About

Welcome, and thank you for visiting my counseling profile! I am so glad you're here.

My name is Kelly Banas and I am a collaborative, engaging, and compassionate licensed mental health therapist. I believe that a strong therapeutic relationship between therapist and client creates the condition for change in counseling. Operating off of this humanistic principle, I am highly empathic, accepting, non-judgmental and open to my client’s past and current experiences. Beyond this important foundation, I use an integrated approach of solution-focused, narrative, dialectical behavioral, cognitive behavioral and mindfulness-based interventions. I often conceptualize systemically and will be curious about how the communities or systems that my clients belong to impact their individual functioning. I believe the purpose of my work as a counselor is to encourage the facilitation of my clients' insight and self-awareness, which will empower them to make the changes and access the answers that may have been temporarily stuck, but have always been a part of them.

I am a Nationally Certified Counselor and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Washington and a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado. I've worked throughout Washington and Colorado, as well as in Oregon, in a variety of different counseling settings, including outpatient community mental health centers, private clinics, and school mental health clinics. I work with clients from diverse backgrounds around a variety of topics, including anxiety, depression, trauma, self-esteem, body-image, family and relational stress, life changes and transitions, and parenting challenges. I hold a Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a post-graduate certificate in Couples and Family Therapy. Prior to my graduate training, I completed my undergraduate degrees in Spanish and History and spent time living in Spain. Concurrent to my graduate training, I worked extensively in case management and counseling with immigrant and refugee communities and am passionate about providing culturally-attuned counseling and counseling in Spanish.

I am inspired by this quote by Brene Brown: "Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light."