Meet Stephen & Donna BE
BEing There grew from years of honest conversations with people who were ready to face themselves and change their lives. Stephen and Donna BE didn’t follow trends. They followed the truth: real people, in real pain, need more than exploration—they need emotional skills.
This insight became the foundation for what we now teach every client: how to use emotions to understand yourself, how to build conscious relationships, and how to take truthful action when it matters most.
Effective therapy is about understanding your underlying issues and developing the skills and knowledge to create the life you truly want.
Stephen BE was raised in a military family and, like all military families, he traveled extensively without being able to point to any one location as home. A “military brat,” Stephen graduated high school from a military college prep school in Baltimore, Maryland, and accepted an appointment to the US Air Force Academy. After completing two years at the USAFA, Stephen transferred to the University of Colorado, where he branched out into parapsychology and Silva Method. He received his B.A. degree in psychology from CU and his M.A. degree in psychology from the University of West Georgia. He later attended the National University of Natural Medicine.
While in graduate school in Carrollton, Stephen founded a crisis intervention center that grew within a year to a 24/7 telephone crisis line and outreach service, with over 100 volunteer counselors that he recruited and trained. Later, he accepted the Training Director position of the even larger Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center at Louisiana State University. Then in Portland, while attending medical school, he was hired at the Metro Crisis Intervention Center and was stationed and assigned all crisis duties of Washington County Mental Health.
From there, he was recruited for the Program Director position at Colorado West Mental Health Center in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he hired and trained several dozen psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and mental health workers to serve those with chronic mental illness, and generally performing the administrative duties of a several million dollar public program that answered to the county, the state, and the federal governments, as well as the political action organizations for those with mental illness. He was recognized as the Mental Health Professional of the Year in 1986.
Getting away from mental health agencies, Stephen went into private psychotherapy practice with Donna BE in 1988, and together they founded BEing There Enlightenment Systems in 1990. They were both licensed as Professional Counselors in Colorado in 1991, just after the licensing law was enacted. Since that time, Stephen and Donna BE have provided counseling for individuals and couples, created a series of 16 retreats, opened several websites, have written seven books, and have served over 10,000 clients. The philosophy behind all of their services is described more thoroughly in Feeling Your Way Along, their primary book.
Stephen stopped providing counseling services about ten years ago to focus full-time on writing and expanding the BEing There menu of services and explore more deeply into psycho-spiritual experience and how it affects the realization of greater consciousness. Stephen facilitates a discussion group on Spirituality & Consciousness.
Stephen and Donna built a new 4,000 square foot facility in Grand Junction that opened in 2017 so that BEing There could include more therapists and provide an array of group counseling opportunities, opening up the BEing There philosophy to more than just individual clients.
Counseling is a form of education; education in how to use experience wisely. You may have all the experience in the world, but if you never learn and grow from experience, then it is wasted.
This isn’t just therapy. It’s a training ground for Higher Consciousness.
Stephen and Donna BE meet during their studies at the University of West Georgia, the famous Humanistic Psychology Graduate Program where they study under many of the early pioneers in the field. During graduate school, Stephen demonstrates remarkable vision and leadership by founding a highly successful crisis intervention center.
Donna opens a pioneering birth and birthing practice to deal with issues related to pregnancy. Both Stephen and Donna continue developing their professional skills in a wide range of mental health settings, including crisis centers, community mental health agencies, and psychiatric hospitals, and seek further training with such notables as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Tom Krueger, and Ken Keyes, Jr. These experiences deepen their understanding of the limitations of traditional mental health systems—and inspire them to imagine something more effective and meaningful.
In a profession increasingly driven by insurance mandates and performance metrics, Stephen and Donna BE choose a different path. They found BEing There Enlightenment Systems, a counseling practice rooted in the pursuit of personal growth and higher consciousness. Licensed as Professional Counselors, they focus their work on emotional skill-building and healthy relationships. Together, they author Feeling Your Way Along: Using Your Emotions as a Pathway to Enlightenment—a foundational text still used with every client today.
The BEing There philosophy is further refined and expanded. Stephen and Donna BE create a 16-retreat series, develop several websites, publish the High-C Journal series, and cultivate a loyal, dedicated community of clients and students. Their work continues to grow through both in-person programs and accessible written materials.
BEing There Counseling expands into a custom-built facility in Grand Junction, Colorado. Donna BE mentors and trains a new generation of therapists in the BEing There method. Their sons officially join the practice—Daniel BE, PhD, as a Licensed Psychologist and Clinical Director, and Andrew BE, MBA, as Operations Director and Business Guide—marking a new phase of leadership rooted in the same core values.
Stephen and Donna BE remain the guiding force behind BEing There. Donna continues to work with a select group of clients as our Master Therapist, mentor staff therapists, and develop courses and classes. Stephen focuses on group work, writing, and mentorship. Their vision continues to grow through every client interaction, every training, and every class offered at BEing There Enlightenment Systems.
Decades of Expertise in Every Session
Every therapist at BEing There is trained in the methodology developed and refined by Stephen and Donna BE. Every class and video draws from their teachings. Every insight is rooted in what they spent a lifetime learning.
Get to know Dr. Daniel BE, our Clinical Director, and Mary Beth Luedtke, one of our experienced therapists—both trained directly in the BEing There method and dedicated to carrying this work forward.
Relationship Experts in Grand Junction, Colorado
with options for Video Therapy Sessions Statewide
BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.
561 W. Crete Circle
Grand Junction, CO 81505
©2025 BEing There Enlightenment Systems / Licensed in Colorado / All Rights Reserved
