Hello, I’m Laura
I am glad you are here.
I am a licensed psychotherapist (LCSW #99158) and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In my work, I help people make space, open up, and do what matters. I offer warm, kind, and practical support. I provide a soft place to land, where we can untangle stuck points, set down the burdens you’ve had to take on, and restore nervous system resiliency.
I lean on an integrative approach, weaving together Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (Level 2 trained), Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and Somatic Experiencing. I am particularly skilled in working with the intersections between anxiety, chronic pain, mind-body conditions, neurodivergence, and trauma.
I find sacredness and joy in the practice of healing. With over a decade’s worth of experience in the mental health field, I deeply love being a therapist. I also love nature, tea, and speculative fiction.
Somatic Psychotherapy
Soma refers to the living organism in its wholeness. I weave together Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and EMDR to support you in accessing relative safety, ease, and pleasure through the body.
Through an integrated approach, it is possible to develop greater capacity within the body to be with sensations and emotions.
Chronic
Pain
I specialize in supporting people living with chronic pain, including bodies that feel braced, guarded, and sensitive. I have a particular interest in working with neuroplastic pain. I also work with overlapping central sensitization syndromes such as IBS, pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, bladder pain, and chronic headaches. I meld together effective pain resolution strategies with a focus on embodiment.
Mind-Body
Spirit
Your neurotype, culture, ancestors, and deep ways of knowing are welcome. I welcome the transpersonal, existential, numinous, otherwordly, and mystical. I offer integrative care, including a focus on working with non-ordinary states of consciousness and ancestral healing. I provide support in transforming emotional inheritances. I believe intergenerational joy is possible.
Neurodivergent Affirming
Flexible and fine-tuned for you. Space to move, stim, delve into special interests, and feel held. I have specialized training in adapting psychotherapy for ADHDers, Autistics, and AuDHDers in particular. I work from a non-pathologizing lens and support people around executive functioning, sensory needs, interoception, and other related areas.
Selected Training
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Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms Course
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy with Howard Schubiner
Freedom from Chronic Pain Practitioner Training with Howard Schubiner
Pain Reprocessing Therapy with Alan Gordon through the Pain Psychology Center
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ACT as a Brief Intervention with Russ Harris
ACT for Grief and Loss with Russ Harris
Exploring Values in ACT with Kelly Wilson
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) with OCD Training School
Trauma-Focused CBT Web 2.0 with Medical University of South Carolina
Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD with Brian Marx and Denise Sloan
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EMDR Basic Training (Part 1 & 2) with Phil Manfield
EMDR Training for Grief and Loss with Trauma Therapist Institute
EMDR Training for Recent Events and Early Interventions with Trauma Therapist Institute
EMDR and Somatic Therapy with Trauma Therapist Institute
Flash Technique (Beginner and Advanced) with Phil Manfield
Predictive Processing Flash with Philip Zimmerman
Special Considerations for EMDR with Autistic and ADHD Clients with Christine MacInnis
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The Alchemy of Anger: From Survival Energy to Sacred Power with Linda Thai
Healing the Legacy of Historical and Transgenerational Trauma with Linda Thai
MAPS MDMA Therapy Training
The Missing Pieces of Attachment Theory: A Decolonized Approach with Linda Thai
Rhythm of Regulation with Deb Dana
Safe and Sound Protocol
Unnameable Losses: The Unmetabolized Ambiguous Grief of Adult Children of Refugees with Linda Thai
Working with Complex Trauma: Innovative Approaches for Restoring Mind-Body Integration with Bessel van der Kolk and Linda Thai
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Internal Family Systems (IFS), Level 2, People of the Global Majority Affinity Group with Tamala Floyd and Fatimah Finney
Internal Family Systems (IFS), Level 1 with Mary Kruger and Dan Reed
Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Susan McConnell and Life Architect
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Advanced Clinical Sexology with Northwest Institute on Intimacy
Certified Teacher in Radiant Lotus Women’s Qigong with Daisy Lee
Niroga Institute Integral Yoga Fellowship
Pelvic Floor Yoga Training with Leslie Howard
Qigong Mentorship with Mimi Kuo-Deemer
Where Do We Go When Healing Becomes Ill? Navigating the Empire of Trauma with Báyò Akómoláfé
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Befriending the Nervous System: Trauma, Sensory Processing, and Developmental Wounds with Linda Thai
Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Neurodivergent Clients with Kim Bolling, Sarah Bergenfield, and Dick Schwartz
Neurodivergent Somatics with Nyck Walsh
Predictive Minds: Supporting Autistic Systems with IFS with Sarah Bergenfield
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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Level 1/SP Trauma Themes with Anne Westcott
Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies with Linda Thai
Somatic Experiencing Institute. Beginning and Intermediate Year with Shideh Lennon. Advanced Year with Dea Parsanishi, Maureen Gallagher, and Raja Selvam
The Voice Keeps the Score: Sound as a Portal to Embodiment wth Linda Thai
