Erika Laurentz (she/her)

I am a sexual abuse survivor. I have advanced training in trauma therapy with a primary focus on treating PTSD. I have compassion for all sexual abuse survivors.

I am a veteran of the Vietnam War. I was a loadmaster on a cargo plane that flew over Laos and Cambodia, where US aircraft were hunted by MIGs and targeted by surface-to-air missiles. While this qualifies me as a combat vet, I also served in law enforcement for 9 years, where I had a much more intimate experience with those trying to kill me and with death. My law enforcement experience spanned the 1980s, which saw the highest number of officers killed in any decade of American history.

I am an intersex person, assigned as male at birth. Although I identify as female within the gender binary, tomboy best describes my gender identity. I don't pass, which means that ever encounter with every new person I interact with is a coming out experience. I was the first out trans person hired in every job I've held since transitioning. In one form or another, I have been an activist in the trans community for more than a decade.

A transpersonal therapist sees everyone and everything as connected. On a personal level, I wonder if we are all just different aspects of one larger being. From this perspective, non-local interaction is an everyday occurrence, whether we're aware of it or not. I use my tantric healer training to help guide you to healing relationships with those you love and with those who've hurt you, whether they are alive or have passed.

Through early attachments, we create a template that governs how we interact with others for the rest of our lives. This template can change, if we're lucky enough to find a loving relationship or if we work to change it in therapy. Too often, we're attracted to people who end up reinforcing old attachment wounds, which means that therapy is likely the pathway to healing for most people. I use a psychobiological approach to healing attachment woundings, to help you create a new template.

I believe that most mental health issues are the result of our limbic brains working to keep us safe. Limbic brains don't understand logic, but they do understand stories and metaphors. I believe that change, at the limbic level, must include connecting to our bodies in new ways and that the most direct pathway of communication to the limbic brain is through bodily sensations. I use my training in tantric healing and in Somatic Experiencing to help guide you to healing.

I score high on the Adverse Childhood Experiences assessment, which predisposes me to PTSD; like most people who experiences PTSD, I understand what it means to carry childhood trauma. That set of experiences led me to therapy and eventually to train in PTSD therapy. I believe that the modality that I trained in, Somatic Experiencing, is the most powerful psychotherapy technique available.

We learn rules for how the world works when we're young. These rules (schemas) help to keep us safe as we navigate the world. The trouble is, schemas don't update easily. We learned that someone's anger was dangerous, when we were little and know that anger won't hurt us as an adult. A deep, essential part of us holds on to the original lesson and we react as if we were still quite young. Schema therapy helps to update the very old beliefs that we have about what's safe and what isn't.