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Kimberly Harker
About
Hello and welcome! I’m Kimberly Harker, and I’m genuinely glad you’re here. I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado and Maine, a Licensed Independent Addiction Counselor in Colorado, Maine, and Arizona, and I live in Arizona. My background includes working with adults navigating anxiety, trauma, substance use and recovery, relationship and family challenges, major life transitions, and the sometimes complicated process of figuring out who you are and what actually works for you.
What drives me as a therapist is the belief that people deserve a space where they can show up as themselves without feeling judged, analyzed, or expected to have everything figured out. I don’t believe therapy should feel like you’re being handed a textbook version of how you’re supposed to think, feel, or live. I want to understand how YOUR mind works, what you’ve experienced, what matters to you, and where you want your life to go.
My approach is compassionate, down-to-earth, and collaborative, with humor when it fits. I’ll start by understanding where things stand for you right now and help you figure out what you want to be different. Together, we’ll recognize patterns, build on your strengths, and challenge things that may no longer be serving you. You don’t have to mask, perform, or say the “right” thing with me. My goal is for you to feel understood and supported while we build practical strategies that actually make sense for your life.
I’m drawn to working with autistic and neurodivergent adults because I have a deep appreciation for people who experience and make sense of the world differently. Too often, neurodivergent adults have spent years being told—directly or indirectly—that they are too much, too sensitive, too rigid, too distracted, too emotional, or simply need to “try harder.” Over time, those messages can have a profound impact on how you see yourself.
I wanted to specialize in this work because I believe therapy should help you understand yourself, not teach you how to become more acceptable to everyone else. I’m especially interested in helping you untangle what is authentically you from the expectations, masking, self-criticism, and survival strategies you may have accumulated along the way.
I also genuinely enjoy the depth, honesty, creativity, humor, and unique perspectives that neurodivergent clients bring into the therapy room. My goal is to understand how your brain works with you, identify both the challenges and strengths that come with that, and help you build a life that feels sustainable and genuinely yours—not simply one that looks “successful” from the outside.
I approach therapy from the belief that you already bring strengths, abilities, and lived wisdom into the room—even if you have spent years overlooking them or being told to focus primarily on what you struggle with. Rather than viewing neurodivergent traits as problems that need to be corrected, I want to help you better understand how your brain works and recognize the strengths that are already part of who you are.
I take time to listen to your experiences, understand what works for you, and identify the environments, relationships, and strategies that allow you to function at your best. Together, we can explore qualities such as creativity, persistence, deep focus, curiosity, honesty, pattern recognition, strong values, or unique ways of thinking and problem-solving, while recognizing that your individual strengths may look completely different from someone else’s.
My style is compassionate, affirming, practical, and appropriately direct. I believe validation and accountability can exist in the same room. I won’t ask you to mask or become a version of yourself that is easier for other people to understand. Instead, I want to help you develop greater self-understanding, trust your own strengths, advocate for what you need, and create strategies that work with your brain rather than constantly fighting against it. Ultimately, I want therapy to help you become more fully yourself, not less.
