A Lifelong Learner, Adventurer, and Creative
LCMHC | BC-DMT | NCC | GL-CMA | BSE
Ande Welling
You were never meant to fit in a box. You've spent years keeping the peace, managing others, swallowing your truth, and bending yourself into shapes that don't fit. Your body is rebelling: the migraines, tension, anxiety, shutdown, numbness ... it's all getting louder. A deeper part of you, the part that's tired of disappearing, whispers: I can't keep living like this. You're not dramatic. You're not failing. You're waking up.
I meet you in exactly this moment. Self-abandonment has hit its limit. Your truth wants out. Our work is alive, relational, rooted in the present. Together, we reclaim your voice and step out of boxes that no longer fit.
A seeker of curiosity, wonder, and wisdom sparkles.
I have long been drawn to inner worlds of human experience. This has often manifested in a deep curiosity, leading me on a winding path, exploring my own depths, devouring fields of study in interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, trauma healing, creative arts therapies, somatics and body wisdom, while learning to hold the human experience in a field of compassion.
I call this field the heartspace.
Each stop along the way has deepened my belief in our inherent wisdom. A wisdom that often shows up as stuck places, obstacles, and pain points manifesting as defenses, protections, resistances. All began as brilliantly adaptive ways to deal with difficult life circumstances, and all have the power to show us the pathway back home to ourselves.
I am also a writer, dancer, integrator, and lover of nature, fire, water, courage, authenticity, and adventure. My journey has been, and still is, one of reclamation. Reclaiming myself, my truth, authenticity, my joy, pleasure, my multi-facetedness in each moment. Pain has been my guide and the portal, but it is not the destination. The heartspace holds all of it and all of us.
Healing requires profound courage.
A courage that transcends, anchoring us as we spiral from the known to the unknown, illuminating the implicit and transforming it into the explicit, again and again and again.
I have been fortunate to travel with, learn from, and deep dive with those facing neurological injuries, emotional challenges, nervous system dysregulation, and traumas (developmental, relational, and shock). This personal work has allowed me to expand, grow, and cultivate the heartspace within: creating a field of warmth and clarity for all who choose to enter.
How We Work Together
Our work is alive, relational, rooted in the present. I use deep presence, attunement, and the wisdom of what emerges between us to help you speak your truth, take up space, and step out of patterns that no longer fit.
I draw from interpersonal neurobiology, somatic wisdom, and the creative arts, following what your body knows while supporting your mind to observe, connect and integrate. We don't need to go back and rehash all of your old wounds. Your present moment experiences will show us the way.
I move tenderly toward the places that are scary, descending slowly into and through the sore points, the stuck places, the burial grounds of old moments, and build enough capacity to emerge and radically embody your joy, essence, compassion, and aliveness.
Clinical Approach
RELATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
How our nervous systems listen, attune, and learn from one another. Healing is relational all the way down.
AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT
In witnessed movement, things surface that words haven't found yet. The body leads. The witness holds.
ATTACHMENT THEORY
Our earliest experiences shape how we reach for connection and where we pull back. We go there together.
PRE AND PERINATAL PSYCHOLOGY
Reaching back to the very beginning, honoring what the body has carried since before memory.
TRAUMA-FOCUSED, GROWTH-ORIENTED
Trauma-informed, body-led work that keeps your inherent capacity to heal in sight alongside the pain.
SOMATIC AND EXPRESSIVE ARTS
Your body carries more than words can reach. Somatic and expressive arts work is how we listen to what's held there.
Training & Certifications
LCMHC
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor — State of Utah #8939807-6004
BC-DMT
Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist | American Dance Therapy Association, 2015
NCC
Nationally Certified Counselor | National Board for Certified Counselors, 2011
GL-CMA
Graduate Laban Certified Movement Analyst
BSE
Becoming Safely Embodied Certified Practitioner
EMDR
EMDR Trained
CCTP-II
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Level II: Complex Trauma
SHP
Sound Healer Practitioner — Soul Path Discoveries; Becoming Counseling
Education
14+
8+
Years walking with people through their hardest thresholds
Certifications spanning somatic, movement, and trauma healing
Professional Memberships:
I am also a writer, dancer, integrator, and lover of nature, fire, water, courage, authenticity, and adventure.
While I often move tenderly towards the places that are scary, I have found that only by descending slowly into and through the pain points, stuck places, and burial grounds of our soul remnants can we build enough capacity to emerge and radically embody our joy, essence, compassion, and aliveness.
My journey has been, and still is, one of reclamation. Reclaiming myself, my truth, authenticity, my joy, pleasure, my multi-facetedness in each moment.
Creative Work Shown At
Chicago Center for Arts + Design
World Film Festival
Cinema Verde Environmental Film Festival
Performer with Core Project Chicago. Co-founder, dancer, and choreographer of SolesBare Dance Collective.
Featured Speaker
Sharing somatic and trauma-informed perspectives at conferences, retreats, and CEU programs since 2009.
Rewiring the Threat System: Training the Body Mind Heart to Receive instead of Defend
Navigating the Abyss: Finding the courage to "naked hermit crab it" as a clinician
Restoring Vitality: Harnessing the body's innate wisdom to integrate trauma while building resiliency
Dance/Movement Therapy: Trauma, Integration, and Resiliency
The Gift of the Embodied Shadow
to
2015
Peer Voices
Colleagues who have known and learned alongside Ande's work.
"In the almost twenty years I've been lucky to know, train, and mentor Ande, I've seen her flourish, grow, and hone her ability to offer a healing presence. Her approach is gentle, yet profoundly effective. She understands the fundamental need we all have of feeling seen, known, and valued. Healing this wound with compassionate attunement is one of the many areas in which Ande excels. In the presence of her spacious and deep listening, our protective strategies relax, creating a space of welcome and healing."
Deirdre Fay
MSW | Author | Trainer | Coach
"Ande is a master of being present with all of your parts. Her magic is in her ability to witness and hold the places within you that have been longing to be known. She invites you to be playful, free, and expressive. Ande is a guide in transformation."
Alea Wise
Counselor, EdS, LMHC, LPCC, NCC, RPT
"Ande is a force to be reckoned with in therapy. She is such an expert in movement and dance based therapy. She is the only one I know who uses the techniques she does, and I have heard client reports of how much she has helped them."
Dwight Hurst
Counselor, CMHC, SSW
Client Voices
“Ande is a focused and empathetic listener, who has helped me identify paths of possibility that filled my heart with hope and curiosity. She is a compassionate fellow traveler, who will stay silent and listen deeply, but when she feels she has something to add, it will always be words full of wisdom, hope and light.”
Graciela J. | Costa Rica
“I have appreciated the wisdom and uniqueness of Ande’s insights and ideas for several years. Her inner strength and physical grace, and her warmth and sparkling personality have made it a pleasure to know and grow alongside her. She is a true poet-warrior in my eyes.”
Ilene L. | Maryland
“Ande’s sensitivity, warmth, curiosity and incredible sense of embodiment create a vibrant and warm space to explore the inner world. I appreciate Ande’s ability to deconstruct complex emotions with the support of visuals and embodied movement to support healing and transformation in the body, mind and heart.”
Caroline M. | California
Working Together
In-person in Layton, Utah, and via telehealth throughout Utah. Both paths lead to the same heartspace.
INDIVIDUAL SESSION
$350
Per session
COUPLES SESSION
$425
Per session
FREE CONSULTATION
20 min
Call or email to connect
Spirals & Heartspace is a private pay practice. Superbills provided for out-of-network reimbursement. Payment accepted via American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, HSA, cash, and check. Please reach out with any questions about fees or reimbursement.
Spirals & Heartspace does not provide crisis services. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room. For non-emergency scheduling and questions, you are welcome to reach out via the contact page to learn about current availability.
Ready to stop spinning your wheels?
Let’s rediscover your brilliance.
Reach out to learn more about how we can best work together.