ABOUT LAUREN | TRAUMA THERAPIST
I know firsthand just how hard it can be to find the right therapist for you.
Trauma Therapist in Pennsylvania & Colorado
Hi, I’m Lauren Daniels
I’m so glad you are here.
I became a Licensed Professional Therapist because of my own experience with mental health issues that almost took my life in my teens and early twenties.
During my journey to recovery, I was told that I was not going to survive by several clinicians, some of whom would not work with me. Through this, I learned how difficult it can feel to not be supported.
Luckily, I found my way to clinicians who held the hope of survival for me. To this day, I am grateful for them and their support. From this, I learned that healing is possible, even when it seems hopeless.
I’ve been a therapist since 2010 and I am on a mission to help others heal from their own traumas.
I specialize in working with clients within 2-5 day Trauma Therapy Intensives which have proven to provide relief and deliver results in a faster, more cost-effective way.
In addition to working with patients, I also train and teach other therapists about EMDR therapy and how to incorporate it into their practices.
I want you to know that you are not alone in this pain.
Healing IS possible for you, and I hold that hope for you.
More About
My Personal Story
I was a very anxious child. Various childhood experiences led me to retreat inward and close myself off from the world.
I was very unhappy, in a lot of pain, and trying to figure out who I was and how to navigate my world.
Anxiety turned to depression, which led to a long-term battle with bulimia and anorexia. Every day was a painful struggle. I tried my best to be numb to everything around me. I would try to put on a happy exterior when inside, I was feeling like I did not belong anywhere, feeling undeserving and unworthy of anything good.
Really, all this did was harm my body and hurt my relationships. Even at my lowest, when I was severely emaciated and fragile when family and friends were constantly worried I might die, I still was not in a place where I could heal.
For several years I was in and out of hospitals: inpatient and partial hospitalization, and often doctors and therapists would tell my family I was in fact, going to die.
It wasn’t until I met Sly, my horse, that things started to change.
My relationship with Sly played a pivotal role in my recovery from my eating disorder and depression. Sly was a constant for me. He taught me how to be present in my body and how to love my body, and what my body can do.
Sly taught me what it means to feel unconditional love and how to create and maintain healthy relationships and boundaries. Sly helped me understand that I did NOT want to die!
I found my way to working with two therapists and a psychiatrist who helped me in my healing journey and who recognized the power Sly’s and my relationship had on my capacity for recovery, and they helped to encourage and foster that relationship. They treated me like a person and not my “disorder”.
After years of various levels of treatment, outpatient, inpatient hospitalization, and partial hospitalization, I ended up going to a hospital in Arizona where I received intensive therapy. I truly believed that I would be dead at 22.
Instead, I turned 22 while in this facility. I did the work! I felt seen; I felt heard; I was ready to live my life.
Healing from anorexia was not easy; at first I didn’t understand how to do the work, or if I even wanted to do it.
Through meeting the right therapists, through my relationship with Sly, and doing the intensive therapy, I learned how to accept and love myself; I learned how to respect my body, how to have healthy boundaries and experience healthy relationships.
In my recovery, I began to learn how to have fun again, to experience joy, and I even began making new friends. I was able to complete my undergraduate degree (I had to take leaves of absence due to hospitalization) and go on to complete my master’s degree and more advanced training.
All of this has taught me that if I can heal, others can heal too.
I know it is possible to feel and think differently. I know it is possible to accept and love yourself and to have healthy relationships.
I know you can heal, and I would be honored to be your guide on your journey.
Want to connect?
MY CREDENTIALS
Training & Expertise
I have Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University.
In addition to that, I am certified in EMDR Therapy, Gestalt Equine Psychotherapy, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, and I’m trained in Deep Brain Reorienting, Synergetic Play Therapy, and in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania and Colorado, and can serve clients residing or “present” in both of these states.