Close-up of a young woman with long dark hair smiling in a garden with yellow flowers in the background.

Hi, I’m Laura.

I am glad you are here.

I am a licensed psychotherapist 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.

Contact Me
  • Close-up of large, cream-colored dahlia flowers with multiple layers of petals in a garden setting.

    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.

  • A black butterfly on a tall purple flower stalk with a scenic coastline and hill in the background under a blue sky.

    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.

  • A bouquet of colorful flowers with a bee on a pink flower, set against a garden background.

    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

  • 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

  • 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

    Four Blinks Training with Philip Zimmerman

    Special Considerations for EMDR with Autistic and ADHD Clients with Christine MacInnis

  • 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

    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

  • 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

    Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Neurodivergent Clients with Kim Bolling, Sarah Bergenfield, and Dick Schwartz

    Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Susan McConnell and Life Architect

  • 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

  • Befriending the Nervous System: Trauma, Sensory Processing, and Developmental Wounds with Linda Thai

    Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) with OCD Training School

    Neurodivergent Somatics with Nyck Walsh

    Safe and Sound Protocol

  • 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