CJ Clinkscales, PsyD, LCP

Dr. CJ Clinkscales is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in depth-oriented, relational therapy with men, complex trauma, and grief and loss. His work integrates psychodynamic, intersubjective, and existential perspectives, creating space for clients to understand how early experiences shape their relationships with themselves, others, and the world. CJ is particularly passionate about supporting men navigating relationship challenges, trauma, identity development, and personal growth, as well as individuals engaged in the profound work of grief and loss. In addition to his clinical practice, he serves as an instructor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology, where he teaches The Psychology of Grief and Loss. Through a collaborative and reflective process, he helps clients translate insight into meaningful, lasting change.

What Clients an Expect:

Working with CJ is a deeply collaborative and relational experience. He understands therapy as something co-created—shaped by each client’s history, personality, values, and the specific struggles that bring them in. CJ does not do therapy to clients. He works alongside them to understand how they make sense of the world, how their patterns developed, and what may now be getting in the way of the life they want to live.

His approach is grounded in intersubjective and existential frameworks. This means he pays close attention to how a client’s emotional life was shaped in relationship—family systems, attachment experiences, cultural messages, and formative environments. Together, they explore how those early dynamics continue to influence reactions, relationships, and sense of self. At the same time, they engage the deeper questions beneath the symptoms: What matters most? What kind of life is being built? Where is action coming from fear, and where from integrity?

The work balances insight with practical change. Patterns are traced to their roots without remaining stuck in the past. CJ helps clients develop skills, language, and awareness that translate into meaningful shifts in daily life. Insight becomes corrective experience—something that can be carried into relationships, work, and decision-making.

Clients often describe feeling a sense of safety that is authentic rather than scripted. CJ creates space for honesty—about anger, grief, shame, ambition, longing, or confusion—without reducing a person to a diagnosis. Whether processing trauma, navigating relational conflict, clarifying identity, or using psychological assessment to uncover unconscious themes, he brings warmth, directness, and deep respect for each person’s subjective experience.

Therapy with CJ is not about quick fixes or surface-level solutions. It is about understanding oneself more fully, expanding emotional range, and building a life that feels more aligned, intentional, and connected.

Men’s Mental Health:

Many men come to therapy carrying a quiet weight. On the surface they may be functioning well—working hard, providing, appearing competent—yet internally feel disconnected, anxious, irritable, or alone. Some arrive because a partner has said something needs to change. Others come seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and their relational patterns. CJ works with men across a wide spectrum of concerns, including acute trauma, PTSD, bipolar disorder, ADHD, eating disorders, complex relationship struggles, and personality patterns often described as borderline or narcissistic. These diagnoses do not define you—but they often reflect how you learned to survive.

CJ’s work is grounded in an intersubjective lens that understands suffering to have developed in relationship, not isolation. Trauma, mood instability, and personality adaptations emerge within families, cultures, and expectations about masculinity. Many men were raised where vulnerability was minimized and strength equated with self-sufficiency. Protective patterns—emotional constriction, volatility, withdrawal, control, fear of abandonment—all were formed for good reasons. In therapy with CJ, his intention is not dismantle your patterns, but rather assist you in increasing flexibility, stability, and relational capacity.

CJ also bring an existential perspective. Beneath symptoms are deeper questions: Who am I outside of my coping strategies? What does it mean to be a good partner, father, or man? What kind of life am I building? Rather than focusing only on symptom reduction, we clarify values and examine how early experiences continue to shape present choices.

What sets CJ’s work apart is the way he relates to men—directly, honestly, and with genuine emotional engagement. Safety with male clients often requires honoring both strength and vulnerability, insight and action. I help men connect early experiences to current patterns, accelerating meaningful change. I also work with male athletes navigating performance anxiety, trauma, and identity struggles, recognizing that mental performance challenges are often rooted in experiences beyond the field.

Men’s mental health is not about “fixing” what feels broken. It is about expanding emotional range, deepening connection, and living with integrity. Strength is the capacity to stay present—with yourself and with others.

Grief, Loss & Trauma:

Grief and loss are among the most misunderstood and stigmatized human experiences. CJ is deeply committed to creating space where grief can be expressed openly, without pressure to “move on” or minimize pain. He understands that many people suffer in silence, and he views it as both an honor and responsibility to witness clients through profound loss. As an instructor teaching The Psychology of Grief and Loss at the University of Denver, he brings both clinical expertise and lived depth to this work.

CJ integrates relational, existential, and experiential approaches to help clients make meaning from loss. This may include developing personal rituals, creating legacy projects, or finding authentic ways to memorialize loved ones. The focus is not on closure, but on integration—honoring what was lost while continuing to live fully.

He also works extensively with trauma, particularly complex and relational trauma. With patience and careful attunement, CJ helps clients understand how past wounds shape present patterns. Trauma work unfolds at a pace that respects each person’s readiness, fostering stability, resilience, and deeper self-understanding.

Psychological Assessment:

CJ offers collaborative therapeutic assessments for children, adolescents, and adults seeking deeper self-understanding. He views assessment not as something done to a client, but as a shared process of discovery—one that brings patterns, strengths, vulnerabilities, and unconscious dynamics into clearer focus. Through structured, data-informed tools combined with relational interpretation, assessment becomes a bridge between empirical clarity and meaningful psychological insight.

Rather than focusing solely on diagnosis, CJ works alongside clients to make sense of what the findings reveal about cognitive functioning, development, personality, attachment patterns, emotional regulation, and identity. He has particular expertise in ADHD/ASD assessments for both adolescents and adults, helping clients differentiate attentional differences from anxiety, trauma, mood concerns, or personality dynamics. His ADHD/ASD evaluations move beyond symptom checklists, exploring executive functioning, identity, self-esteem, and the relational impact of neurodivergence. The goal is not simply to label, but to illuminate—creating a roadmap for growth and more intentional recommendations, resources, and treatment planning.

CJ also offers Brief Therapeutic Assessments, which are often an ideal way to begin therapy. They can accelerate the early phase of treatment by clarifying not only what brings someone in, but also the deeper themes operating beneath the surface. Starting therapy with assessment frequently leads to more focused, effective work and stronger long-term outcomes.