Erik Petersen
New to Grow
I'm Erik Petersen — a Licensed Professional Counselor, grief specialist, and couples therapist with over 20 years of experience walking with people through the hardest seasons of their lives. I know what it's like to lose a father young. To feel the ground shift beneath you before you were ready. To spend years searching for direction — and for someone steady enough to follow. That kind of loss doesn't just take a person. It takes the roadmap. And without it, you wander. That wandering shaped me. It's why I do this work, and why I do it the way I do. I founded Made Known Counseling because I believe the deepest human need isn't to be fixed — it's to be truly known. Known in the pain, the confusion, the grief that hasn't lifted, the relationship that's quietly unraveling. Known without being rushed toward an answer that isn't ready yet. I work with individuals carrying grief in all its forms — death, divorce, miscarriage, estrangement, infertility, and the losses that don't have a name but still take something from you. I work with couples who love each other but have lost the thread. And I work with men doing the kind of interior work that most rooms don't make space for — the searching, the silence, the long overdue reckoning. My approach is trauma-informed, relationally grounded, and faith-integrated for those who want that. I draw on EMDR, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and the Gottman Method — but what matters more than technique is presence. I practice online across Colorado and in-person near Grand Junction. If something in you says it's time — that's enough to begin. Helping You Mourn. Mend. And Find Meaning.
Get to know me
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
Before we even begin, I want you to know one thing: you don't need to have it figured out. You don't need the right words, the right story, or a clear sense of what you're hoping to get out of therapy. You just need to show up. I'll meet you there. Our first session isn't a traditional intake. I'm not going to walk you through a long history, ask where you were born, or take you back through your childhood before we've even had a chance to breathe together. That can come later, when it matters and when you're ready. What I care about most in that first hour is simpler than that. Something brought you here. Right now. Recently. Maybe it was an event. A conversation that didn't go the way it should have. A loss. A moment where something broke open and couldn't be closed back up. Maybe it wasn't one thing at all, just a slow, quiet awareness that crept up on you until it couldn't be ignored anymore. The sense that something needs to change, even if you can't name exactly what. That's where we start. I want to know what's happening in your life right now. What you're carrying into this room today. What finally made you pick up the phone or fill out the form. That moment matters and it tells me more about where we need to go than any intake questionnaire ever could. From there, we'll talk honestly. I'll ask questions, I'll listen carefully, and I'll tell you what I'm noticing. By the end of our time together you'll have a sense of how I work, whether this feels like a good fit, and what a path forward might look like. What I'm working toward in that first hour is simple. I want you to leave feeling more understood than when you walked in. Like something that's been invisible finally has a witness. That's where it starts.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
The first thing I'd say is this: I bring myself. After 20 years in this field, I've learned that technique matters but presence matters more. What actually heals people isn't the right intervention at the right moment. It's the experience of being genuinely known by another person who isn't flinching, isn't rushing, and isn't trying to fix you. That's what I work to create in every session. I'm trained in EMDR, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Method Level 2, CBT, narrative therapy, and attachment-based approaches. I draw on all of it, but I don't run protocols. I pay attention to the person in front of me and let the work take the shape it needs to take. I'm also adaptable. Some clients come in with insurance and a shorter runway. Some come ready to do longer, deeper work. I can work within either. What changes is the pace and the scope, not the quality of attention you'll receive. But here's something I want to be honest about from the beginning: my goal is for you to not need me anymore. I'm not interested in building a dependency. I'm not looking for a client for the next two years with no clear direction. From our first session, we'll talk about what you're working toward and what it looks like when we get there. Progress should be visible. Goals should be real. And when you've done the work you came to do, we celebrate that and you move on. Therapy done well has a finish line. My job is to help you find it. For clients of faith, I hold that with genuine care. Whether your faith feels solid, shifting, or shaken, it's welcome here. So is the doubt. So is the anger. This is soul care, not just symptom relief. What I bring above everything else is a steady, honest, unhurried presence. The kind that makes it safe enough to say the real thing, and clear enough to know when the work is done.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
I work with Couples finding their way back to each other. Men finally ready to do the real work. People carrying grief that the world stopped making room for. Families fractured by estrangement, with no clean ending in sight. And souls that are tired; not broken, just depleted, who need more than coping strategies. These are the people I'm built to sit with. My clients are usually high-functioning on the outside. They show up, hold it together, and keep moving. But underneath, something isn't right, and they know it. They're not in crisis. They're just carrying more than anyone realizes, often for longer than they'd like to admit. I work with couples who still love each other but feel like strangers. Men who are finally willing to go somewhere deeper than the surface. People grieving a death, a divorce, an estrangement, a dream that didn't survive. And anyone longing for soul-level care. The kind that asks not just "what's wrong?" but "what does your life actually want to become?" Faith is welcome here. So is doubt. So is the anger that doesn't know where to go. If you're tired of pretending you're fine or maybe your aren't pretending and its seaping out, this is a good place to start. I help individuals, couples, and families Mourn, Mend, and find Meaning.
Specialties
Top specialties
Grief
Mood Disorders
Trauma and PTSD
Other specialties
ADHD
Anxiety
Couples Counseling
I identify as
Christian
Man
White
Serves ages
Adults (18 to 64)
Elders (65 and above)
Licensed in
Colorado
Accepts
Arlo
Location
Virtual
My treatment methods
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
One of the things I tell clients is that the goal isn't to make the pain disappear, it's to stop letting the pain make all your decisions. ACT helps people develop a different relationship with what they're feeling, stay rooted in their values even in the middle of hard seasons, and move toward a life that actually matters to them rather than just away from what hurts.
Narrative
You are not your diagnosis. You are not your worst season. Narrative therapy helps clients separate their identity from the painful stories they've been told or told themselves and start authoring something more true. I use this especially with grief and loss, helping people integrate what happened without letting it become the only story that defines them.
Gottman method
Twenty years of research on what makes relationships work and what quietly destroys them. I use Gottman principles to help couples understand the patterns between them: where the wall went up, how trust eroded, what needs to be rebuilt. It's not about conflict resolution techniques. It's about learning how to actually turn toward each other again.