We’re excited to share some meaningful news from the Common Thread Counseling community: Olya Clem, owner and founder of Common Thread Counseling, is serving as President of the newly established nonprofit Brainspotting Alaska.
For Olya, this new chapter grows out of something she has cared about for a long time—helping Alaskans have greater access to skilled, trauma-informed care while creating opportunities for mental health professionals across our state to learn, connect, and support one another.
What is Brainspotting Alaska?
Brainspotting Alaska is a new nonprofit organization with a mission to cultivate an interconnected network of Brainspotting practitioners throughout Alaska. The organization is focused on advancing professional education and consultation while helping increase access to Brainspotting in the communities practitioners serve.
That may sound a little clinical, so what does it mean in everyday terms?
It means bringing therapists together. It means helping clinicians continue learning from one another. And ultimately, it means expanding the number of people across Alaska who can access this approach to healing.
A Little About Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that can be used to help people process trauma, emotional distress, and other experiences that can sometimes be difficult to resolve through words alone.
One of the ideas behind Brainspotting is that where we look can be connected to what we feel. With the support of a trained therapist, a client may use a particular point in their visual field—or a “brainspot”—to access and process experiences held more deeply in the brain and body.
For people who have spent a lot of time trying to think or talk their way through something and still feel stuck, approaches like Brainspotting can offer another avenue for therapeutic work.
You can learn more about the approach, its development, and professional training through the international Brainspotting community at brainspotting.com.
Olya’s Connection to the Work
Olya is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Board Certified Counselor Supervisor, Certified Brainspotting Practitioner, and Brainspotting Consultant. She holds a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alaska Anchorage and has worked in the mental health field for more than 20 years.
Her experience in Alaska has taken her through inpatient, medical, community, and private-practice settings. She also spent eight years working with Alaska Native and American Indian populations at Southcentral Foundation. Today, much of her clinical work focuses on supporting adults who have experienced trauma.
Over the years, Brainspotting has become an important part of both Olya’s clinical work and her larger vision for trauma care in Alaska.
She founded the Brainspotting Alaska networking group, has co-facilitated Brainspotting Phase 1 and Phase 2 trainings with International Brainspotting Trainer and Consultant Gunnar Ebbesson, and created and facilitates the Brainspotting Reboot Workshop.
Establishing Brainspotting Alaska as a nonprofit is a natural next step in that work.
Building Community in a Very Big State
Providing mental health care in Alaska comes with some unique realities. Our communities are spread across an enormous geographic area, and opportunities for specialized training and in-person professional connection aren’t always close by.
That makes relationships between providers especially valuable.
Through Brainspotting Alaska, Olya and the organization’s board hope to create more opportunities for clinicians to learn together, consult with one another, attend local workshops, and strengthen a professional community right here in Alaska.
The organization is offering annual memberships for working professionals as well as reduced-rate memberships for pre-licensed clinicians. Membership benefits include monthly consultation meetings and discounts on local workshops.
Just as importantly, Brainspotting Alaska is asking its growing community what it actually needs. The organization has created an interest survey so practitioners and others interested in Brainspotting can help shape future education, consultation, and programming.
Looking Ahead
At Common Thread Counseling, we believe good mental health care grows stronger when clinicians stay curious, connected, and committed to learning.
We’re proud to see Olya carry those values beyond our practice and into a growing statewide community.
Brainspotting Alaska represents an opportunity not only to support clinicians, but also to continue expanding awareness of trauma-informed approaches and access to experienced providers throughout our state.
To learn more about the nonprofit, membership, upcoming opportunities, and ways to get involved, visit brainspottingalaska.org.
For more information about Brainspotting itself, visit brainspotting.com.