Therapists in Sarasota, FL

Hello, thank you for reading my profile. Life is beautiful and we try to make the best of it, but due to stresses and unexpected factors it becomes difficult to maintain a balance between ourselves and the people surrounding us. I believe in a holistic approach to treat the human mind. I provide psychotherapy services for adolescents and adults to address depression, anxiety, addiction, self-esteem issues, concern in personal and work relationships. I have specialized training in traumatic events like sexual assault, grief and chronic illness as well as anger management, conflict resolution, life coaching and problem solving.

I love helping people heal, develop and create healthier relationships. My passion is to facilitate transformational change that results in greater inner peace, healthy self love and joy in life and relationships. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor I enjoy helping clients address underlying causes to symptoms like depression and anxiety. I am certified to do Neurotransmitter testing through Neuro Science and I work Holistically with an emphasis on Integrative and Functional care that focuses on the whole Being and helping clients to function optimally beyond just symptom relief.

Would you like to have the understanding and the tools to feel lighter, more alive, more positive, more peaceful and whole? Working together in a collaborative process in teletherapy or in person, I assist you to discover heartfelt solutions to your most pressing issues. This is accomplished in a respectful atmosphere of safety, acceptance and non-judgment. You will learn new approaches and tools for coping. This process supports health, well being, and spiritual evolvement. With over forty years of experience as a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, I am grateful to still be learning and contributing.

I enjoy engaging with people about their lives, hearing what matters to them, what's meaningful, and encouraging them to live lives in alignment with those preferences. I partner with people to feel the permission really to be alive. I find it important to keep the work connected to what clients value; that fuels the resilience to tolerate change, hard conversations, and uncomfortable feelings (common elements of therapy). Given this, my ideal client/s is interested in feeling more self-acceptance, capacity to tolerate others, and to face unhelpful, old patterns with love in order to encourage choice and the possibility of change.

I am privileged to offer life changing services to adults, couples, & families. I see signs of distress as a disconnection from a Self that is awaiting our loving attention. There is hope for this reconnection. At our core lies a unique Center inscribed with your "blueprint" that maintains your health, wholeness, and vitality. The problem is that too many were conditioned to forget this priceless essence. Healing and wholeness are about remembering and returning to this very Center of who we uniquely are. For children and adolescents it's about nurturing it into realization so that It is never forgotten in the first place.

Has your tender heart shut down, yet you long to open it again? Are you grieving the loss of a loved one or life as you knew it? Do you live with trauma, anxiety, unworthiness, shame, sadness? A relentless inner critic & obsessive thoughts? Are you ready to prioritize your inner healing so your heart can open? You will develop ways to practice more self-love & learn to receive and give safe love again. You will learn to accept the "unacceptable" parts of you, reclaim your frozen lost parts (Wounded Inner Child) gradually re-connect to your soul's true identity. You will move from survival/fear mode into more fun, creativity and joy.

At some point in our lives, we arrive at a crossroads where we realize that the ways in which we have been engaging in the world are no longer working for us. Our behaviors, values, and ways of thinking are so familiar and comfortable to us yet are simultaneously causing us grief and pain. We feel blocked from finding inner peace and reaching our full potential. The purpose of therapy is to help us recognize and work through these antiquated patterns so that we can start engaging with ourselves and the world around us in a fresh, new way that results in a healthier, happier, and more authentic life.

Dr. Laura Garrison has over two decades of experience working with challenged and at-risk populations. With a Doctorate in Holistic Health, Laura specializes in integrative therapeutics with an emphasis on restorative modalities and trauma recovery. She is Board Certified as a Drugless Practitioner by the AADP; certified as an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist; as a Yoga Therapist by the International Association of Yoga Therapists; is an E-RYT 500, and is authorized by the IAYT and Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT Continuing Education Provider. She facilitates therapeutic retreats and has written numerous publications.

Do you need a supportive, accepting space? My counseling style is evidence-based, non-judgmental, and sincere. I primarily work with adults and teenagers. We would collaborate together to treat whatever is on your list of priorities; examples include helping with anxiety, ADHD, depression, low self-esteem or career goals, (I have two Masters degrees and changed my career, you can, too!) Our focus would be transformation using a variety of tools like parts work (IFS,) somatic therapy, nature-based therapy, mindfulness, and DBT. Let's help you become free from the interference of overwhelming thoughts or feelings