Laurie, LMFT

Why I do this work

After a powerful and inspiring in-person career (one-on-ones, groups, public talks, seminars, television, books, columns and radio) that changed the lives of many people and animals all over the globe, as well as in my in-person offices in Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, I settled back into private practice online. A battle with Lyme disease that almost took me off the planet taught me much about patience, temperance, and perseverance. I am enjoying more time to be with loved ones including my cats, as well as to sing, dance and be in nature, activities I have always cherished.

I have been in practice 27 years. Licensure required 3,000 supervised hours, so like many therapists I had already sat with thousands of people before I was licensed at all. Counting individuals and groups, I estimate over 15,000 sessions to date.

Three years ago I became seriously ill. I was misdiagnosed for a long time, and it went far enough that I ended up in hospice. The answer, when it finally came, was Lyme disease.

It took three years to come back. I did come back, and I am glad to be working again.

I say this because being that ill taught me something about sitting with people who are frightened, or grieving, or waiting for an answer that has not arrived yet. I know that room from the inside.

The rest of the working life

Therapy has always been the center of my work, and it has not been the only room I have worked in. I taught psychology at San Francisco State University, at Chico State and at Johnson State College. I have written books, among them Healing and Awakening the Heart and Creative Intimacy: A Guide to Improved Relationships, and I wrote columns for Jenningswire, Center Network and The Connection Bay Area.

I have been asked to speak as an expert on television and radio over the years — KRON News, NBC, CBS radio, CNN.com, Fox News, and a long run of interview programs. I appeared in shows that highlighted my work, carried by public access stations in around fifteen states, and later an internet television show called Streaming for the Soul. I have given keynotes for American Singles and for the Santa Cruz Sentinel Women in Business Expo.

I also founded a global seminar company, Miracle Ground Transformational Satsangs. I have taught at Esalen, across the Hawaiian islands and around California, and in Taiwan, Spain, Portugal and Mexico.

I mention all of this because it is the same work in different rooms: I have spent my adult life in front of people, trying to be useful. And these days I am bringing forty years of my own original Americana songs into the world, mostly in the Sierra Foothills and in Hawaii. I sing and I dance. That is my other life, and it keeps the first one honest.