Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) from Colorado-licensed clinicians, wherever in the state you sleep badly.
Book An AppointmentColorado is a big place to have insomnia in. Denver and the Front Range corridor hold most of the population, but chronic sleeplessness is just as common in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, in the mountain towns along I-70, in the farm and ranch country of the eastern plains, and across the Western Slope, where the nearest specialist of any kind can be a three-hour drive away. Our clinicians live and work in those places too: on our roster today you will find therapists based in Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Evergreen and Parker, all of them licensed by the State of Colorado and all trained in CBT-I.
We see most patients via telehealth with Colorado-licensed clinicians, and a limited number of clinicians also see patients in person. Either way the treatment is the same structured, short-term program, and it starts with a conversation rather than a prescription. Meet the Colorado clinicians or read on for what the work actually involves.
Two professional bodies write the rulebook on adult insomnia in the United States, and they agree. The American College of Physicians' guideline tells clinicians that all adults with chronic insomnia should be offered CBT-I as the initial treatment, with a conversation about medication only if that has not worked. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine's 2021 behavioral treatment guideline goes further and gives multicomponent CBT-I its only strong recommendation, over every other behavioral approach it reviewed.
The reasoning is practical. Sleep medication can help tonight, but chronic insomnia is a pattern that has taught your body to be awake at the wrong times, and a pill does not unteach it. CBT-I does, which is why the benefit is still there a year after the last session in study after study. Colorado Sleep Center & Counseling was built around this one treatment for that reason.
The straight answer comes in two halves. In clinical trials, roughly half to two-thirds of people who complete CBT-I end treatment no longer meeting the criteria for insomnia, and most of the rest are sleeping meaningfully better than when they started. Those gains hold up at follow-up months and years later, which is not something anyone can say about a sleeping pill.
The other half: nobody can promise you will never have a bad night again. Life in Colorado includes new babies, night shifts, a move to elevation, ski-season travel and the occasional 2 a.m. wildfire alert, and any of those can knock sleep sideways for a while. What CBT-I gives you is the method for putting it back, so a rough patch stays a rough patch instead of becoming next year's insomnia. Every plan we write ends with a relapse section for exactly that purpose.
Insomnia counts as chronic once the trouble — getting to sleep, staying asleep, or waking before the alarm — shows up on at least three nights out of seven and has persisted past the three-month mark, with a real cost the next day. By that point the original cause often no longer matters. Three things usually keep it running:
Going to bed earlier, lying in later and napping to make up the loss all spread a limited amount of sleep across more hours, so the sleep you do get is thin and broken.
After enough nights of tossing, the bedroom itself becomes a trigger for alertness. You doze on the sofa, walk down the hall and are suddenly wide awake under the covers.
Checking the clock, calculating hours left and bracing for tomorrow all raise the alarm system that has to be quiet before sleep can arrive. The effort to sleep becomes the thing preventing it.
A first appointment with a Colorado-licensed clinician, by video for most patients, that maps how your insomnia behaves: the shape of a typical night, what has already been tried, your work schedule, medications, mood and any signs that something other than insomnia is involved.
A week or two of simple daily entries in the app: when you got into bed, when you think you fell asleep, how long you were up in the night, when you got up. The plan is built from this record, not from a guess.
The two behavioral engines of CBT-I. Stimulus control reconnects bed with sleep and nothing else; the sleep window matches your time in bed to the sleep you are actually producing, then expands it as sleep consolidates.
Once nights are steadier, sessions turn to the thinking around sleep: the rules you have absorbed about how much you need, the dread that starts at dinner, the arithmetic at 3 a.m. Anxiety that lives alongside insomnia is addressed here with the same clinician; our anxiety therapy page describes that side of the work.
Most programs run six to eight weekly sessions. The last one is spent writing down what worked, what your early-warning signs are and what you will do about them, so the next disruption has a plan waiting for it.
You can start CBT-I on your current medication, whether that is a prescription hypnotic, trazodone, an antihistamine or a nightly gummy. Many of our Colorado patients do, and the program is not weakened by it. What we ask is that you do not change a prescription on your own in the middle of treatment.
If you would eventually like to stop taking a sleep medication, raise it at the evaluation. Your clinician will sequence it so that CBT-I has had time to rebuild your sleep first and will coordinate the taper with whoever prescribes for you. Reducing a sleep medication is far easier once you have a schedule that produces sleep on its own, which is the order we recommend.
Three of the clinicians you might start with, from three parts of the state. Thefull Colorado roster lists everyone, with credentials, specialties and a booking link for each.
LPC, CBT-I, Insomnia Specialist
Specialties: Insomnia, Veterans, Substance abuse, Anxiety
Approaches: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Solution-focused
Matthew Fuller is a licensed therapist that builds strong therapeutic rapport through nonjudgmental positive regard, incorporating evidence-based modalities including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Narrative Therapy to help clients explore their strengths and examine challenges through a self-reflective lens. He has received specialized training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), equipping him to address sleep-related concerns alongside commonly co-occurring conditions such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and chronic pain. Matthew is committed to creating a comfortable, accepting space that invites vulnerability and fosters lasting connection, with many clients choosing to continue their therapeutic relationship with him for years.
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LPC, CBT-I, Insomnia Specialist
Specialties: Insomnia, Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and PTSD, Veterans
Approaches: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational interviewing, Solution-focused
Cyndy Rehberg is a cognitive-behavioral therapist who brings deep curiosity about the mind and a collaborative, strengths-based approach to her work with clients. She specializes in supporting individuals navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, and adjustment concerns, and has a particular passion for working with military and veteran populations, injured athletes, and women in perimenopause. Cyndy has completed specialized training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), equipping her with evidence-based tools to address the thoughts, behaviors, and patterns that interfere with restorative sleep. Grounded in the belief that clients possess a profound capacity for growth and healing, she works collaboratively to uncover strengths, identify actionable strategies, and create lasting, meaningful change — helping clients move from simply receiving life to actively shaping it.
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LPC, CBT-I, Insomnia Specialist
Specialties: Insomnia, Anxiety, Life Transitions, Grief
Approaches: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Coping Skills
Lauren Hornbeck is a behavioral health clinician specializing in the treatment of insomnia and sleep-related concerns. She works with clients across multiple phases of the therapeutic process, including exploring relational patterns, identifying unmet needs, and addressing the balance between passivity and activity. Lauren incorporates evidence-based skills centered on empathy, self-compassion, and nervous system regulation to help clients unlearn unhelpful behaviors and build healthier patterns. She has specialized training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), the gold-standard treatment for chronic insomnia. Lauren is passionate about helping clients deepen self-understanding and reconnect the mind and body to break cycles that no longer serve their well-being.
Book An AppointmentA Colorado license lets any of them see you anywhere in the state; the towns below are simply where they live and work.
Colorado Springs: Lindsay Fahey
Denver: Matthew Fuller
Evergreen: Tristen Vieaux
Fort Collins: Cynthia Rehberg
Parker: Angie Fouts-Hyatt
Pueblo: Trevor Gates-Crandall, Lauren Hornbeck
CBT-I is delivered by licensed therapists and billed as outpatient behavioral health, so most Colorado plans cover it the way they cover any counseling visit. We currently bill Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna / Evernorth, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare / Optum and UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage. If your plan is not on that list, ask anyway: out-of-network benefits often apply, and we can tell you before you commit to a first appointment.
Sleep apnea and insomnia often occur together. We treat the insomnia; we have partners who treat the apnea, and our clinician coordinates any referral that is needed, so a suspected breathing problem changes the plan rather than ending it. Not sure which you have? Do you need a sleep study? walks through it.
Not in our experience. Colorado elevation can make sleep feel lighter for a while, especially for people who have recently moved up from lower ground or who travel between the plains and the high country, and your clinician will ask about it. It does not change how CBT-I works: the program is built from the sleep you actually get, at the elevation you actually live, and it adjusts week by week from there.
Yes. The Colorado plans we currently bill are Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna / Evernorth, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare / Optum and UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage. Your deductible and copay still apply the way they would for any outpatient behavioral health visit, so tell us your plan when you book and we will confirm what your share looks like before the first session.
Yes. Our clinicians are licensed by the State of Colorado, and a Colorado license covers Grand Junction, Durango, Steamboat and Alamosa exactly as it covers Denver. We see most patients via telehealth with Colorado-licensed clinicians, and a limited number of clinicians also see patients in person, so a mountain address is no barrier to treatment; all you need is a private space and a stable connection.
Usually within the first one to two weeks of following a compressed sleep window. The early nights can feel harder before they feel better, because the schedule is deliberately building sleep pressure, but that is also when most people notice they are falling asleep faster and waking less. Your clinician then widens the window in steps as your sleep consolidates, typically over six to eight sessions.
That is the usual case, not the exception. Anxiety keeps the nervous system in a state of alert that sleep cannot override, and a night of poor sleep feeds the next day of worry. Nearly every clinician on our Colorado team lists anxiety alongside insomnia, and the cognitive half of CBT-I is designed for exactly this loop, so you work on both with the same person rather than being sent to two.
Book an evaluation with a Colorado-licensed CBT-I clinician, or readhow the program runs andwhat to expect at your first visit.
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