Who Are We?
CounselingWise is the work of Becky DeGrossa, who has been contributing to the world of online marketing for therapists since 2007. After earning a degree in Computer Science from Cal Poly and spending 20 years at IBM, Becky pursued a master’s in psychology and became a successful therapist. Now she combines her technical, marketing, and psychology backgrounds to serve the therapy community, and has helped hundreds of therapists in the fine art of website communication. Becky is a “process nerd” meaning that she LOVES Learning something new…Testing it out to see if it works…Tweaking it so it works better…and then Systematizing it so it can be done over and over. This predilection has resulted in efficiencies that range from…yes, the loading/unloading of the silverware basket in her dishwasher…to…rapid increases in marketing effectiveness for her clients. In her spare time, Becky loves hanging out with two-year-olds, reading good novels, and listening to thought leaders while on the beach in Maui.
Our Team of Amazing Folks
Kathryn Bloom, Conscious Business Consultant | Life Coach
Kat brings a strong passion for simplicity and creating an authentic work environment to CounselingWise. With over 20 years of high-tech experience, including positions in software development, project management, process development, and architecture, she excels at seeing the “forest and the trees.” This, combined with her lifelong study of psychology and mindfulness, as well as her background in marketing and Business/Life Coaching, makes CW a great fit! Lover of lemurs, college basketball, hiking and the symphony… her next adventure might be trekking in Madagascar, cheering with the Cameron Crazies at Duke University, or exploring Iceland.
Amanda Grupp, Marketing
Amanda is Colorado born, midwest raised and happy to be back to her roots in Boulder. Before returning to Colorado and starting at CounselingWise, she lived in various cities across the US and backpacked from the Northern to Southern points of South America. In a variety of roles and experiences along the way she acquired project management skills and worked with several small businesses. Amanda’s deepest passion lies in helping others. At CounselingWise she channels this energy towards working with her clients to translate tech language into vocabulary that everyone can understand, turning what seems to be an impossible mess into a manageable project, and being enthusiastic every step of the way. When she’s not cheering on her clients at CounselingWise, Amanda is most likely adventuring in the mountains or curled up with a good book.
Lissa A. Forbes, Executive | Marketing Assistant
Lissa is a creative. She is a writer, photographer, digital artist, and self-published author. She loves to learn new software platforms and utilize them for efficiency. Her favorite platform of the day is Trello, a show and tell visual platform, because it fuels both the creative and analytical mind. Much of her expertise is self-taught after a preliminary exposure. With initial training in the basics of InDesign and Photoshop, she took off running using these tools to incorporate her photos and musings in weekly newsletters focusing on walking paths in the Boulder area. Lissa holds a Master of Liberal Studies with a focus in Creative Writing. She self-published Write from the Inside: Dig for Treasures, Discover Yourself, Leave a Legacy, and On the Road to Hugo: A PhotoJournal. She spends her off time with her best dog, Kobi, walking new trails, snuggling while watching movies.
Curtis Phelan, Sales Representative
Curtis is a former U.S. Marine and attributes the high standards that he holds his clients accountable to because of his training and experience in the Marine Corps as well as working side by side with the world’s Top Peak Performance and Personal Development leaders. Curtis is now a highly sought after Leader and Speaker in the Personal and Professional Coaching Industry. Curtis started his career over 17 years ago as one of Tony Robbins “Founding” Master Elite Coaches, where Curtis personally coached thousands of individuals including but not limited to Celebrities, Entrepreneurs, Fortune 100 CEO’s, Sales and Marketing Leaders, Peak Performance Athletes and other Peak Performance Coaches in the best concepts and strategies in personal and professional peak performance, growth and transformation. Curtis’s strengths are helping his clients identify the patterns that keep them from achieving results and model the underlying strategies responsible for generating consistent results.
Rocco Baldassarre, AdWords Specialist
Rocco consults companies with online advertising strategies like Google AdWords, Facebook and cross-channel advertising among other things. Rocco has been shortlisted as Young Search Professional of the Year in 2013 and 2014 by the European and the US Search Awards. He holds two Master of Science and two Bachelor of Science degrees and is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian.
Kate Shandalow, Production Assistant
“Kate was born in San Francisco, California and moved to beautiful Boulder, Colorado with her family. After briefly attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Kate started working in the restaurant business at The Kitchen Next Store in Boulder, where she developed an acute awareness of customer relations and marketing strategies. After attending a graphic design certificate program through Boulder Digital Arts, Kate began working with an on-line clothing start-up and CounselingWise. In April 2017, Kate started her own design company, Kate Olivia Designs, LLC, and is happy and proud to provide services to CounselingWise. Kate loves bulldogs, the Rocky Mountain West, the San Francisco Giants, Netflix, her cat, art, and food.”
Project Managers
Bill Bradley, Project Manager
Bill is from Georgia originally. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia in Business Education and a Master’s degree from the University of Colorado, Denver in Instructional Technology. After college, Bill traveled the world as a flight attendant and a supervisor of flight services. He taught classes in Web Design, Animation, and Graphic Design in high school for many years. Bill has coached high school basketball for the last 25 years in Georgia, Tennessee, and Colorado. When he isn’t working, he and his wife, Kim, love traveling and are both avid disc golfers.
Lorena Weber, Project Manager | Strategy Consultant
Lorena originally hails from New Jersey with family ties in Mexico, Spain and Switzerland. She has a Masters in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London and a BA in Foreign Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University. She specializes in project management, communications, and visual design with experience in fostering and building client relationships within several industries including Outdoor Apparel, Energy, Luxury Retail, Fine Art, and Fashion. Lorena has a passion for painting and drawing and works in watercolor, acrylic and oil. She has a cat named Kinky Boots and enjoys skiing, cycling, running and hiking in her new home state, Colorado.
Willie Milam, Project Manager | Strategy Consultant
Born and raised in Lake Oswego, Oregon, Willie is a native Northwester at heart who loves the greenery, colorful seasons, and amazing running trails that Oregon and Washington have to offer. Graduating from Gonzaga University with an undergraduate degree in Finance and Economics, and continuing on to get his Master’s in Business Administration, Willie moved back to Portland in the summer of 2015 to work as a Financial Analyst for an Investment Firm. Through his education and time in Portland, he gained valuable experience and analytical, project management, and communicational skills that he excited to apply to CounselingWise and its’ clients. His passion for running takes up most of his free time and is what led him to Colorado, as he joined an Olympic Development Group named Roots Runnings Project where he is hoping to continue running competitively.
Samantha Harms, Project Manager
Samantha graduated from University of Colorado – Boulder in 2007, and is currently a continuing education student in web development. She has worked at multiple startups, including a social music network, a dynamic geospatial wiki, and a suite of survey software. She loves spending time with her boyfriend and family, learning new technology, bird watching, taking long walks, and hanging out with her three cats, Tricky, Izzy, and Monkey. As an east-coast interloper originally from Pennsylvania, she has always wanted to live next to the mountains, and has appreciated all 300 days of sun a year since coming to Colorado.
Developers
Mohammad Bayezid, Developer
Mohammad Bayezid is a professional web developer, who upholds a strong inclination towards technological advancements and enjoys internet surfing to discover cool stuff around the web.
Writers
Tyler Elson, Content Strategist
Tyler graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2008, where he had a brief stint as the Leprechaun and captained the cheerleading team during the worst football season in school history. He worked as a senior business analyst in a Fortune 500 company, managing inventory and supply chain for a $100 million program. Realizing he didn’t want his life’s work to be whether or not cheap microwaves were in stock, he left the corporate world and went on to help form a new high school for students with language learning differences. There he taught high school math, science and technology, coached the basketball team and obtained a state grant to begin a robotics club. In 2014 Tyler moved to Boulder to start his writing and design company, specializing in personalized creative content, satire and online presence. He recently published his first children’s book and co-wrote a screenplay. On the rare occasions Tyler isn’t writing, you can usually find him in a suit and recliner, glass of scotch in hand, reading comic books.
Jessie Lucier, Writer | Editor
Jessie is passionate about the protecting the planet and developing a better understanding of the people who inhabit it. She has an M.A. in journalism and a certificate in environment, policy and society from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Given her fascination with the human experience, Jessie thought seriously about pursuing another degree in psychology. Instead, she began working for Counseling Wise as a writer in the spring of 2013. Jessie loves working closely with her therapist clients to craft their online communication. She strives to build the bridge between the therapist and his or her client by evincing their expertise and passion for helping people. She feels strongly that the potential clients can benefit from the support, guidance and relief the therapist can provide. Jessie believes in the mind, body, spirit connection and views therapy as an integral part of developing balance, bettering self-awareness and living a joyous and authentic life. Outside of her work for Counseling Wise, Jessie is a mother to two very active and curious children. She feels very fortunate to have found a way to balance her love of work and writing with her commitment to and love of family. Jessie also enjoys a dedicated yoga practice, gardening and dancing.
Kathleen J. Woods, Writer | Editor
Kathleen J. Woods is pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also teaches. She is the Assistant Editor of Timber Journal, and her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines. She loves writing or reading while it snows. She keeps meaning to get into hiking.
Joey Getty, Writer
Raised as a reader, schooled as a journalist and self-employed as a writer, Joey has a way with words. From the frozen urban landscape of Minneapolis to the island fever of Honolulu, he has written hundreds of articles on a variety of topics. Now, you might hear him pitter-pattering on his laptop at a local Boulder, Colo. coffee shop.
Flash Clark, Writer | Blogger
Born and raised in the fertile Shenandoah Valley of the Virginian Blue Ridge Mountains, Flash Clark, or Michael Wayne, as his parents named him, is a professional fashion designer, musician, and writer with thirteen years experience in journalism. He has published everything from food recipes and cartoons to textbook rewrites and high-profile interviews. He is a proud, lifetime VA Tech Hokie with a degree in apparel design that led to an MFA degree in prose writing from the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University. He also once built a Charlie Brown-style lemonade stand and offered advice, resumes, and laughs to passersby. Co-founder of 16 Blocks Magazine and Innovative Thought Consultants, LLC., Flash now writes freelance while working on several personal literary projects, pursues running, Aikido, and the Colorado sunshine.
Aisling Daly, Writer
Aisling (pronounced ash-ling) is a writer from Ireland, living in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. She recently received an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Aisling loves to travel and has been lucky enough to experience living in several different parts of the world. She is an avid hiker, reader, and animal-lover. Her favorite pastime is to ride horses with friends, closely followed by listening to some great music at Red Rocks.
Ian Clark, Writer
Ian David Clark started writing when, at the age of four, he used a pair of scissors to carve his name into his mother’s antique dining room table. He has since become an avid reader and writer, and he earned his Master’s degree in literature at Trinity College, Dublin.
Bloggers
Laura Olson, Blogging Coordinator | Editor
Laura is currently enjoying a career in freelance writing and editing during “the second half of her life.” She lives with her daughter and her husband of 28 years, along with the family cat and her daughter’s service dog, Unni. She’s passionate about blogging, nutrition, and creative writing. Her goal is to write a New York Times best-selling novel and retire to her beloved California as close to the beach as she can get.
Aisha Geaither Simmons, Blogging Coordinator | Editor
Aisha is a freelance writer, short story author, and poet. She is still learning the ways of the Internet and enjoys unlocking its doors of writing opportunity. She graduated from DePauw University where was awarded the Roy and Anna Kennedy Prize in Creative Writing and fell in love with the dream of quiet hours and a good idea. With the dream still alive, she spends half the day driving hither and yon to football games and gymnastic practice with her adolescent brood and the other easing the pain of writer’s block by systematizing pantries, office files, and closet piles for fun or profit.
Mickey Z, Blogger
Born and raised in NYC, Mickey is a self-taught, self-employed writer. He’s worked in a wide range of mediums (from blog posts to screenplays to poetry and beyond) and covers an even wider range of topics. When he’s not writing, he’s reading or exercising or taking photos or…
Bill Sassani, Blogger
Bill grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania but fell in love with the Rocky Mountains as a teenager backpacking in New Mexico. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in History and earned a master’s degree in Outdoor Education from the University of Northern Colorado. Before working with Counselingwise Bill was a wilderness therapy backpacking guide for teens in Utah. He began working as a freelance writer in 2007, and has been published both online and in print. When not at his computer Bill enjoys spending time with his wife and getting outside to enjoy the beauty of Colorado.
Carola Garvin, Blogging Coordinator | Editor
Carola received her formal education in her native, Germany, where she also learned English. Her love affair with creativity – particularly drawing and writing – began early in her life. Many years later, after coming to the United States, Carola began working as a substitute teacher. During those years, she enjoyed helping children of various backgrounds and ages, including those with special needs. Eventually, she put all her time and energy in homeschooling her two teen-aged sons. It was them that sparked her renewed interest in creative writing. The knowledge Carola acquired throughout the years and through her ongoing volunteer work has proven to be invaluable to her writing endeavors. In 2015, she joined CounselingWise’s blogging team, which has provided her with a new opportunity to expand her experience and skill as a writer. A geek at heart, Carola loves watching, reading, and writing sci-fi stories in her private time. When she’s not space-bound, she enjoys knitting, baking, and painting… here on earth.
Dyanne Harvey, Blogger
Hailing from the Midwest, Dyanne grew up in the cornfields of central Illinois. She earned a B.S. from Greenville College and joined the workforce as a corporate educator. Realizing she didn’t want to spend days working away from her young daughter, she exited the corporate world to pursue freelance writing. When she’s not writing, you can find her spending time with her family and three rescue dogs. Doubling as an Americana singer/songwriter, she loves the independent music scene. Dyanne also enjoys the outdoors, baking, and practicing yoga.
Shea Harvey, Blogger
Born and raised in the City of Stars, Shea has always been enthralled by the fictional worlds created in books, films and television. Her longstanding passion for writing, however, stemmed from her desire to share the truth through nonfictional stories. College led Shea to the great state of Texas, which captured her heart for 7 years. But family, friends and California’s weather eventually brought her back home to Los Angeles. When struck by a bout of writer’s block, Shea can be found at local coffee shops, trying new restaurants or lounging at the beach (always with a notebook/pen in tow).