About Me

Hi! I’m Lauren. I’m here to help you learn how to live the life you’ve always wanted. Let’s figure out what’s standing in your way.

I am committed to serving the emotional well-being of humankind. Through the practices of empathy, compassion, and collaboration, and supported by the clinical application of evidence-based therapeutic techniques, my goal is to help strengthen your ability to cultivate resilience.

Let’s rediscover the core parts of who you are, beneath the conditioning, expectations, and opinions of others. Beneath your defenses and painful experiences. Can you remember who you were before you were told who you were supposed to be?

I carry the belief that we each hold the innate capacity to grow, heal, and change, and that therapy can provide the connection, reflection, and inspiration to facilitate these transformations.

“’Finding yourself’ is not really how it works. You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are also not lost…’finding yourself’ is really returning to yourself. An unlearning…an excavation…a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.” – Emily McDowell

When I work in session with any client or clients, there are a few goals that are always the first priority. I want you to feel safe, supported, and cared for. I want you to feel heard, and not just listened to. It is always my hope that you will feel understood, nurtured, and that the therapeutic space between us is free of judgment.

We will often focus on the here-and-now, and sometimes we will examine there-and-then.

We will consider what you’ve learned, what lessons you want to keep, and what weight you’d like to leave behind, so that you can understand what paths you’ve taken to arrive at this moment and take control of what lies ahead. 

We will work together on integrating these parts of your life and identity, so that you can look forward and be excited and confident about what is still to come.

I will encourage self-reflection, provide comfort in times of crisis or distress, and may sometimes challenge the lenses through which you see the world.

Therapy can be occasionally challenging, but you should always feel safe, that we are moving at a manageable pace,  and that we are achieving goals that are meaningful to you.

We will make decisions by working on them together.

I grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and have lived in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, where I worked in both the music industry and later as the director of corporate staffing firms for over a decade. I persistently felt the call to devote my skills to help others, and after ten years in an unfulfilling and stressful career, I decided it was time to change my life and start helping others change theirs. 

My professional, personal and clinical experience can provide my clients with unique and informed perspectives on major life transitions, cultivating self-compassion, challenging self-judgment, and healing ruptured attachment/attachment injury. 

I endeavor to bring my professional background and personal experience together with my passions for psychology, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, and the fulfillment of self-discovery into the lives of every person I work with.

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, providing individual psychotherapy and counseling services in Santa Cruz and virtually throughout the state of California.

Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist (CCTS-I)

Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, Palo Alto University (Pacific Graduate School of Psychology)

Bachelor of Arts in Music, University of Southern California

Member of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the American Counseling Association