Lauren believes that the best approach to therapy is developed through collaboration and compassion.  She has extensive training in behavioral interventions including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).  As such, she works to create therapeutic goals with each client that reach beyond symptom reduction, and move toward building a meaningful life enriched by connection to personal values and sense of self.  She has gained many years of experience in a variety of settings including in-home and community respite based-services, psychosocial rehabilitation services for those with developmental challenges, traditional outpatient therapy, group therapy, and hospital-based programming at the inpatient, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels of care.  Through working in these various settings she has found utilizing therapies rooted in functional contextualism to be particularly rewarding to clients and those closest to them.  This particular philosophy of life considers the function of unhelpful or ineffective behaviors within one’s environments, and seeks to develop improved awareness and behavioral responding based on one’s values, morals, interests, and needs to develop meaningful change.

Lauren is the Director of Clinical Psychology Training at SamaraCare.  She completed her master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.  She is also an active professional member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences (ACBS).  Lauren highly values opportunities to help graduate students develop their clinical skills and professional identity, and aid in shaping their growth so that they may continue on to provide exceptional clinical services to their clients and community.

When not in the office, Lauren enjoys engaging in outdoor activities, creating art, reading, and spending time with friends and family.  She has been active in her church community through choir, and occasionally tries to be an instrumentalist at home playing her trumpet.