Laura Brassie (she/her)

I work with anxiety in a phased approach. 1. I'll teach you how to calm your system in the moment. 2. We start working backward to find the root of the anxiety. 3. We probably have to deal with the trauma that started it all (I know....sorry). 4. Practice integrating what you've learned and your coping skills to help manage anxiety in the future.

I practice EMDR therapy with clients who have PTSD or trauma symptoms. EMDR therapy supports the process of getting past our cognitive functions into the body and emotions that make trauma so hard to deal with for so long. I am trauma-informed in all of the work I do. I offer 90 minute EMDR sessions as well as the standard 50 minute session. 90 minute sessions allow us to make more progress before taking a break between sessions, which results in a stronger integration of healthy beliefs.

I shared a bit of my story with Christianity above, but in general I love to explore spirituality with clients. I integrate EMDR into this work for spiritual/religious trauma as well.

Think about it like this. Your brain is like a file cabinet, and all your memories are files. What you had for lunch last Tuesday, a fun day at age 7, etc. A traumatic memory is like a file that gets crumpled up and shoved into the cabinet: that file is damaged and so are the ones around it. EMDR helps smooth that file out, so it can go back into the cabinet correctly. The memories are still there, but they no longer have to affect your daily life.

I work with clients who have experienced spiritual or religious trauma. I completely recognize the struggle of trying to talk to a religious therapist who can only take that conversation so far, or talking to a fully non-religious therapist who doesn't understand how painful religious trauma can be. I have experience with faith deconstruction, reclaiming spirituality, and religious trauma and would be honored to walk with you.

I use a variety of techniques with anxiety, including polyvagal theory, Exposure and Response Prevention (also for OCD), and CBT. Anxiety is a highly physiological experience, and it typically starts as a completely normal response to stressful circumstances. I can help you hack your brain and body in order to find calm.

I integrate parts work into all of my trauma work, and with many other concerns as well. We all have "parts"... they are pieces of who we are, identities we have, and roles we fill. Sometimes those parts are healthy and helpful. Other times, they're wounded and can be hurtful to our bigger goals and dreams in life. Parts work can help us sort those out and heal those parts of you that are in pain.

ACT is all about understanding how you want to move through the world: finding your values, learning to observe your thoughts and feelings before reacting to them, and making choices that truly align with what you want in life. ACT is a way of being more than a therapy modality, and I teach tenets of ACT to all of my clients.

I specialize in religious and spiritual trauma, including those who have experienced religious abuse, survivors of high control religion, those who experienced purity culture, and individuals going through the process of deconstructing their faith. I have the most experience with fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Jehovah's Witnesses; but I am open to working with any faith experience.