I'm Dr. Laurie. I have a PhD in clinical and Counseling Psychology. I have a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor, Licensed Sex Offender Treatment Provider Supervisor, Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, and Substance Abuse Professional. I am an Ordained Reverend, Non-Denominational, and have half of a Master's in Divnity completed. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Professional Aeronautics and Aviation Safety. I see clients of any age from two years and up. I also see any mental or behavioral illness. I strive to benefit my clients by helping them recognize feelings, behaviors, and patterns that are causing distress. Usually, they are learned during early childhood and continually get worse throughout life if not dealt with. I also process past trauma in any shape. This allows clients to change things in their lives that are toxic to them, gain better self-esteem, and be rid of the problems they are seeking counseling for.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

In our first session, I will get a thorough client history, the nature of the problem who are seeing me for, how long you have had the problem, medications you are taking (if any), prior therapy, and I will teach a couple of coping skills to practice before the next session. I usually assign homework in the first session, (this is not mandatory): writing a routine you currently do or want to do and make a list of happy (positive) and negative (anything that brings up a "bad" feeling ) events in life using no more than three words to describe each event. You may have 100 events (three words each). Most people only have one or two happy events. We usually do not remember them as we have met our goal- to be happy and did not have anything to learn from the experience. Those negative events can be haunting and play over and over again in the mind, they hurt, and we do things to avoid feeling this way for a while which usually helps us have coping skills that hurt us more, be with toxic people, isolate, make poor decisions, or behave in ways that are unhealthy.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

My greatest strengths are compassion, I do not judge, I genuinely care about people and want the best for them, and I continually do research and study to keep up with the latest and most effective therapies. I also keep up to date on continuing education in all aspects of mental health and do at least twice as many as my licenses require. I also have a lot of life experience which has helped me to be understanding. I started out waiting tables, then worked on a cruise ship dealing games in the casino, I was in the Navy for two enlistments. I have glaucoma which ended my career as an Air Traffic Controller in the Navy and pursued a psychology degree after seeing trauma firsthand in the Navy and how it affected the sailors and their families. I have training and certifications of over 80 types of assessments. These include functional assessments, psychosocial, psychosexual, addiction, violence, aptitude, IQ, autism, diagnosis, personality, symptoms, Impact Statements to become US Citizens, Street Smart, CANS, ANS, and forensic evaluations.

About Dr. Laurie Downey