David Pagels LCSW

CLIENTS WITH WHOM
David WORKS WELL

The clients David serves are typically manipulative, defiant, have low motivation, and demonstrate poor awareness of self and the impact they have on others. Many of the clients David works with have abused substances or are chemically dependent, have self harmed, tend to be dishonest and assume identities that are not authentic. These behaviors often stem from negative core beliefs about themselves and cognitive distortions that combine to justify antisocial or self destructive behaviors. These behaviors and beliefs have a significant negative impact on their ability to form and maintain healthy relationships with peers, authority figures and particularly with their family. Many of the clients David works with feel powerless and turn to maladaptive behaviors to avoid or remedy that experience. David is passionate about working with adoptees. As an adoptee himself, David understands the emotional complexity of being adopted and how adoption can influence a young person’s sense of self and their relationships. 

EDUCATION &
PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE

David first joined the Second Nature team in 2007 as a Staff Mentor. After many years in the field and one year working primarily with clients and their families completing the program, he came to believe he could be of service as a clinician. David completed his Masters of Social Work at the University of Denver. David worked for the Jefferson County Public Defenders office in Colorado writing mitigation reports and providing supportive counseling for incarcerated adults. David also spent a year working as a Social Worker at the Colorado Mental Health Institute- Fort Logan serving an adult population with severe and persistent mental illness. David was a clinician at Odyssey House, a residential addiction treatment center before returning to Second Nature. 

Strengths

David has a very curious disposition. Using processing techniques rooted in Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, David assists clients to identify dissonance within their lives and beliefs. David believes and teaches the clients to put into practice the simple concept that with awareness comes choice and with choice comes the power to be who they want to be. David has a strengths based approach which often contributes to helping the client begin to realize a more rounded and healthy identity.