“I help people connect to their emotions and together we get centered, ask questions, and find practices that help bring the gifts in our emotions forward.”
— Andrea Watkins
Andrea loves helping people discover and honor the things that help them feel centered and empowered.
I am a student at Metropolitan State University of Denver in the social work program. She will graduate with her masters in the Spring of 2023. My focus is on trauma, criminal justice, and social justice. In 2021 she served in my internship with the Office of the Public Defender in Colorado. For the 2022-2023 school year she completed her internship with the Office of the Respondent Parent’s Counsel in Colorado.
Before Covid-19 I was facilitating a Restorative Justice Education Program in a Colorado State Prison with men. The program taught about different types of violence, emotions and feelings, and how to make deep, meaningful change and take accountability for harm caused. In my private practice I teach about and hold space for strong emotions that surface in relationships (personal and professional) and when people are looking to make changes within themselves (addictions and behavior). I balance this intensity with a strong focus on teaching the value of self care, including knowing when and how to say no and creating nourishing boundaries.
Dynamic Emotional Integration® is the foundation which all of my work is built upon. I believe when we care for our body’s wisdom and listen to the messages in our emotions we can navigate most situations with grace, dignity, power, and empathy. I also believes there is room for fucking up and getting it wrong too! I believe in creating spaces where people can be playful, have a good time, and do hard work together. At Empathy Academy I facilitate a course, Entering the Sacred Waters of Grief, centered on grief and intentional ritual.
I find inspiration in nature and let all of the elements guide my work. I enjoy planting things in the ground, though my current yard has been the most challenging yard I have ever worked with. It frustrates the piss out of me and when things survive it brings me immense pleasure. I love being in the wilderness, hiking, swimming, biking, taking naps, and playing with my pup Squib.
Andrea’s Specialties
language of emotions
art of empathy
ritual
transformative/restorative justice (not mandated or attached to sentencing structures)
social justice, anti-oppression, and anti-racism
somatic experiencing