About the Author - Benjamin Bunte
I played the double bass professionally for the first part of my career, which meant spending years standing at the back of orchestras, holding an instrument taller than I am, and being told to play softer.
It turned out to be excellent training for a therapist. You learn to listen underneath everything else, and you learn that the low notes matter most when nobody notices them.
After the stage came the podium: nearly a decade as a public school orchestra director. I loved it. I also spent most of those years hiding a body that had been in pain since I was a teenager. Some of the best conducting I ever did was of my own face.
The pain is a rare nerve condition. It arrived when I was a teenager, and it has never left. It’s the reason I write, and it’s also the reason I eventually stopped performing, in both senses of the word. That story is the book, so I’ll leave it there. What matters here is that I’m not writing about pain from across the room. I’m writing from the chair.
The Other Chair
These days I sit in a different one. I’m a Clinical Psychotherapist (LPCC, MA-CMHC) at Bunte Behavioral Health, my private practice in Englewood, Colorado, and I’m working on a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Counselor Education and Clinical Supervision (CES) at Adams State University.
I specialize in working with teenagers, adults, couples, and neurodivergent clients living with ADHD and autism, people living with chronic pain, and a steady stream of high achievers struggling with burnout who are very good at appearing ‘fine.’ I recognize them. I used to be one of them.
The office has no overhead fluorescent lights; in fact, every light can be customized to a color. It also has a mechanical table that draws art in sand and more fidget toys than a man my age can justify.
If you’re in Colorado and looking for a therapist, that’s a different conversation than this one, and it happens over at buntehealth.com.
Home
I live in the Denver area with my wife, Michelle, who appears in the book as the woman who waited, and with five rescue animals who also appear in the book and would not have forgiven me if they were left out. I still own the bass. It stands proudly in the corner, judging my posture.
Speaking, Workshops, & Trainings
Being on a stage is the part of my old life I kept. I speak to clinicians, educators, and healthcare audiences about chronic and invisible illness, the family habits that keep pain hidden, high-achieving teenagers and what ‘fine’ costs them, and what a musician’s ear brings to a therapy room. Keynotes, workshops, staff trainings, panels, book events.
If you have a room and an hour, reach out. Let’s freaking go.
For press and event organizers
Benjamin Bunte, LPCC, MA-CMHC, is a Clinical Psychotherapist in Englewood, Colorado, and the founder of Bunte Behavioral Health. A former professional classical double bassist and public school Orchestra Director, he is pursuing a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Counselor Education and Clinical Supervision (CES) at Adams State University.
He lives with a rare nerve condition and writes from inside it. The Pain of You (Anacrusis Press, 2026) is his first book. He lives in the Denver area with his wife, Michelle, and their five rescue animals.