Laura Birchard MA LPC Psychotherapy
As a psychotherapist I help people create meaning of their inner world, and expand capacity to hold and access this invisible world to inform relationship to self and others. I provide trauma informed therapy that clinically rooted, inviting dreams, emotions, experiences, symptoms.
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I earned a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology with emphasis on Marriage and Family Therapy, Clinical Counseling, and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. I have additional ongoing training in Analytical Psychology (Jungian) with a focus on supporting individuation process which unfolds throughout the lifespan. Additionally, I have training in psychodynamic trauma informed care, process arts, dream tending, and sandplay. I hold a CADC. I have additional training in assessment and diagnosis (SCID for DSM5 and SIPS). I have over 6 years experience in mental health field, providing therapy to adults and families, intensive therapeutic services, collaborative and integrative care teams, residential treatment, as well in emergency department psychiatric care. I am in private practice because this affords me the ability to practice in a manner that is best for my clients, providing psychotherapy that included all of who you are, nothing is excluded.
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I specialize in depth-oriented psychotherapy, integrating Jungian, archetypal, and psychodynamic approaches to facilitate deep psychological healing and transformation through dream work, sandplay, and symbolic exploration, somatic interventions, and relational psychotherapy. My approach is:
Relational – Healing happens in connection. Together, we cultivate a safe, attuned space for transformation.
Imaginal – We work with dreams, symbols, and creative expression as bridges to the unconscious.
Integrative – The aim is wholeness— living authentically with embodied soul/ Psyche. Psyche is calling you to something deeper, more alive.
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My approach is deeply relational, drawing from Jungian, Object Relations, and Existential-Humanistic theories. In addition to this foundation, I have specialized training in assessment and diagnosis, Sandplay therapy, psychodynamic treatment for trauma and complex trauma, and expressive arts therapy.
Anxiety, Mood disorders, depression
Grief and Loss
Challenges in Relationship and Intimacy
Parenting, Pregnancy, Miscarrage and Abortion
Trauma, including early life trauma/attachment, Post traumatic stress disorder
Burnout and creative blocks
Individuation: Phase of life challenges, identity development
Dream work, Active imagination, process arts
Spiritual and existential issues
Neurodivergence, ADHD
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My research is qualitative, using an alchemical hermeneutic approach to explore unconscious communication in the therapy dyad as well as other areas of focus on the therapeutic encounter—those moments of silence, symbols, and felt-sense knowing that shape the healing process. My thesis, The Curious Bottle: Unconscious Communication in the Relational Field (2022), examines the symbolic and unspoken dimensions of the therapeutic relationship. This work deepens my understanding of symbolic processes, transference dynamics, and the unspoken dimensions of therapeutic change. I continue to write on unconscious communication and the use of countertransference in treatment. This work has deepened my understanding of the language of the unconscious—its symbols, transference currents, and transformative potentials. I continue to write on these liminal exchanges, particularly the role of countertransference as a vessel for meaning and change.