Healing Families, Restoring Hope
Inside Reaching HOPE’s Groundbreaking Trauma Care
Photos courtesy of Reaching HOPE
Reaching HOPE’s model has evolved over the years, but its purpose has never wavered: to help individuals heal from trauma by providing a holistic approach to mental health services that address individual, relational and systemic healing, ultimately fortifying the health of communities for generations to come.
What started in a two-room office in 2010 became the blueprint for a groundbreaking approach. One founder would meet with a child in therapy, while the other sat with the parent in the waiting room. Over time, that “waiting room” became a second therapy space, and their work began to uncover a critical truth: If you only treat the trauma of one person in a household but return them to a family system that is still in chaos, the healing can’t last.
“We saw early on that the family system itself needed to be part of the healing journey,” executive director, trauma psychologist and Reaching HOPE co-founder Dr. Ambra Born explains. “If you don’t address the whole family, the trauma keeps cycling through generations.”
Today, Reaching HOPE works with survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, child abuse and complex intergenerational trauma, often engaging entire family systems. By scheduling individual and family therapy simultaneously, their therapists can move between rooms, support de-escalation, and coach family members through real-time conflict resolution. This reduces secrecy, strengthens relationships, and promotes sustainable healing.
Reaching HOPE also serves frontline workers and first responders to reduce burnout and build a more trauma-informed community. The organization’s prevention work is expanding, with new workshops focused on child sexual abuse prevention and community awareness around grooming and boundaries. It is also deeply involved in efforts to establish a Family Justice Center in Adams and Broomfield counties, where survivors can access wraparound services—including immediate access to trauma therapists—under one roof.
At Reaching HOPE, the focus is on the hope that exists even in the most challenging circumstances. Families often arrive feeling disconnected, scared and overwhelmed. Through therapy, they build relationships and work toward a healthy family system, not just healing individuals but also strengthening the bonds that empower them. Over time, clients can grow so confident and connected that they take full ownership of their healing, often forgetting the therapist’s role entirely. The goal is for families to become their own agents of change, able to face the world together, with or without ongoing support. Reaching HOPE therapists are proud to work themselves out of a job by helping families build lasting resilience.
“This is truly the most incredible work I could ever do,” says Born. “People come to us feeling overwhelmed by hopelessness and pain, but through this process, they discover just how strong, brave and valuable they really are. I have the privilege of witnessing them uncover their own incredible humanity and realize they deserve all the good things life has to offer. It’s deeply soul-fulfilling work—and while they mourn what happened, they also find gratitude for the strength and growth that came from it.”
