
ABOUT ME
“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” –Anais Nin
Hallie Swan, LCPC #50487
I have always felt very connected to Spirit. When I say Spirit, I mean something that lives inside and animates all of us, and which holds vast and profound creative potential. I believe all pain is a result of feeling cut off from this power, and that healing is a journey of remembering how to access it. I grew up in an upper middle class, predominantly white suburb that didn't reflect this power, which was very painful. I pursued many things in attempt to uncover that "something more" I knew to be inside. As a youth I pursued it through extreme and risky behavior including heavy substance use and disordered eating. Although misguided, the drive to connect with something deeper was there. In my early twenties, I had several experiences of expanded consciousness. This combined with my first Vipassana meditation retreat in 2013 drew me away from extreme behavior, and towards the ultimate spiritual experience: accepting myself exactly as I was, and not running away from anything. This was the powerful experience I had been looking for. Today through various practices I continue to cultivate that deep and unavoiding connection with my self.
My work today is influenced by my continued practice of Vipassana meditation, energy medicine, earth-honoring spiritual traditions, and metaphysics. My work is also influenced by my years of work as a mentor for transition-aged youth, which incorporated collectivist approaches to resourcing, restorative justice, and initiatory rites of passage.
In 2017 I received my Master’s degree in Integral Counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. From this training I gained the clinical skills to work with clients in a way that transmutes psychic blocks and defenses and actually facilitates desired change. Today I work as Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Red Lodge, MT.
My work is invariably feminist, social and earth justice-oriented, and Earth-honoring.

Relevant Educational Experience:
- Restorative Justice
-Internal Family Systems with Richard Schwartz
-White activism: moving from fragility to resilience
-Gestalt therapy
-Hakomi
-The Human Awareness Institute (workshops on Love, Intimacy, and Sexuality)
-MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies)
-Spiritual Emergence and other Extraordinary
Experiences