LMFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

LAURA dennis, she/her/they/them

Hi there! I look forward to meeting you and exploring how we can shift your experiences so that you can better connect with your loved ones.

Morningstar Lane’s Therapeutic Approach

  • Developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, they were profiled in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink for their ability to predict a couple’s likelihood of divorce with 94% accuracy after just a few minutes of observation. Psychotherapy Networker, a professional journal, recognized the Gottman’s as one of the ten most influential therapists of the past 25 years.

    The goals of Gottman Method Couples Therapy are to disarm conflicting verbal communication; increase intimacy, respect, and affection; remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy; and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy is a evidence based model created by Susan M. Johnson, EdD.

    It is a short term treatment model that treats couples, families, and individuals through experiential corrective experiences that alleviate symptoms of disconnection from others and ourselves. It is a psychotherapeutic approach that grounded in 50 years of attachment science that has treated emotional problems ranging from anxiety to depression.

  • At the most basic level, there is an understanding that change generally involves making the unconscious conscious by evaluating how our internal beliefs, thoughts, and parts that we reject about ourselves are influencing our behaviors, and relationship patterns.

  • This approach believes a family is a whole, complex, single system; each member’s behaviors can impact another member. The family will maintain everyone’s roles within it by the system attempts to return to its original state wherein members are functional and comfortable. Sometimes this leads to roles or ways of being that are not healthy for everyone. Change can occur when a family system acknowledges that a particular family pattern is dysfunctional and identifies new processes that support the family’s goals.

  • Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes looking at the the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual. Humanistic psychology begins with the existential assumptions that people have free will and are motivated to achieve their potential and self-actualize. Meaning, I am merely a guide to help you find the answers that are already within you.

  • As a existential therapist, I recognize that human influence is shaped by biology, culture, and external influences. Existential therapy assumes the belief that people's problems come from not exercising choice and judgment enough--or well enough--to forge meaning in their lives, and that each individual is responsible for making meaning out of life. Outside forces, however, may contribute to the individual's limited ability to exercise choice and live a meaningful life.

Attachment.

I work with clients on a weekly and biweekly basis to ensure you're making progress towards your goals in reconnecting with one another, repairing a rupture, or deepening your understanding with the struggles you are having to connect with yourself or others. Through the attachment lens we can build a bond together that sustains a lifetime.

Reconnect.

Are you constantly running in circles getting nowhere, exhausted because you've tried every avenue to feel heard? Are you losing connection with your loved ones and feeling stuck? Often this disconnect contributes to our own anxieties, worries, and loneliness.

Without connection we are merely surviving and perpetuating the idea that we have to experience this life on our own. We may even be surrounded by our loved ones and still feel disconnected to it all.

With a long history of working with individuals, families, and couples struggling to repair or deepen their connection with the world around them, I have found an experiential way in reconnecting our bonds through the lens of attachment.

In learning to be present with our emotions, and thoughts we can come to understand the ways in which we have guarded ourselves from others, when all we long for is connection.

FAQs

  • • Mental Health Evaluator in Seattle Children’s Emergency Department

    • Floor Manager for Crisis Connections Suicide Hotline

    • DBT Program Coordinator with Youth Eastside Services (YES) in Bellevue, WA

    • Marriage and Family Therapist with NAVOS, SOUND, and YES local agencies

  • I received my Bachelors of Arts in Social Work at Arizona State University. Following with my Masters of Science in Counseling with a specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy.

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy; Externship Completion with ICEFFT

    Gottman Method Level 2 Training Completion

    Trauma FocusedCognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT+) through UW Trauma Center, Seattle WA

    Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Certification with Behavioral Tech Institute

    • Seven Challenges (Substance Use) Harm Reduction Trained

    Advanced Motivational Interviewing Certification

    Continuing Education Includes the following: Suicide Prevention, Law and Ethics

  • I am licensed as a Marriage. and Family Therapist to serve the state of Washington and New Jersey.