THERAPY IN COLORADO SPRINGS & ONLINE ACROSS PSYPACT STATES
Become more fully yourself without losing your edge, your skills, or your strength.
Supporting operators, military couples, first responders, spouses, & more.
How is it that you can stay calm and collected during a crisis but lose your shit in your own living room?
Solving problems, leading teams, protecting people, and pushing through extreme discomfort—it’s what you do. Those skills served you well in combat, leadership, emergency response, and high-stakes environments. But at home, things work a little differently. The same kind of expertise that’s helped you succeed professionally seems to make things worse at home.
MAYBE YOU’RE…
-
Retirement, coming home after shift or deployment, becoming a stay at home dad… it’s not supposed to feel like this, right? Years on the job as a first responder or service member changed how you show up in the world. You thought you'd have more time, more freedom, and more connection with the people you love. You thought they’d be glad to have you home. Instead, you feel restless, frustrated, disconnected, unwanted, and inadequate—the original mission is gone, but now you’re stuck in whatever this is.
-
You know he's a good man and can do hard things—that's what makes this so frustrating. You've seen his commitment, his sacrifice, and his willingness to carry more than most people ever could. Who doesn't want a husband who can handle a crisis? But why can’t he seem to handle the little things? And sometimes you don't need someone to handle the situation; you need someone to sit with you in it. There's a time to be a warrior, and there's a time you just need your friend. You’re tired of staying small, malleable, and managing others’ emotions just to get through.
-
You love each other, that's not the problem. The problem is that no matter how hard either of you tries, you keep ending up in the same place—hurt, frustrated, and further apart than you want to be. You believe there could be a good relationship somewhere underneath all of this; you just want help rediscovering it again or creating it for the first time.
Sound familiar?
“I don’t understand why this isn’t working.”
“Nothing I do is ever enough or right.”
“My wife says I’m emotionally unavailable.”
“I don’t really want to leave, but I don’t want to stay in this either.”
"I've done harder things. This doesn’t make sense."
“What am I missing?”
“I know how to solve problems, but I don’t know how to fix this.”
Believe it or not, many of the skills that make a great warrior can also make a great partner and father. Therapy helps you use them differently.
I’m Dr. Alisa Bartel.
You shouldn’t have to spend half of therapy explaining military or first responder life to your therapist.
As the wife of a Purple Heart combat veteran with PTSD and the stepdaughter of a retired Green Beret, I understand both sides of military life: the demands of the mission and the realities of bringing that experience home. With work in disaster response, I know how hard it can be to relate to those who haven’t lived the same experience. The same things that made you great at your work, make it hard to feel “normal”.
My approach combines clinical expertise with a deep respect for military and first responder culture.
I don't view frontline adaptations as character flaws, and I don't believe you have to become a different person to have healthy relationships. I also understand that some experiences can't be fully discussed because of security clearances, confidentiality, operational realities, or simply because the words don't exist yet. Therapy doesn't require you to compromise what you've sworn to protect.
Put simply, I want to help you understand how trauma careers uniquely shape you and your relationships, identify specifically what needs to change (and what doesn't), and reconnect with your loved ones and yourself.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
-
You've spent years reading the room, anticipating threats, and taking care of everyone around you. You’re the one everyone relies on. Then you get home and somehow the people you love most feel impossible to read and like they don’t even need you. You feel like you’re failing them. Therapy helps you translate the strengths that made you exceptional professionally into stronger relationships and a greater sense of purpose and presence at home.
-
It feels like you're fighting the same battle over and over again…and neither of you knows how to win. You care about one another, but for a long time it has felt like you're speaking different languages or have grown into different people. Couples therapy helps military and first responder couples move from frustration and misunderstanding to trust and collaboration.
-
Let’s not sugarcoat it: loving someone who has been shaped by war, trauma, or high-risk work can be exhausting. If you're feeling lonely, overwhelmed, resentful, or stuck between compassion and accountability, therapy gives you space to focus on your needs—not just everyone else's.
-
Some incidents just stick with you. You don't need to spend months retelling every detail—you need to know how to move on from it. Accelerated Resolution Therapy is an evidence-based trauma treatment designed to help people process difficult experiences efficiently and effectively, without talking about it.
-
You've seen and carried things most people will never, ever understand. The demands of trauma-exposed careers can affect your relationships, your sleep, your stress levels, and your ability to feel present at home. Therapy helps you process the weight of your job without losing the qualities that make you good at what you do.
-
Not everyone wants (or has the time) to spend months in weekly therapy. Warrior Intensives offer focused, high-impact work to help you address trauma, moral injury, relationship challenges, and transition issues in a concentrated format that respects both your time and goals.
-
You've spent years holding everything together, but it has come at a cost. Spouse Intensives are designed for partners who are carrying the emotional load, navigating the impact of trauma, and are looking for support and a path forward that doesn't require putting themselves last.
HOW TO GET STARTED:
This is a chance to tell me the 30,000ft view of what's going on. We'll discuss what you're struggling with, how I may be able to help, and whether we're a good fit for the work ahead.
01
Understand what’s getting in the way.
You know something isn't working, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Together, we'll connect the dots so you can make sense of what's happening and where to focus your energy moving forward.
02
Move towards connection.
A different experience can happen at home without becoming a different person. Therapy helps you build on the skillsets and experience you already have while creating more trust and fulfillment in your relationships.
03
You’ve mastered survival. Now it’s time to learn how to connect.
Sessions available in-person in Colorado Springs and online across all PSYPACT-eligible states.