The Aion Unlimited Story
Aion Unlimited was created as a place to bring our gifts together in the service of our community. The world is constantly changing, and events like the 2008 housing crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and our last presidential election, have taught us that there’s more going on than just alarmist sound bites on the evening news. I think we’ve all felt an irreversible shift, with people needing to reconnect, regroup, and redefine their lives in some capacity, and for many, to reevaluate and reconsider their financial situations. We are here to support you in this reimagining.
The paths we’ve taken have been anything but straight, but each detour has brought us closer to the work that aligns with our purpose. Most of the wrong turns and “bad” decisions made along the way turned out to be our biggest teachers. Even with the blatant clues we missed, we ended up exactly where we were supposed to be.
We are a husband and wife team going on 22 years of marriage–how time flies! Skip offers mental health counseling services, and Claudia offers financial coaching services. We are based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and we truly enjoy serving our community. Our transformative workshops are coming soon and will be offered virtually. You can learn more about our individual stories below.
Claudia’s Story
For me, this journey has been deeply personal. Since childhood, I’ve wrestled with the concepts of justice, equity, and shame. I didn’t always have the words to name them, but oh, was I knee deep in them. It was confounding to hear that on the one hand, all we had to do was work hard and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and on the other, all we did was work, and there were no boots to be found.
My summers, from a young age, were spent working the cotton fields in the Texas panhandle. During these formative years I learned to navigate two languages and two cultures, trying to wrap my head around the assimilation that was quickly taking hold. I fell in love with school and reveled in all of the opportunities my love of learning afforded me. My eclectic academic journey includes a high school diploma (a big first for my family), a BA in moving image arts (aka film), and a master’s degree in counseling. I’ve since added the Accredited Financial Counselor® and Trauma of Money™ certifications.
The time I’ve spent untangling the many roles I’ve played and paths I’ve traveled has given me a deeper understanding of how they intersect. What I now see clearly is that every experience has led me to this work—guiding people in healing from systemic shame, challenging the cultural and economic forces that fuel self-doubt, and helping them reclaim their agency and power.
Systemic shame and its effects can feel like an overwhelming burden. You do not have to carry this burden alone. Together we can find a way forward—envisioning and building a life that truly matters to you.
If you are feeling compelled to start your journey, schedule your free Q&A call here. You can also visit my coaching page or our blog if you’d like to learn more about me or the work I do.
Skip’s Story
How does one truly explain “who” they are? I can tell you how I see myself and the journey that brought me here, but how others perceive us will always say more about them than us. Not unlike trying on someone else’s prescription glasses—what brings clarity to one may only blur another’s vision. That said, this is how I see myself and my place in the world.
My path to becoming a mental health therapist has been long, meandering, and shaped by both ignorance and insight. My early life was marked by profound change, and like many, I learned to cope through avoidance and compartmentalization. Intellectualizing my experiences helped me make sense of loss, but it wasn’t until later that I could truly process the emotions I had buried. Learning to safely experience and integrate difficult emotions has been a crucial part of my personal and professional journey.
Through my own emotional awareness work, I offer you honest reflection. Therapy has helped me find some of my own answers, and I hope to support you as you explore yours. Every choice we make brings both pleasure and pain. With each loss, I have gained insight and compassion; with every reward, there has been a cost. For me, honoring my own imperfections allows me to hold space for your experiences without judgment or expectation.
None of us can rewrite the past. We cannot erase what we’ve been through or undo choices connected to shame or regret. What we can do is shift our perceptions—reframing our past and present with new understanding. I have come to see that even in my missteps, I did the best I could with what I knew at the time. I am an imperfect product of my experiences, and I have much more to learn.
If any part of my story resonates with you, we may be a good fit. I know I will be the right therapist for some and the wrong therapist for others. I do my best to be the former, while remaining humble enough to accept the latter.
Visit my counseling page or our blog if you’d like to learn more about me or the work I do. You can also call me at 505-501-8018 and let me know the best time to have a quick chat.