Darrelle Good Fricke 鈥�11 sees the most reluctant clients: people undergoing court-mandated therapy for domestic violence or substance abuse. She works with weekly groups for nine months, listening as individuals tell their stories and hold each other accountable. 鈥淕roups help facilitate growth and change in a powerful way, especially with difficult populations,鈥� she says. 鈥淐EOs sit next to drug dealers, and the group begins to run itself, experiencing the intrinsically healing nature of community through challenging and creating empathy for one another.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 intentionally want to hurt each other. I haven鈥檛 met a perpetrator who wasn鈥檛 first a victim. My clients generally have big hearts with no tools or boundaries. We sit, and they tell about their dynamic life, often disclosing through tears that they鈥檝e never been able to reveal their story to anyone. Often, they鈥檝e never before felt someone believed in them. I believe deeply that we鈥檙e all simply people with the same capacity for good and beautiful or dark and twisted things. We need the space for connection and belief to have the courage to choose the good.鈥�
Darrelle had often thought her voice, opinions or personality too intense until she discovered her personal energy and power helped group members feel safe. 鈥淭he Lord and I had a moment,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not too intense. I have a calling and unique ability to be an advocate in demanding spaces. God always knew this 鈥渨eakness鈥� was actually a strength.
Raised in the church, Darrelle grew a bit cynical and numb about her faith until she started asking questions at 蜜桃传媒 on topics such as science and theology, the Holy Spirit, and social justice. 鈥淚 found the freedom to integrate my faith with my deep callings from the Lord in a safe place,鈥� she says. 鈥淧rofessor Telford Work invested in me and took me under his wing as I grew through difficult circumstances and questioning God鈥檚 goodness.鈥� Majoring in religious studies and taking philosophy classes taught her how to learn, think, ask questions, be still and be curious. After graduating, she took the India Mayterm class and spent six months exploring Asia with Rita Jones 鈥�10, volunteering for Mother Teresa鈥檚 organization and trekking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.
Returning to her home in Littleton, Colo., Darrelle thought about studying theology in seminary. Then she learned about Rocky Mountain Region (RMR) Backcountry, a Young Life program that takes teenagers through the wilderness, and she became a backpacking guide. She found her calling spending a week with an entire family, an unusual thing. 鈥淥n the trail, everyone tells their life story, prays for words of encouragement, and speaks truth about their identity,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his family had never really talked to each other, and their vulnerability brought healing. I realized I was made to help facilitate this kind of reconciliation in relationships and within the individual.鈥�
Darrelle earned her Master of Clinical Mental Health at Denver Seminary and continued to spend her summers guiding with RMR Backcountry, integrating the counseling skills she was learning. She dreamed of doing wilderness therapy but ended up at National Institute for Change interning for court-mandated group therapy. 鈥淚 found I had a knack for helping people others had written off,鈥� she says.
After establishing a private counseling practice, she now spends more time with individual patients, many of whom come willingly from one of her groups. She met her husband, Scott, a fellow guide, through Young Life and still leads a backpack trip each year. A nurse at Children鈥檚 Hospital, Scott is studying to be a psychiatric nurse practitioner so they can practice together and do holistic counseling, ideally involving the outdoors.
The name of her practice, Being Alive is Good Counseling Center, (beingaliveisgood-counseling.com) reflects her deep belief in the intrinsic joy of life. 鈥淏ut when we get hurt, betrayed and rejected, we don鈥檛 believe our own worth or even that life itself is worth living,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 want to help reawaken the belief in people that it鈥檚 good to be alive. I feel passionate and inspired each day by human resilience and the ability to change and grow; we can bring redemption to each part of our stories, we can thrive.鈥�