About Laura
My primary teacher throughout my life has been the natural world- the mountains, the deserts, the rivers, and the oceans. Since I was seventeen I have been venturing into wilderness- sometimes with a friend or two, leading groups, and often alone. In my young adulthood wilderness taught me about resilience, strength, and competence. It gave me a firm surface to stand on. In my middle years it was a healer, providing nurturance and safety. And in the later part of my life it has been a spiritual teacher, giving me experiences of beauty, awe, and something vast and limitless.
Buddhist teachings have also shaped me. I’ve practiced meditation for the past forty years, with teachers in the Tibetan, Vipassana, and Zen lineages.
I have also been fortunate to have amazing human beings as teachers, mentors, therapists, and friends. Plant medicine has also been a powerful and transformative aspect of my lifelong journey, introducing me to a world and layers of myself I couldn’t have accessed otherwise. All of these people, places, and experiences still live in me, and I bring them to this work.
"Laura’s kindness and presence allowed me to feel safe, grounded, and brave throughout this journey. Her depth of knowledge helped me navigate all the phases of the process, giving me a profound, interesting, and meaningful experience that has been so relevant and valuable in my life."
- Susan C.
My path of working with others began forty years ago, in my mid-twenties, when I worked for Outward Bound, my dream job at the time. Soon I was working recovery courses for women survivors of sexual abuse, and those recovering from drug or alcohol addiction. Those experiences of being with people in an immersive healing experience, with the natural world as the container, led me to my current career as a psychotherapist.
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, with a degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University. I spent ten years in private practice, specializing in trauma and women’s issues. I worked for the Boulder Community Women’s Recovery program, continued to work as a wilderness therapist, and worked for the Boulder Mental Health Center Crisis Team. I studied about somatic approaches to trauma with Peter Levine and Bessel van der Kolk, and completed a two-year training in Integrative Body Psychotherapy.
From there my career took a winding path. I founded the Women’s Wilderness Institute, a non-profit dedicated to fostering courage, competence, and leadership for women and girls. After serving as Executive Director for ten years, I started CenterPoint Retreats, directing outdoor trauma recovery retreats for women veterans for eight years. I led wilderness fast retreats, I started a small international travel company doing educational and experiential travel, I built a house, I took care of my elderly parents, I volunteered for hospice, I lived my life.
The arrival of legal psilocybin assisted therapy in Colorado has brought me back to working as a therapist with individuals. I believe strongly in the power of this work and its potential to open people in a way that talk therapy or experiences in ordinary consciousness can take a lifetime to do. I believe that even a small number of people doing this deep work can have ripple effects that can positively impact our struggling and precarious world.
I am a poet, and I love to dance, climb, ski, grow vegetables, backpack, and explore the world. I live in Eldorado Springs, just south of Boulder, with my long-time partner and a big fluffy cat named Murphy.
I welcome all those who have done some previous self-exploration and who feel ripe and ready to do this work, including people of all genders, those from the LGBTQIA community, BIPOC folks, and those from other marginalized communities.
My Psychedelic Training
I have completed the 150 hour state licensed Psilocybin Facilitator training program, plus a 40-hour practicum, with Elemental Psychedelics in Fort Collins, Colorado. This training covered ethics, safety, and practical experiential training in psychedelic facilitation. I am licensed to offer psilocybin journeys as a Clinical Facilitator, with a Colorado NMIT (Natural Medicine Facilitator in Training) license. I receive regular consultation about my work.