Meet Mike – Owner of The Warming Hut

Meet Mike, the heart behind The Warming Hut. With a genuine passion for guiding individuals and couples, Mike brings a wealth of expertise to his practice. His warmth and dedication create an environment where healing and transformation thrive. Mike’s unique blend of skills as a therapist and chaplain empowers clients to embrace vulnerability, fostering genuine connections and positive change.

ABOUT THE WARMING HUT

The Warming Hut is a metaphor. Think of a ski resort with a warm potbelly stove to thaw cold and numb skiers. I recall such a hut when I learned to ski in Alaska at the bottom of a freezing rope tow hill. Similar huts exist in hut-to-hut cross-country skiing, snowshoeing trails, or in mountain cabins or condos.

Likewise, I create an interpersonal experience so my clients can feel emotional warmth in our work. Whether I am in the role of therapist or chaplain, the work involves the reciprocal sharing of emotions. It can feel like adding logs to a fire or a woodstove. Relationships are thawed. Emotional reactivity is lowered and insights come up. In this way, the Warming Hut is not necessarily a place, but an experience involving people taking risks to be real and working towards change.

This is the concept I have envisioned for my clients here in Colorado—a Warming Hut in storms of life.

LIFE EXPERIENCE ENRICHES THE WARMING HUT

Wisdom

Becoming a therapist and a chaplain is my third career after being an instructor pilot for the US Air Force and a Director of Engineering for a high tech startup company. These careers were parallel to 30 years of marriage and raising four children. I have memories of successes and failures, of choices born of thoughtful reflection and reactive emotional pain, and imprisonment from my own addictive thoughts and behaviors. I am careful to not project my life choices or values onto my clients. Instead I try to tap into the wisdom I gained from my life as I meet my clients with compassion for their own.

Empathy

My life experience helps me to feel what my clients feel. The fear I felt in a cockpit or being called to account before a CEO is not unlike the fear of being vulnerable in a relationship. I have felt the desperate need for forgiveness and the hesitation to give it. I felt the pain of my family as I chased my career to their detriment. Then I felt the painful call to self-sacrifice and self-denial as I tried to restore those relationships. I felt the anxious need to fix relationships in unhealthy ways and learned those feelings came from my own insecurities. Instead I learned acceptance, presence and a focus on the strengths of others. And most of all, I have learned what it feels like to be judged, so I have learned to meet people where they are, and leave the judging to others.

Humility

I hope that humility is the ultimate fruit of my life experience and I try to bring this into the Warming Hut. I know that only by the Grace of God have I been strengthened to meet life challenges and grow through them. I believe this Grace has saved me from myself to do this Work which has been planned all along. So, I am just a small vessel sharing these Hopes and Blessings with others as they meet their own challenges in their unique life story.

Areas of Expertise at The Warming Hut

  • Marriage Counseling
  • Family Counseling
  • Substance Abuse Counseling
  • Counseling for Men
  • Chaplaincy Services
learn more

Ready to Experience Warmth?

Take the first step towards healing. Explore our range of services and discover how The Warming Hut can guide you on your journey. Click below to view our services and start your path to emotional warmth.

Contact now

© 2024 Michael Hamerly LLC, The Warming Hut