Ayla Castano, MSW Intern
(she/her)
Available in Murray, Plus Online Across Utah
Hi, I’m Ayla
Your feelings show up at full volume, and by the time you notice one it's already too late to do anything gentle about it. Maybe you've hurt yourself to make the noise stop. Maybe you've thought about not being here at all. Somewhere along the way you decided this is just who you are. It isn't, and you're not too much for this room.
I work with children, adolescents, and young adults, especially those with a significant trauma history. That includes emotional dysregulation, anxiety, depression, ADHD, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal self-injury. I've supported people through the worst nights of their lives in inpatient and crisis settings, and I've also sat with the slower, quieter work that comes after.
I'm interested in what trauma does to the brain and the nervous system, and that shapes how I work. If you've been told to just calm down, you already know how useless that instruction is. What your body learned to do to keep you safe made sense at the time. We start there, with curiosity instead of judgment, at a pace you set.
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I draw primarily on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness-based practices. Together we identify what you actually value, build psychological flexibility, and start moving toward a life that feels like yours, without waiting for the hard feelings to disappear first. I'm trauma-informed throughout, which in practice means I won't ask you to tell me more than you're ready to tell me.
I'm especially drawn to the question of function: what a thought, a feeling, or a behavior was originally protecting you from, even when it stopped helping a long time ago. That question opens doors that arguing about symptoms never does.
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MSW Intern. Trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based practices. Background in inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric care and in crisis assessment, referral, and discharge planning. Additional background in NIH-funded research on emotion dysregulation, prenatal opioid exposure and developmental outcomes, and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors in the perinatal period.
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In-person sessions in [location]. Online sessions throughout Utah.
Ayla is completing her master's degree in Social Work. Her work is supervised by Ashlee Eixenberger, LMFT. Supervised care means a licensed clinician is actively involved in your treatment from the start. Associates here meet weekly with their individual supervisor, join biweekly group supervision, and take part in monthly consultation groups covering specialties like DBT, EMDR, and complex trauma, plus a monthly deep dive training built to sharpen skills and deepen expertise.
Think we might be a fit?
If you think I might be a good fit, the easiest way to get started is to fill out the contact form. You can also call 385-715-0233. When you reach out, you can mention my name so the intake team knows who you are hoping to work with.