Mountain strong. You wouldn’t get that about Pie Frey, at least at first. You’d see that she is gentle, kind, and definitely loving. Life has thrown a few challenges her way that would stop most of us in our tracks. Not Pie. She hunkers down and powers on.

Let’s get this out of the way: Pie is her legal name. Her friend in college was named Apple, they were always together, so people referred to them collectively as Apple Pie. It stuck, she officially changed her name, and she shall forever be Pie.

Originally from Bethesda, Maryland, Pie first visited the mountains in 1974. She was an avid runner who did not like humidity. A friend brought her to Colorado, to run in the dry, August, mountain air.

Pie loved it here, moved to Greeley, and pursued her masters in special ed. She opened her psychology practice in Boulder, often coming to Ned for breakfast at the Sundance, and some cross-country skiing: “I would close out those days with a peppermint schnapps from the Pioneer Inn.” Pie eventually bought a home on Sugarloaf, then completed her doctorate.

For 15 years she also had an office in Ned: “Because it’s a small community, we all worked together – therapists, teachers, and parents.” It was during this time, 1993, that she confronted the first challenge:

“I was going to work down the Canyon. It was May, there was no snow or ice. At mile marker 30 I was about to pass the car ahead, when I saw that the car behind me was already passing. I pulled back, my car flipped several times.”

Pie was unconscious. Her injuries, including a severe brain injury and a broken scapula, left her immobile for a long, long time. To this day, Pie struggles with memory problems. But none of that held her back. Whether by chance or circumstance, Pie discovered brainspotting.

Not as patient, but as practitioner and teacher. Based on the principle that “where you look affects how you feel,” therapists like Pie use it to help patients access unresolved trauma in the brain. “All kinds of trauma: physical, like my brain injury, and psychological.”

How does it work? “We have the patient think about the traumatic incident – a rape, for example - and tell us how they feel in their body. We observe how their eyes are positioned when they most strongly feel the distress.”

It’s not what the patient is looking at, it’s the position of the eyes, which links back to a specific spot in the brain. “We tell them, don’t keep your eyes focused on one thing, think about the incident and see where they go.” Pie exposes the link, and then the brain, with Pie’s help, processes the trauma through.

From brain injury to brainspotter. In fact, the lead brainspotting trainer in the US. “Only 20,000 therapists are using it, we have trainers all over the world.” Against all odds, she had overcome.

Until 2018, anyway, when Pie came up against another dark challenge. She began to fall and slur, “flight attendants would ask me if I was drunk.” She was teaching all around the country and hadn’t found time to address it. While teaching at a conference of psychiatrists, the attendees noticed and urged her to get an MRI, which she did upon returning home. “They saved my life.”

Within an hour of the MRI, Ned’s favorite doctor, Michael Camarata, got an urgent call: get her to the hospital now! Pie had a tumor in her cerebellum, the region that affects balance. The surgery that should have taken four hours took almost eight. Hospitalized for seven weeks, her vision was failing, her speech was slurred, and she was diagnosed with ataxia. The worst of it: “They said I would never walk again or work again.”

What is Pie doing now? Well, she’s walking again and working again. “I wake up every day with gratitude. The prognosis was so grim, my doctor thought I would die in surgery. I am working part-time. I am relearning how to walk. I’m pretty good at it, as long as no one is talking and I’m not thinking about it.”

Some Nedbits about Pie:

Favorite mountain place: “The Rock Shop. I buy gifts there all the time, and selenite for positive energy, and rose quartz for love. The co-op. The Teen Center because it gives teens a place to go, they can feel so isolated up here. The Community Center.”

Favorite time of year: “Every time, except wind and snow seasons. I love that we have seasons here.”

What is it about Ned: “People are friendly, they always stop and say hi. I live in the greatest neighborhood, where people help one another. I love that we have a lot of different people, socioeconomically. It’s not bland.”

Hopes and Dreams: “I’d like to continue to grow old here. I hope that this COVID thing will settle down, so we can all get together again.”

It’s not easy for Pie. Her capacity has changed. “When my brain is tired it’s like everything goes offline, and my speech slurs. I really have to monitor what I do or it gets too hard on my brain.” She sees fewer clients.

At 68 and with brain issues, others would retire. Pie thought about it, but: “People need therapists more than ever. I love what I do, I love helping people, and I love teaching.”

Nothing can stop Pie Frey. She’s Mountain strong.

[BELLA LORENA: Ti amo di più ogni inverno, e poi ogni primavera.]