Laurie Forrest

My approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that you are the expert on your own life. I won't pretend to have all the answers, and I don't believe therapy is about someone telling you how to live. Instead, I see our work together as a process of slowing down, getting curious about what's happening beneath the surface, and making space for you to figure it out. I'm particularly drawn to the places where life gets complicated: transitions, relationships, loss, identity, anxiety, trauma, self-worth, and those seasons when the person you thought you were—or the life you thought you'd have—no longer quite fits. My work is informed by trauma-responsive and relational approaches, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based practices, and trauma therapies such as Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART).

A lot of therapy language jumps immediately to coping skills, symptom reduction, changing thoughts, changing behaviors. Those things can be incredibly useful. But sometimes people need to understand why they're doing what they're doing before they can realistically do something different. Understanding comes before changing. There is usually a story underneath the pattern. And understanding that story isn't about finding someone to blame. It's about developing enough curiosity and compassion that change becomes possible. You are more than your symptoms. Anxiety, depression, trauma responses, people-pleasing, perfectionism, avoidance, anger, overthinking—these are experiences people have. They aren't the entirety of who someone is. Sometimes therapy isn't about healing from one identifiable event. Sometimes it's: I don’t know who I am anymore. There is something really important about who someone is becoming. There are seasons when the work is less about getting back to who you were and more about figuring out who you are now.

Therapy with me is a little less sit up straight and tell me your problems and a little more come in, get comfortable, and let's figure this thing out together. My office is a space where you can come as you are, kick up your feet and get comfortable. Bring the messy version of the story. You don't have to have the right words, a perfectly organized timeline, or a clear idea of what you need before you walk through the door. The first few sessions are usually exploratory. I want to get to know you—not just what's bringing you to therapy right now, but the experiences, relationships, beliefs, patterns, and turning points that have shaped you along the way. We'll talk about your history and your lived experience, and we'll start making sense of how some of those experiences may still be showing up in your life today.