Now enrolling · Begins Thursday, October 29
Untangled
Grieving after love and loss
If you're having difficulty moving on, come heal in group
More about this group
Boulder County, Colorado
Licensed therapists and healers in Lafayette. Individual, couples, group and integration work under one roof.
Free consultation
20 to 30 minutes, phone or Zoom, no charge.
Licensed clinicians
Trauma informed, evidence based, integrative.
In person or online
Lafayette, or anywhere in Colorado.
Psychotherapy, groups, and integration in Lafayette, Colorado.
Venya Therapeutics brings together therapists and healers who meet you wherever you are: in grief, in transition, in the quiet ache of wanting more from your life.
We pair evidence-based clinical care with a deeper attention to the whole of who you are: many modalities under one roof, so your care stays integrative rather than scattered across offices. Whether you come for trauma work, couples therapy, integration work, or simply a steadier place to stand, you're met with warmth, skill, and the belief that healing is possible for you.

Individual, couples, and trauma-informed therapy tailored to you.
Most journeys begin hereSkilled, supportive groups where healing is witnessed and shared.
Support for making meaning of life's most profound experiences.

Every person met as whole and worthy, exactly as they arrive.
We hold belief in your healing until you can hold it yourself.
We tend to the soul as seriously as the symptom.
Skilled, ethical, evidence-informed care you can trust.
Healing is shared; no one transforms alone.
Like the vulture, we help you metabolize what you've carried, turning what was left to rot into something that can fly.
Take the first step
Free · 20–30 minutes · phone or Zoom.
Prefer to write first?
Our Team







Venya Therapeutics began with a single conviction: that the best healing happens when skilled clinicians work side by side, sharing wisdom across modalities. As our team grows, every practitioner is chosen for clinical excellence and the warmth to meet you as a person, not a diagnosis. What we share is a belief in your capacity to change, and a commitment to walking beside you while you do.

Owner & Visionary
Alexandria Mezyad is the owner and visionary behind Venya Therapeutics, a mental health therapist with almost a decade of experience working with adults, teens, and couples. She earned her Bachelor's in Psychology from Penn State University in 2014 and her Master's in Transpersonal Psychology with a concentration in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University.
Alexandria's specialties focus on sexual trauma, OCD, Complex PTSD, grief, relationship struggles, forensic populations, spirituality, and helping people and families navigate personality disorders.
She has extensive experience with the criminal justice system and high-impact restorative-justice dialogues, giving victims a voice and helping offenders take accountability. That work fuels her commitment to community safety and resilience, and gives her a rare understanding of how early, compassionate support can change a life.
Alexandria's style is warm yet direct. She blends EMDR, attachment-based therapy, trauma-informed care, and existential, mindfulness-based, and Jungian approaches with creative practices like storytelling, art, nature, and reflective work, and she draws on her background in documentary filmmaking and writing to help people tell and transform their own stories. She is passionate about creating an inclusive, affirming space for LGBTQ, BIPOC, and people from all walks of life.
Venya Therapeutics is the next chapter of that vision: the experience she's spent a decade building, offered to the public through a new approach and a growing team, so that more people, and a wider community, can find meaningful, lasting change.
MA, Transpersonal Psychology (Clinical Mental Health Counseling), Naropa University · BA, Psychology, Penn State University (2014) · Licensed Professional Counselor – Supervisor (LPC-S)

Graduate Intern
Austin Gates is a graduate intern at Venya Therapeutics, completing his Master's in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. He works with adults and couples via telehealth, under the supervision of Alexandria Mezyad, MA, LPC-S.
Austin's approach is contemplative and embodied. He draws on mindfulness, Gestalt, transpersonal, existential, and humanistic traditions, meeting clients in the present moment, with attention to the whole person and the questions of meaning, freedom, and identity that come simply with being human. His work is grounded in years of personal meditation and spiritual practice, including his practice within the Inayati-Maimuni Sufi Order.
Much of what draws him to this work is the tension between the performed self and the lived one: how the pace and noise of modern life pull us away from present experience, and what it takes to return. He brings patience, steadiness, and genuine regard to each conversation, trusting every person's own capacity to grow.
MA, Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling (in progress), Naropa University · Practicing under the supervision of Alexandria Mezyad, MA, LPC-S

Counseling Intern
Rachel Wilding (she/her/ella) is a graduate student in the nature-based clinical mental health counseling concentration at Naropa University. She is an 8.5-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and has spent many years in corporate tech, from small startups to large-firm marketing and account management. She holds an MS in Environmental Policy and Management and is a student member of the American Counseling Association.
Rachel's superpower is empathic relating: compassionately guiding us to our blind spots, and empowering individuals to reclaim their inherent wisdom. Fascinated by Jungian and decolonial depth psychology, as well as existential and humanistic theories, she believes the mind, body, and spirit are inseparable. She is a mystic, an intuitive, and an earth-based medicine ceremonial initiate in the Shipibo Amazonian tradition.
Rachel's life experience brings a desire to support individuals who are curious to explore their own relationship to spirituality, those tending grief, those experiencing major life transitions, those with terminal diagnoses, and military veterans.
Graduate student, Nature-Based Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Naropa University · MS, Environmental Policy and Management · Student member, American Counseling Association · Practicing under licensed supervision

Counseling Intern
Faith Collins is a graduate student in Naropa's Nature-Based Transpersonal Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. She pursued her Master's after spending half a decade in the mental health field, working as a Behavioral Specialist (Recovery Coach) and Group Facilitator at an adult inpatient residential facility for eating disorders, and as a field instructor in Wilderness Therapy with adolescents.
That work inspired her to help individuals reclaim their joy, either again or for the first time. She believes you are the expert in your own life, and she is here to help guide you into the life you want to live. She works with a wide range of challenges, including trauma, grief, depression, and relationships with self and others, tailoring therapy to each person's unique needs, wants, and style.
Faith views therapy as a relational space to explore what's working, what isn't, and to build tools for navigating life with greater ease. Her style is direct, warm, and compassionate.
MA (in progress), Nature-Based Transpersonal Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Naropa University · Practicing under licensed supervision

Graduate Intern
John “Chicago” Zurawski is a graduate student in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Naropa University and a counseling intern. His approach to counseling is grounded in mindfulness, compassion, authenticity, and a deep respect for the lived experience of every person who enters the therapeutic space.
Chicago brings a unique combination of professional training and lived experience to his work. After experiencing more than two decades of incarceration and building a life in long-term recovery, he developed a particular passion for working with people impacted by the criminal justice system, trauma, addiction, reentry, and major life transitions. These experiences have shaped his belief that people are far more than the most difficult chapters of their lives and that meaningful change becomes possible when individuals are treated with dignity, accountability, compassion, and respect.
His clinical interests include trauma, stress and anxiety, addiction and recovery, mindfulness-based counseling, reentry, and working with justice-involved individuals. He has facilitated stress-reduction and mindfulness groups with incarcerated and justice-involved populations and previously completed his counseling practicum with the Boulder County Justice Program.
Chicago is trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and has spent years exploring mindfulness, meditation, Buddhist psychology, Gestalt therapy, and trauma-informed approaches to healing. He is also the creator of Stress Reduction Reality Therapy (SRRT), a mindfulness-based approach that uses practical tools such as Stop–Breathe–Go to help people recognize automatic reactions, reconnect with the present moment, and make more intentional choices.
Chicago views counseling as a collaborative relationship rather than a process of one person “fixing” another. He strives to create a space where clients can speak openly, examine patterns without shame, develop practical coping skills, and discover their own capacity for resilience and change.
Outside of his clinical work, Chicago enjoys hiking Colorado's trails, practicing mindfulness, spending time in the outdoors, and exploring life with his Goldendoodle, Millie. His long-term professional goal is to become a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in trauma therapy and counseling for people transitioning from incarceration back into their families and communities.
MA (in progress), Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Naropa University · Trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction · Practicing under licensed supervision

Psychotherapist
I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and a graduate of Naropa University, where I earned my master's degree in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Clinical Mental Health Counseling. My work is grounded in mindfulness, attachment theory, trauma-informed care, and evidence-based clinical practice, with a focus on intimacy, sexuality, relationships, and embodied healing.
I specialize in helping individuals and couples explore sexuality, intimacy, and relationships through a compassionate, psychologically informed, and sex-positive lens. I believe sex is more than behavior. It is a language that reflects how we connect, love, protect ourselves, experience pleasure, navigate shame, and make meaning in our relationships.
Outside of my clinical work, I am an established erotic artist whose work is rooted in body positivity. My artwork celebrates the diversity of human bodies and invites greater self-acceptance, authenticity, and freedom from shame.
I work with individuals and couples who want to deepen emotional and sexual intimacy, navigate relationship challenges, heal from shame, and better understand themselves and their relational patterns. My approach is sex-positive, trauma-informed, mindfulness-based, and grounded in evidence-based clinical practice. I believe sexuality is not something to fix. It is something to understand, integrate, and experience with greater honesty, connection, and aliveness.
MA, Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Naropa University · Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC)
Venya Therapeutics
David's full bio is on the way. Check back soon to learn more about their background, approach, and the work they offer at Venya Therapeutics.
Venya Therapeutics
Lucia's full bio is on the way. Check back soon to learn more about their background, approach, and the work they offer at Venya Therapeutics.

Graduate Intern
Victor Steeghs is a graduate intern at Venya Therapeutics, completing his Master's in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. He works with adults in person and via telehealth, under the supervision of Alexandria Mezyad, MA, LPC-S.
Victor's approach is present-centered and relational. He draws on Gestalt and person-centered practice, with deep attention to contact, the client's experience, and the patterns in the mind and body. Values, meaning, choice, grief, trauma, and periods of transition are areas of his study and interest. Victor developed much of his current paradigm through two decades of meditation and integrating spiritual philosophies and perspectives. He acknowledges the Law of One and Gene Keys as important languages for him personally, however he is adept at navigating other paradigms and ways of viewing the world.
I am passionate about growth. If you are feeling stuck and want to feel more agency in your experience, I would love to meet you. I work well with people who operate from the mind, but are interested in moving more of their energy into the body and sensation. I love working with awareness around patterns in the mind and body. In addition, I seek somatic/emotion-centered clients who are seeking more direct contact and processing in gestalt therapy.
MA (in progress), Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling, Naropa University · Practicing under the supervision of Alexandria Mezyad, MA, LPC-S
About · Our Vision
Venya Therapeutics exists to provide healing to individuals, and to create community through events, teachings, and retreats. We bring many modalities under one roof so care is integrative rather than fragmented, and we mentor emerging clinicians so this work keeps growing. Our aim: a center where individual transformation and shared belonging strengthen each other.
The Meaning of Venya
The vulture was chosen as the symbol of Venya because it represents something deeper than overcoming adversity.
Vultures are drawn to what has been left behind. They exist in the places where something has ended, and yet their presence is not a symbol of death; it is part of what allows life to continue. They do not turn away from what is difficult, broken, or decaying. They meet it exactly as it is.
We all carry pieces of our lives we would rather abandon: grief, shame, mistakes, relationships that ended, versions of ourselves we no longer recognize. Healing does not always mean leaving those things behind. It can mean returning to them with enough compassion to discover what is still worth carrying.
The vulture represents reclamation.
For Venya, the vulture is a reminder that healing is not about becoming someone new. It is about reclaiming what was always yours.
And ultimately, your capacity to love and be loved.

The Meaning of Venya

At the heart of Venya is the legacy of my grandmother, Dignity.
She grew up on a farm in Puerto Rico, surrounded by the natural world and developing a lifelong connection to the land, plants, and animals. Gardening was one of the ways she remained connected to that world, a relationship with nature that was less about tending to something and more about belonging to it.
She was also deeply spiritual and intuitive. Known within her community for her psychic gifts, she believed in forms of healing that extended beyond the traditional: healing through nature, intuition, spirituality, connection, and the wisdom carried within us and passed down through generations.
Her worldview lives at the heart of Venya.
We believe healing can also be a return: to the body, to nature, to creativity, to community, to intuition, and to the ancestral ways of knowing that many of us have become disconnected from.
Her name, Dignity, carries its own meaning within our work. Dignity is not something another person can grant us. It is inherent. Even when life, trauma, shame, grief, or circumstance makes us forget our worth, it remains.
Venya means lovable. Dignity reminds us that we are worthy.
Together, they hold the heart of what we hope people rediscover here: the parts of themselves that were never truly lost, only waiting to be remembered.
In many ways, Venya is my grandmother’s garden grown into something new, a place where old wisdom and modern healing can exist beside one another, and where people can find their own way home.
Understanding Our Clinicians
Licensed Professional Counselors have completed a master's degree, thousands of supervised clinical hours, and full state licensure. They practice independently and carry full responsibility for your care.
Licensed Professional Counselor Candidates hold their master's degree and are accruing supervised hours toward full licensure. They bring current training and best practices, with an experienced supervisor behind every step.
Our interns are advanced graduate clinicians completing their Master's degrees at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, practicing under close supervision from a licensed supervisor. Their bios will be added soon, alongside the rest of our growing team.
The relationship between you and your therapist is the strongest predictor of good outcomes, so your comfort comes first, always. If the clinician you start with isn't the right fit, you're free to switch at any time, no explanation needed.
Questions
Our office is at 2581 Park Lane, Unit A, Lafayette, CO. We also offer virtual sessions (video and audio) anywhere in Colorado. Hours are 10:00 AM–6:00 PM.
Yes. Book a free 20 to 30 minute consultation by phone or Zoom. One of our interns will reach out to get you scheduled and answer any first questions.
Our team includes LPCs, LPCCs, and supervised interns completing their Master's degrees at Naropa University, led by Alexandria Mezyad, MA, LPC-S.
Insurance is coming soon. In the meantime, reach out and we'll talk through your options.
We practice from a transpersonal, holistic stance, treating symptoms with evidence-based methods while honoring meaning, spirit, and the whole person. Your story is never reduced to a label.
Individuals, couples, teens, and young adults navigating trauma, anxiety, life transitions, relationships, and the search for deeper meaning.
Groups
Some things only shift when they're witnessed. Our groups are small, skillfully held, and built around one idea: you don't have to do this alone.
Now enrolling · Begins Thursday, October 29
Grieving after love and loss
If you're having difficulty moving on, come heal in group
More about this group
Also forming
These circles are being built now. Tell us which one you'd want, and we'll reach out first when doors open.
A weekly practice of coming back: to the breath, the body, and the present moment. Guided sitting, gentle inquiry, and the steadiness that grows when you practice alongside others.
Forming now · Schedule to be announced
For partners and for anyone working on how they love. Attachment patterns, communication, conflict, and repair, explored in a room where every couple learns from the others' courage.
Forming now · Schedule to be announced
The body keeps the story. Movement, breath, and nervous-system awareness practiced together, so what words can't reach can begin to settle and release.
Forming now · Schedule to be announced
Group Therapy · Now enrolling
If you're having difficulty moving on, come heal in group
Have you gone through the loss of a relationship and had a difficult time putting yourself back together after the loss? Whether you've gone through a breakup, a divorce, or even a death, Untangled is a group for those who are navigating the loss of an intimate relationship.
When we fall in love with someone, we begin to tether our lives and our future plans with that person. When we lose someone like that, picking ourselves up and moving forward can be very difficult.
The intention of this group is to provide a space to speak openly, offer tools to rebuild and uncover the life you truly want to live, and heal with a group of others going through their own unique process of grief.
We understand how difficult this process can be, and we're here to support you on your healing journey.
Nothing is charged on this page. Every member has a conversation with us first.
The work
This is intentional work, and it asks something in return. The group is built around one commitment in particular: you keep a journal for the whole six weeks. Not as homework, and not for us to read — it is the spine of the group. What you write between Thursdays is what we open on Thursday.
Not all of the work is talk. The circle also draws on accudetox, yoga, and breath — ways in that language can't always reach, for the weeks when words aren't available yet.
It closes with ceremony: a deliberate, marked release of what you've been carrying. You will know when you have finished.
Over the six weeks
The six Thursdays
Fit
Eight to ten people for six weeks is a small, specific room. Better to know now than in week two.
None of these is a no from us. Tell us where you are and we'll point you at the right room.
Join
There are eight to ten seats. Here is exactly what happens after you press send.
Step one
Two minutes. No payment, and no commitment yet.
Step two
So you can find out whether this is your room before you ever sit in it — and so we can make sure the circle is right for everyone in it.
Step three
If it's a fit, payment confirms your place. $360 for the six sessions.
Therapy Services
From trauma recovery to relationship repair, our clinicians draw on a deep range of modalities, choosing what fits you, not the other way around. Below is the work we offer; every path begins with a conversation.
Free · 20–30 minutes · phone or Zoom.
A space for two people to be heard at once. We work with communication, conflict, trust, and the attachment patterns running underneath, helping partners move from reactivity toward understanding and repair.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing helps the nervous system reprocess distressing memories so they lose their grip. A structured, evidence-based approach for trauma, anxiety, and the moments that still feel stuck in the body.
You are not one voice but many. IFS gently works with the "parts" of you, the protectors, the wounded, the exiled, so they can unburden and your core Self can lead with clarity and compassion.
Practices that bring you back to the present moment and out of the spin of rumination. We use mindfulness to build awareness, steadiness, and a kinder relationship with your own mind.
Rooted in deep clinical experience, our restorative-justice work creates structured dialogue that gives those who've been harmed a voice and helps those who've caused harm take accountability, in service of repair, safety, and community resilience.
Therapy that honors the spiritual and the soulful alongside the psychological. Drawing on the Naropa tradition, we hold space for meaning, transcendence, and the questions that reach beyond symptom relief.
Care designed around safety, choice, and trust. We understand how trauma lives in the body and the story, and we move at your pace, never re-traumatizing, always restoring a sense of agency.
For the big questions: freedom, meaning, mortality, responsibility. Existential work meets the anxieties that come simply from being human, and helps you live more deliberately inside them.
Grounded in the belief that you carry your own capacity to grow. Person-centered, warm, and non-pathologizing, a relationship built on genuine regard, where you set the direction.
Depth work with dreams, symbols, and the archetypal patterns beneath the surface. Jungian therapy supports individuation, the lifelong becoming of who you most fully are.
Healing happens in the here-and-now. Gestalt work brings awareness to what's alive in the present moment, body, feeling, and contact, to restore wholeness and choice.
Investment
With Alex
With LPCC or Unlicensed Clinicians
Untangled, our six-session grief and heartbreak group, is $360 for the full series ($60 a session). See what's included.
Other group rates vary by program. Reach out and an intern will help you find the right starting point.
Schedule
Choose who you'd like to see, then pick a time that works for you. You'll receive a confirmation by email right away.
Contact
Reaching out is the first brave step. Whatever brought you here, we'd be honored to hear from you, no pressure, no obligation, just a conversation.
Send a note and one of our interns will follow up to get you on the calendar.