Coaching

Dr. Laura’s Approach

Dr. Laura Anderson has always worked with clients in an individualized way—meaning no two people are the same. What is helpful for one person may or may not be for the next person. To that end, she works with her clients to determine a plan for our sessions that takes into account their background, their goals, and her training to create a path forward that is personalized and meaningful.

In addition, Dr. Laura understands that in order to effectively work with trauma, a full-bodied approach is required. To that end, she blends modalities like Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, Embodiment, Trauma Informed Stabilization Techniques, Nervous System Techniques, and other body-based modalities with more traditional interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Narrative approaches with the goal of treating the whole person.

While many individuals coming out of high control religions, cults, and fundamentalism are wary of professional help due to religious teachings warning against it, still others feel overwhelming shame or guilt for experiencing triggers, reactions and symptoms even after they have deconstructed or deconverted from their faith. Moreover, up until recently, the leading voices in religious trauma recovery suggested atheism as a cure for religious trauma and/or viewed religious trauma as a separate category of trauma that required different treatment than other forms of trauma. This has led to many people feeling confused, ashamed, scared and with worsening mental and physical health impacts as effective treatment has not been available.

Dr. Laura believes that religious trauma is trauma; “religious” serves as an adjective to help better understand where the trauma originated and gives clues as to more specific areas that may need to be addressed. However, how religious trauma lives in one’s body and how it is resolved is the same as trauma that is a result from other experiences that are too much, too soon, too scary, or too fast. To that end, Laura works with clients using well researched modalities that prioritize trauma resolution from a body-based and nervous system centric foundation that is also tailored to each client to ensure that the work we do together is meaningful and effective for YOU.