Aimee Hadfield - Reimagining Mental Health Care at Hearten House

01/12/2026

When we won our first Salt Lake City Weekly Best of Utah: Body and Mind Awards in 2024, it was a surprise to win first for Best Experiential Therapist and Best Psychotherapist/Counselor, along with placing in the top three for Best Mental Health Treatment Center. And today, I feel the same sense of amazement that we continue to make meaningful contributions to our community.

This year, Tanner Matheny joins me in being nominated for Best Experiential Therapist and I could not be more stoked about it. I truly believe that he should be at the top of the list in this year's winners. I'm also nominated again for Best Psychotherapist/Counselor, and Hearten House is nominated for Best Mental Health Treatment Center and Best Addiction Recovery, which shows our growth as we are past winners in all of the other categories, but this is our first nomination for addiction recovery.

Your votes and ongoing support are so appreciated. We couldn't do what we do without our community.

https://cityweekly.revfluent.com/bestof/portal/3a972dac-c39b-4f83-b908-ab1864eb9fef

12/31/2025

It's about "What do I want more of?"

When we take a moment to look at what's important to us and see how we can have more - rather than what we want to stop doing, the new growth starts to crowd out the old and we find change happening more naturally, and with less blame-y shame-y effort.

The new year doesn’t need a reinvention. It needs a direction.

Before resolutions, before goals, before the pressure to “do more”, there’s a quieter question worth asking: What matters to me now?

Values aren’t about perfection or productivity. They’re about alignment.

They help us set intentions that feel steady instead of stressful, intentions that can flex with real life, nervous systems, seasons, and change.

When intentions are guided by values, they become less about fixing yourself and more about returning to yourself. A compass instead of a measuring stick.

This year, you don’t have to choose everything. Just choose what you want to stand for. 🌱

Curious how values-based work can support your growth this year? Start with a free consult at heartenhouse.com.

12/09/2025

12/04/2025

I'm getting ready to teach about Sociometry and Assessment in Action this afternoon (plus more all weekend, and there's room for you if you'd like to join us!), and there are a few things that no training at is complete without.

1. A facilitator who's excited to connect and learn with and from participants as much as they teach.

2. The six principles of trauma informed care (safety, trustworthiness and transparency, collaboration and mutuality, peer support, empowerment, voice, and choice, and cultural, historic, and gender issues) - because we include them in every training.

3. Snacks.

4. A giant basket of scarves and fabric ready to become anything they need to become, at any given moment - because props help us concretize, or give a form to, abstract concepts, emotions, parts of self, or people, places, and things in our lives.

5. Clearly posted learning objectives, and references/resources at the ready.

We decided to do four separate trainings this weekend so folks could get some learning and connection heading into the holiday season without having to commit their whole weekend, and you can still register to join us for any or all ofthe hours.

If you come hang, you'll get CE credits and Psychodrama training hours, the opportunity to do some personal growth work yourself, and build new connections with yourself and other professionals. Heartenhouse.com/co-create has all the details and as always, reach out if cost is your only barrier to joining.

11/20/2025

You're looking at safety, imposter syndrome, masculinity, femininity, a "therapist" role, and a "human" role - represented through random objects in my living room.

I had a beautiful morning connecting with the LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychotherapist Guild of Utah for an inservice training, Coming Home to Self: Action-Based Approaches for Identity, Safety, and Embodiment.

We learned about ways to connect with ourselves and our clients while helping people connect with themselves in new ways by feeling our way through 1-10 scales instead of thinking, utilizing objects to concretize, or give a physical form to, feelings or concepts, interacting with metaphor and story, being aware of our own biases, the importance of doing our own work and getting ongoing training and supervision, and more.

My very favorite part was the authenticity, vulnerability, and deep real connection that we were able to co-create as we learned in our 90 minutes together. That is why I do, use, and teach psychodrama, sociometry, and group psychotherapy along with other embodied experiential, action, and expressive therapies- because the power is in the co-creation and the sharing, and the tools help to get us there.

11/20/2025

This is Brenda, one of our amazing student therapists. 🧡

Brenda brings mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), somatic experiencing, movement-based expressive therapies, and elements of yoga and breathwork into the therapeutic space. Her work is informed by her values, including inclusion, creativity and cultural sensitivity.

"When I’m not in session, you might find me dancing, hiking, snorkeling, writing poetry, or hosting one of my famously joyful gatherings. I believe laughter, movement, and feeling truly seen are all part of the healing process, and I’m here to help guide that journey."

If you're curious about working with Brenda, request a free consultation at heartenhouse.com/brenda.

11/07/2025

Psychodrama's not new. It's not trendy. It is very, very cool, and it's been here for over a hundred years. It's also friends with sociometry and group psychotherapy - they are a team.

But what even are they?

Psychodrama is the drama of the psyche, just like psychology is the study of the psyche, and psychoanalysis is the analysis of the psyche.

As a psychodramatist, I help people take what's going on inside of them, bring it into the real world to renegotiate with their past experiences, reorganize traumatic memories, and re-integrate the new experiences- because your body remembers the good stuff too.

Sociometry looks at connection and choice. Group Psychotherapy allows for shared healing, connection with others, and the feeling you get when someone says "me, too."

Together, sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy create powerful experiences that research shows help with anxiety, depression, PTSD, CPTSD, traumatic or prolonged grief, substance use, and much more - in a way that feels more effective and efficient than traditional talk therapy.

Most of the people I work with feel like they've "tried everything" or have even been labeled "treatment resistant." If one approach worked for everyone and everything, we'd all have better mental health by now.

If you feel like you need something more, or something different, trauma-informed psychodrama and other embodied experiential, action, and expressive therapies might be an option, and my team at has built an entire outpatient mental health treatment center around them in downtown Salt Lake City.

We offer ongoing outpatient counseling for individuals, relationships of all types, and families plus immersive therapeutic experiences, a mental health and trauma-focused intensive outpatient program, and training and continuing education opportunities for professionals interested in adding this type of work to their practices.

Message me to chat, or head to heartenhouse.com to learn more.

09/14/2025

I had a great reminder today about the power of creating and connecting.

I spend most of my time facilitating and teaching creative things, but rarely get the chance to be in the participant role, so I'm super grateful to for her workshop at and the opportunity to be still.

We have a weekly art journaling group at on Tuesdays from 10 am-noon and I just feel so happy for everyone who gets to participate in it because they get to do this every week!

I'm not sure what this means for me yet, but I would love to hear how you connect with the image 🧡

09/09/2025

When it comes to therapy, an hour a week isn’t always enough.

If you’ve been doing the work in weekly therapy, but your symptoms are still interfering with your relationships, routines, or sense of self, it might be time to step into something more supportive.

The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is coming to Salt Lake City October 6. This program is mental health and trauma-focused, creative, and community-rooted. With 9–18 hours of care per week, we're providing a deeper level of support without you having to step away from your real life.

You'll get:
🌿 More time to process, regulate, and reconnect
🌿 A blend of individual therapy, group work, and experiential healing
🌿 Modalities like yoga, psychodrama, outdoor adventure, movement, expressive arts, EMDR, Brainspotting, and more
🌿 All in a cozy, in-person space in downtown SLC

This is for you if you're looking to shift not just how you cope, but how you live.

Curious if this is a fit? Let's chat. Schedule a 20 minute conversation with a therapist at heartenhouse.com

08/22/2025

I'm so excited about offering this training in Florida next month!

What if your next training didn’t just talk about what you're learning, but actually invited you to experience it?

Join us Sept 26–28 in Sarasota, FL at for Co-Creating Lasting Change: a 3-day immersive training in trauma-informed psychodrama + experiential therapy, designed for clinicians ready to go deeper, get braver, and practice in full color.

Led by Aimee Hadfield, LCSW, CP, PAT
● Small group format (only 16 spots)
● 20 CE hours (NBCC + ABE)
● $495 ( students take $250 off with code STUDENT)
● Is cost a barrier? Reach out.

This isn’t another lecture series.
This is healing work, taught in the language of healing itself: action, embodiment, and connection.

08/21/2025

I don't love yoga.

I also don't hate it anymore, so that's neat.

A few weeks ago, I went to a yoga in the park gathering, but not really to do yoga. I went to see my friends and connect with people and with myself. I realized this is a good example of how roles interact. My "yoga doer" role is directly tied to my "friend" role and pretty much only comes out in support of friend time.

In psychodrama and sociometry, we use a tool called a role atom that allows us to get a clear view of the roles in our lives, our relationships with them, and the roles' relationships with each other.

Sometime, getting a clear picture of what's going on inside you is enough to start making little shifts. That's what's so cool about psychodrama: it lets you take what's twirling around in your head into the real world so you can get a different view, and interact with it in an embodied way.