Hi there,
My name is Ali
I am an experiential counselor and educator in the Boise, Treasure Valley. As a therapist, I see clients from many walks of life as they navigate life's greatest struggles and notice its deepest joys. If you are seeking mental health care, I am so happy to find you here, and I do hope we can connect soon.
As the founder of BETC, I also work in and amongst the community, partnering with various healers and organizations and developing groups and gatherings aimed at our collective wellness, be sure to check out the education and events pages for more...
with warmth,
Ali Belzer Ed.S., LPC, CCAT
(Specialist in Experiential Education, Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Clinical Adventure Therapist)
Meet the Collective...
the healers
It is important to us that healing is not gate kept within the medical industrial complex and that healing can be found in a remarkable variety of places. We work with many members of the community who specialize in diverse healing practices to help inform our practice and create more resources for our community.
the healing
While you may see someone professionally for mental health care, you, the clients, remain the master of your own experience. We will work collaboratively and collectively to find what works best for you. We believe the healing process should be culturally relevant, and personally meaningful, where your unique insight leads every step of the way.
the whole
Part of healing ourselves involves healing our communities and our world. We are passionate about the therapeutic process extending beyond the counseling office in the form of advocacy, community engagement, and communal healing. We partner with local partners and community organizers to provide a scope of care that extends beyond the individual, so that we are never alone on our path to wholeness.
The Full Story
About
BETC was created with one idea in mind...to think about therapy differently. Through the lens of social justice, we hope to integrate unique, personally meaningful, and culturally relevant therapeutic action into our daily lives, the lives of our clients, and the hearts of our communities. We developed these values to help guide our paths to healing.
It's in The Experience
At BETC, we believe we are made of our experiences; everything about ourselves and our world changes in response to our lived experiences. Therefore, healing should be an experienced action in the here and now, rather than solely intellectualized and discussed.
While intellectual processing and psychoeducation are necessary and important, BETC also promotes lived action and therapeutic practice to shift our factual "knowledge" to a soulful "knowing." At which point, one's healing process can truly become integrated into one's daily life.
The Body Tells The Truth
Through sensation, our bodies tell us more about ourselves, our worlds, and the beyond than we are typically aware.
BETC honors the body as the access point at which one can begin to reach a sense of wholeness. We give the body attention, respect, autonomy, and trust as our bodies help us navigate life's greatest struggles, and deepest joys.
Always, we strive to listen and learn from our somatic story.
We Must Seek What Guides Us
At BETC we believe spiritual well-being is fundamental to human flourishing and guides our path to wellness in the areas of belonging (knowing and being known), becoming (growing into the truest versions of ourselves), and beyond (connecting with something greater than ourselves).
As the modern world often separates us from, and even deliberately harms our sense of spirit (often through religious oppression), we must find new ways to address our spiritual longings.
Part of the healing process must be to identify where in our individual, communal, and ancestral histories have we been separated from our sense of spirit, and where can we heal from religious trauma while pursuing new and innovative ways to love ourselves and our world.
Healing is Political
Pain and healing are inherently political. The extent of pain one is permitted or expected to feel, and one's access to healing have been influenced and constrained by oppressive systems throughout our nation's history. In the history of psychology and mental health therapy, "treatment" was founded on the practice of pathologizing individuals outside the "ideal" set by white supremacy and capitalism. To overlook the political nature of human suffering and its treatment is to perpetuate this violence.
We believe healers cannot effectively address the pain of their patrons without addressing their own role in perpetuating the systems that oppress them.
We believe those healing cannot begin to disentangle themselves from their suffering without exploring the ancestral wounds resulting from current and historical acts of oppression.
BETC services are driven by social justice, decolonization, and liberation as the foundation on which all other progress can be made.
