Navigating the Switchbacks of Life
Ashley Edwards, LCSW
Owner of Switchback Therapy + Consulting
I truly care about the people that I serve. With over 18 years of experience in providing mental health treatment all over the country and in many types of treatment settings, I understand what it takes to help people who are in pain. The impacts of trauma and ongoing pain can be overwhelming to manage alone and I do believe that therapy can be one aspect of support and relief.
Many people seek therapy but are not quite sure what they actually need. I help my clients assess and identify what their needs are and help them create a plan with strategies to get their needs met in healthy ways.
I provide guidance, feedback, psychoeducation, resources, and practical tools to help create change. In the process of therapy I help my clients gain clarity, insight, empowerment, and breakthrough.
I have seen that most people thrive in their therapy experience with a trusted therapeutic relationship that is built on truth, empathy, and wisdom. Mental wellness is possible and I help my clients learn ways to incorporate wellness techniques into their daily lives. Hope can be restored in the process of gaining mental wellness through the therapeutic process. It is amazing to see people recover and/or discover their connection with their worth, value, significance, and purpose. I consider it a true honor to work along side my clients and be apart of their lives in such a unique way.
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Individual therapy for adults
Personalized therapy care
Flexible scheduling
Offering in office or virtual sessions
Switchbacks and Neuroscience
Do you know what a switchback is? A switchback is a zigzag trail, road, or any type of pathway to ascend or descent upon. I learned what a switchback was while mountain biking in Colorado years ago. I was struggling to get up and down the mountain on my bike, especially when navigating the switchbacks. Falling off my bike was painful and I often wanted to give up. Through those painful mountain biking experiences, I realized that I needed some guidance, new information, and more practice to figure out how to navigate those challenging switchbacks successfully. With the support of others and practiced repetition, I was able to make the necessary adjustments to navigate the switchbacks so I could actually enjoy my mountain biking experiences! Navigating our mental health can often be like to navigating switchbacks on mountainous terrain. Our brains are trying to make the adjustments and changes necessary to survive the mountainous terrains and conditions of our lives. Luckily our brains are designed to manage change. Neuroscience research has proven that the brain is pliable like plastic and can change, which is called neuroplasticity. Whatever fires in the brain, wires in the brain. What we think matters because it produces matter in the brain. We can create change by creating new neural pathways with how we think, feel, and choose. Neuroscience continues to prove that change is possible so that we can improve our quality of life emotionally, spiritually, physically, intellectually, creatively, socially, and relationally. Switchback therapy methods are based on neuroscience concepts and evidence based models of care to help people create mental wellness. Switchback therapy combines mind management strategies, nervous system calming techniques, mindfulness, and attachment theory to help my clients create change.
Together, we can navigate the switchbacks of life!
Mental Wellness is possible.
My background.
I’m from Michigan and got my Bachelors of Social Work in 2005 from Siena Heights University. While in college, I was a youth mentor, volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club, and worked in the foster care system. I also created a project that addressed access to nutritional health, wellness, and physical activities for teenage females in a adjudicated residential treatment program.
In 2006, I moved to Miami, Florida for graduate school and received my Masters of Social Work. While in grad school, I worked with hurricane Wilma survivors who were displaced from their homes and living in FEMA trailers. I provided crisis counseling, ran support groups for children/families, and connected people to the resources they needed to rebuild their lives after the devestation of a natural disaster.
For the next several years of my career, I worked in south Florida as a child and family therapist. I also worked as a research therapist on a study that created and utilized a computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program for children who struggled with anxiety, which was published by the University of South Florida (USF) Tampa St Pete. I was also involved in supporting local churches and ministries with providing psychoeducation on various mental health related issues.
In 2012, I began working in Colorado providing therapeutic care for adults struggling with various severe mental health and addiction issues. I was apart of a trauma informed care initiative that helped to improve access to quality mental health care in Colorado, especially in the Boulder and Denver areas.
In 2016, I returned to Michigan to work in hospice care in the Detroit metro area. I provided care for individuals and families navigating end-of-life issues, chronic pain, disease process, and grief/loss. I received the Rising Star award in 2016, for supporting the communities of Detroit.
I moved to Arizona in 2019 and worked in holisitic collaborative settings providing therapy for those struggling with chronic pain, addiction, and complex trauma. I also became really involved in helping those impacted by the opioid epidemic. In most recent years, I collaborated in building a new program at a major hospital system in Phoenix that helps pregnant women who struggle with substance use. In private practice, I continue to provide therapy for adults in Arizona. I also provide training and consultation to other therapists here in Arizona around the country.