About

Dorothy Haruyama, Ph.D.

I've spent my career becoming genuinely good at one particular kind of work: helping people who look like they have it together understand why they don't feel like they do.

PH.D.    PRACTICING SINCE 2017.    ACT · CBT  · DBT  · IPT   · RCT

I'm a licensed psychologist based in Fort Collins, Colorado, providing in-person therapy locally and telehealth across Colorado.

Many of my clients are high-functioning by any outside measure — they show up, they hold things together, they're often the person other people lean on. And underneath, they're exhausted, self-critical, and unsure whether things can actually change.

I don't think that's a coincidence, and I don't think it's a character flaw. It's usually the long-term cost of skills that once helped them survive something — managing a parent's emotions, holding a family together, being endlessly capable — skills that made sense then and are quietly running the show now.

We start from “this made sense given what you went through,” not “here's what's wrong with you.”

My approach is strengths-based and rooted in self-compassion. I don't believe lasting change comes from willpower or from collecting more coping skills — I believe it comes from understanding, feeling, and eventually renegotiating the patterns underneath. That work takes real time, and I think that's worth being honest about upfront rather than promising something quicker than what I actually offer.

Why this work, and why me

Most therapists in Fort Collins hold a master's degree, which is a perfectly good credential. Here's what a doctorate and the path I took actually change about the work

DOCTORATE

Ph.D. in Psychology, Colorado State University. Doctoral training is where you learn assessment and case formulation in depth — reading a whole history and understanding why a pattern formed, rather than treating the symptom in front of you.

MODALITIES

Trained across ACT, CBT, CPT, DBT and IPT —which means the approach follows what you need, rather than the one method I happen to know.

TEACHING

I taught the clinical skills labs at Colorado State, for graduate and undergraduate counseling students. Teaching a skill to someone learning it helps you to understand it far more precisely than practicing it alone ever does.

LICENSURE

Licensed Psychologist, State of Colorado, #PSY.0006323

PRACTICING

Since 2017, with this population specifically for majority of it.

RESEARCH

I studied family dynamics and adolescent wellbeing — what forms between parents and children, and what protects against it. The patterns my clients bring in aren't just ones I've treated; they're ones I've researched.

JAPAN · CHINA · REFUGEE & IMMIGRANT CARE

What I offer

I lived in Japan during sixth grade and spent three years living and working in China. What that gave me isn't a line on a résumé — it's a lived understanding of navigating relationships and daily communication across a real gap, where being understood takes effort and being misunderstood is routine.

That grounding carried into my clinical training. During my doctoral internship I provided therapy and case management for refugee and immigrant individuals and families at the Asian Pacific Development Center, working alongside Health Navigators providing interpretation.

It's also why I take seriously the particular loneliness of being the person in a family whose inner life nobody quite reads — whether that's across a language, across a generation, or across a household where feelings weren't discussed.

Spring Mountain is the literal translation of my last name, Haruyama — haru for spring, yama for mountain.

WHERE THE NAME COMES FROM

Ready to talk?

Schedule a free 15-minute consultation call to see if we're a good fit. Currently accepting new clients, with availability within about two weeks for flexible schedules.

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