David Ejchorszt moved to Colorado after learning where the state ranked in terms of mental health. He felt his personal experience with homelessness and the journey he took to be a mental health professional would help others in the area.
As a child, Ejchorszt’s family struggled with a lot of issues which forced his family to live on the streets, he said. As a teen, some of the problems continued and Ejchorszt discovered it was easier to be homeless than to struggle with his family.
“Life on the streets and a sense of isolation during my youth taught me about hardship and the need for understanding,” Ejchorszt said. “Looking back on it now, what I really got out of that was just how easy it is to get lost and feel that there is no way to change.”
As a young adult, Ejchorszt joined the military, where he had to learn to adapt to a more structured life. The experience brought him to a counselor who, for the first time in his life, showed him care and compassion while holding him accountable.
“That changed my life,” he said.
Ejchorszt began working on his own mental health and learned how to cope with his own challenges. The experience coupled with a need to retrain himself after a physical injury opened an opportunity for him to pursue a new-found dream as a counselor.
“This was about giving back and helping people understand that I have gone through similar things,” Ejchorszt said.
Ejchorszt dove into an education path that included social work, psychology and sociology. After graduation, he worked in Washington State with law enforcement to provide immediate aid to those at their breaking point.
Ejchorszt uses cognitive-behavioral therapy to guide patients to discover why they are choosing certain behaviors.
“If you can get to the why and help people understand why they are doing the things they are doing, that is where the true change comes,” he said.
Ejchorszt has worked in a variety of settings including rural areas. He said he understands the stigma attached to mental health can be a barrier that prevents people from seeking the help they need. He strives to break that barrier by offering telehealth sessions and choosing an office in a multi-use business park so people can’t associate a person’s vehicle with his business.
“The biggest thing that happens when we are struggling with our depression and our anxiety is that we feel that everybody around us is judging us and they don’t understand,” Ejchorszt said. “It’s so important to help people understand that some of this is normal. When we get to a certain place in our lives and we don’t know what to do, these types of thoughts happen because our brains just don’t know what to do.”
About Balance Counseling, Ejchorszt’s therapy clinic, is slated to open its doors in the latter half of December at 601 S. Bowen St. Ste. 202. While his office is still being renovated, he is accepting new clients via telehealth.
