT & CBT Skills • Group Therapy • Community & Belonging