About laura
My path here
I’m Laura (she/they pronouns)
I was born and raised in West Germany and lived there until the age of 15. After immigrating to the Northeastern United States I eventually landed in Oakland in 2011. The land on which I reside now provides nourishment, shelter, and spiritual grounding daily. I extend deep gratitude and shuumi to the Chochenyo-Ohlone people for stewarding this land for time immemorial.
Some of the identities that shape my experiences: I am a cis-female, queer, white-bodied, German immigrant of working and middle-class backgrounds. I identify as non-monogamous and kink positive and traverse the world as an anti-racist activist, educator, food-lover and musician. I am (for the time being) able-bodied. I offer therapy services in English, German, and Spanish. I was brought up in organized Christian religious traditions; however, over the years I have found myself being attracted to and staying with both Insight Meditation Buddhist practices and theories, as well as pre-Christian Pagan and nature-bound spiritual practices. These traditions root me and will likely support us in our work together.
In addition to my private psychotherapy practice, I engage in facilitation, education, and healing spaces with Red Lotus Consulting and SURJ Bay Area.
lineage
I am a descendent of Social Nationalists (Nazis) as well as of people who actively resisted Nazis. My great-grandfather, especially, has unwittingly taught me about the traumas white supremacy instills in white-bodied people, the impacts on the descendants to whom this trauma is passed on, and the perpetual nature with which white supremacy replicates itself through culture. This happens when we white-bodied people refuse to lean into a path of healing our traumas. We often stop at shame and frozen guilt. Or we attack other white people in an attempt to separate ourselves from them. My great-grandfather used violence to attempt to to rid my grandfather of his Nazi beliefs. Naturally, my grandfather’s supremacist beliefs became more steadfast and emboldened than ever and lived in him until his death.
We all hold complex identities and lineages. And I invite you to lean into the nuance and complexity of your own family, land, or culture. Having done so myself has opened me to opportunities to shed shame and to start co-creating new anti-racist white culture. My ancestors have shaped my path and informed my decisions to be an anti-racist activist and mental health professional. They are the reason I am dedicating my life to the liberation of all people.
I invite you to live your values on purpose. To embody what your heart desires, and to enter into right relationship with those systematically targeted, subjugated and oppressed by white-body supremacy and all of its intersections.
My work and knowledge do not come from me, but are an amalgamation of the wisdom I’ve acquired in my years of being an organizer, dharma and somatics student.
While not a complete list, some of the lineages and elders I want to uplift are visionaries and anti-racist freedom fighters like adrienne maree brown, Patrisse Cullors, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs; somatic practitioners and teachers and healers Prentis Hemphill, Resmaa Menakem, Staci Haines, S.Rae Peoples; somatics teachers and white anti-racist activists Anna Blackshaw, Dara Silverman, Amanda Ream; and Dharma teachers Lama Rod Owens, Will Kabat-Zinn, and Oren Sofer.
Their works invariably inform my therapeutic orientation, the shape of my body, my understanding of the world, and my vision for what is possible.
“official” training
Emotionally Focused Therapy Core Skills 1, 2, 3, 4 - Completed November 2024
Gottman Level I Training - Completed, May 2024
Emotionally Focused Therapy Externship - Completed November 2023
Graduate Degree: Smith College School for Social Work, MSW 2017
Genesis Healing - Liberation Academy 2021
Generative Somatics - Somatics for White Anti-Racist Organizers Levels I + II 2021
Trauma Informed Systems Trainer -Trauma Transformed 2020
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth - Level I + II RJ facilitator 2015
Non-violent Communication and Wise Speech - Oren Sofer 2014