About Duende

A word with soul, a Model with meaning

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Duende is a Spanish word with no direct English translation. It was first elevated in meaning by the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, who described duende as a deep, soul-stirring force—something that arises not from perfection, but from struggle. Lorca wrote that duende appears when something “burns the blood like powdered glass”—when art, performance, or presence reaches a raw, honest intensity that cannot be faked.

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In Lorca’s view, duende is not talent, beauty, or technique—it is truth. It lives at the intersection of grief, love, fragility, and courage, and it transforms both the person expressing and the person witnessing. It is the dark soil from which authenticity grows.

At Duende Brain Injury Therapy, we hold that same truth at the center of our work.

 

The Duende Brain Injury Therapy Model

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Brain injury—especially in the early months—can fracture a person’s life into before and after. Survivors often describe the experience as one of disconnection, identity loss, emotional overwhelm, and deep grief. Our model was created to address the most common and pervasive themes in qualitative research studies and years of individual therapy services with brain injury survivors. That means people just like you helped create this model. They said things like:

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• “I feel like two different people.”

• “I’m grieving the person I used to be.”

• “No one can see how hard this is.”

• “I’m exhausted all the time.”

• “It’s like I don’t fit in my own life anymore.”

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These statements are not just symptoms—they are soul-shaking experiences that demand a healing model rooted in emotional truth, nervous system regulation, and identity healing not just functional outcomes.

That’s where the Duende Brain Injury Therapy Model comes in.

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The Duende Brain Injury Therapy Model: Evidence-Informed, Emotionally Grounded

Our therapy model is built around the principle that recovery does not mean returning to who you were, recovery from brain injury is about integrating who you were with who you are becoming. Our model incorporates:

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• Neuropsychology – Symptom evaluation, education, executive functioning tools, sensory monitoring, and encouraging brain plasticity. 

• Relational repair – Supported dyads (survivor + chosen support person) work together in our acute group, parents connect in our pediatric group, and our living with brain injury group connects survivors all around Colorado with similar life experiences and accommodation needs. 

• Creative expression – Writing, metaphor, a self-identity model, and narrative therapy help reclaim the many versions of self

• Group validation – You are not alone; others walk this path, too

• Emotional integration – Grief, anger, hope, despair, and joy are all part of the healing

• Duende as catalyst – We use the struggle itself to create meaning, agency, and wholeness​

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Our eight-week group therapy programs were shaped directly by qualitative research investigating survivors’ “worst” and "most frustrating" experiences after their injury:

Loss of identity, memory struggles, emotional lability, cognitive fog, social isolation, and disconnection from self.

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Why Duende?

Because we believe that even in pain, there is power.
Because we believe that even when fragmented, people can be whole.
Because we believe that authenticity is the beginning of healing—and duende lives there.

 

This isn’t just a therapy model. It’s a philosophy:
The wound is not the opposite of the self—it's where a new self begins.