Danielle Bosma, LCSW

Hi, I’m Danielle Bosma, LCSW (she/her). After living in big-city LA and rural settings in Canada and the Midwest, I’ve settled in Arizona for nearly a decade. Due in part to all that moving I have a deep passion for a life of minimalism and simplicity – and consider it a spiritual practice. I love adventure –  whether it’s traveling by foot, paddle, or pedal – but my favorite adventures are my connections with the people in my life.

Beyond appearances, I know what it’s like to struggle – within a relationship, with my identity, with a career, and with my belief system. I’ve experienced deep isolation, life as a solo parent, a long term relationship, dating in this wild territory and numerous religious experiences that range from meaningful to deeply damaging. I carry both the pain and the healing from these experiences with me.

The impact of deep connection – both with myself, friends and in small communities – has helped me expand into myself in beautiful, indescribable ways. I would be honored to be a support as you navigate whatever adventure life has you on.

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, ‘Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.’ I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”

— Carl R. Rogers

I focus my professional learning and growth on:

  • healthy sexual & romantic relationships 

  • relational trauma recovery (affairs, or other relationship betrayals)

  • complex trauma recovery  (including dissociation)

  • traumatic grief and loss

  • equality (sexual and gender identity, gender, racial)

  • systemic abuse recovery (religious, spiritual, workplace)

  • spiritual transitions 

Therapy Modalities

  • Carl Rogers, who has several quotes on this page, taught that people have innate tendencies within them to grow and heal. This modality uses empathy and unconditional positive regard from the therapist as they key to client growth. I consider this the foundation in my work with clients and my own positive experiences in therapy.

  • Self-compassion, though simple in concept, is a challenging practice for most of us. Dr. Kristen Neff provides wonderful research and guidance which I utilize as another foundation and continual guiding force for growth and well-being.

  • I am an IFS-informed therapist. Parts work is similiar to inner child work or shadow work. Internal Family Systems, encourages learning to accept and extend self-compassion to all parts of oneself and can be gentler approach to trauma and grief. It can work well in conjunction with EMDR. These practices also involve improving mindfulness and self-compassion skills.

    “Parts are little inner beings who are trying their best to keep you safe.” - Richard C. Schwartz

    20 hours+ of training

  • EFT is not the only method of couples therapy out there, but it is the most effective! Ninety percent (90%) of couples who go through EFT significantly improve their relationship and 70-75% of couples no longer fit criteria for relationship distress following treatment.

    70+ hours of post-graduate training

  • Eye-movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy is a method of therapy that uses eye movements or tapping to help people attend to their trauma while staying connected to the here and now. It is more a more structured therapy that is not appropriate for all people or all types of trauma. The process involves directly facing painful past experiences one at a time which can effectively dismantle beliefs that inhibit self-acceptance. EMDR can be effective with many types of trauma and is just one tool that is used to ensure that shame and harmful beliefs dismantled. I utilize a gentle and relational approach to EMDR that is collaborative and client-led to avoid any retraumatization.

    62+ hours of training

  • CBT is a wonderful tool when beginning with therapy. It can help you learn to challenge your own assumptions and learn the building blocks of understanding the difference between thoughts and emotions.

  • I rely heavily on my time learning from several grief experts, including Dr. Cacciatore, an Arizona-based and internationally recognized grief expert and Terri Waibel, LCSW. Grief deserves delicate care.

Qualifications

  • I have worked as an advanced trauma therapist at a larger agency, at a private practice specializing in traumatic grief, on leadership and advisory boards in educational, religious, and community settings, within residential foster care group home as a direct care worker, and within intimate partner violence shelters.

  • complex trauma recovery 

    healthy relationships 

    sex therapy

    relational trauma recovery (affairs, or other relationship betrayals)

    traumatic grief and loss

    equality (sexual and gender identity, gender, racial)

    religious or spiritual trauma & abuse recovery

    spiritual transitions 

  • gender, race, relationship status, socioeconomic, philosophical/religious, sexuality (body neutrality, sex-positive, LGBTQIA+, open relationship, polyamorous, non-monogamy, and sex-worker allied). My orientation is towards learning and growth – and that includes learning from your unique way of being in the world.

  • Graduate:

    Master of Social Work, Arizona State University

    Graduate Certificates in Trauma & Bereavement

    Graduate Certificate in Gender-Based Violence

    Undergraduate studies:

    psychology, religion, accounting, business

Carl R. Rogers

“I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, enjoyable, do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the good life, even though the person in this process would experience each one of these at the appropriate times. But adjectives which seem more generally fitting are adjectives such as enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging, meaningful. This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the fainthearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. Yet the deeply exciting thing about human beings is that when the individual is inwardly free, he chooses as the good life this process of becoming.”