“I believe L.O.V.E gets you healed and free! Through Laughter, Openness, (Positive) Vibes, and Encouragement, my goal is to get you to start! Start to acknowledge, feel, and see yourself in a new light, so that others may start to as well.”
Specialties/Populations
Lauren takes a strengths-based, person-centered, trauma-informed approach in the therapeutic setting. She has experience counseling people from different backgrounds and ages from adolescents to older adults. Currently, Lauren is focused on working with families, adolescents, and adults experiencing emotional distress, family conflict, parental issues, self-esteem, trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, and LGBTQIA+ issues.
She is a licensed Baptist minister and is open to fusing spirituality, mindfulness, and breathwork into therapy when it makes sense for her client’s goals and is within their comfortability.
Lauren practices on the frameworks of Intersectionality and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to get clients to explore their patterns. Lauren is trained in EMDR and is licensed at the graduate level in DC.
Trainings/Modalities/Certifications
Previous Clinical Experience
In addition to her practice at Viva Center, Lauren works at a District of Columbia Public Charter School. There she provides social and emotional support to students who have IEPs and general setting students experiencing depression, suicidality, anxiety, and trauma.
Education
Lauren received a dual Master’s degrees in Social Work and Divinity from Howard University and her bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern University.
To learn more about working with this clinician, please email marygrace@vivapartnership.com for more information.
First Meeting Documents
In preparation for the first visit, you will be asked to fill out the following forms:
Informed Consent
Each of our Clinical Associates is a licensed practitioner. As required by licensure, treatment under a licensed practitioner is confidential. This form explains limitations to that confidentiality required by licensure. It also outlines the collaborative nature of the therapeutic relationship and co-responsibility for treatment outcomes.
Financial Agreement This form outlines The Viva Center’s financial policies. Here at Viva, we offer special accommodations to assist with cash flow and to simplify payments. As a professional courtesy, clients opting to pay with a credit card are not billed until the end of the month, although fees are technically due at the time of service. This allows time for insurance to send reimbursement closer to the time of payment.
Client Questionnaire
This form serves 2 purposes: It helps to capture the baseline experience when beginning treatment, allowing for an opportunity to take stock of current status. It also helps the clinician gather important background information without taking extra time in the first session. The first page of this form is required, and the others are supplemental. It is fine to exercise the decision to leave out any areas of the form. Please keep in mind any areas elected not to be disclosed at this time may be relevant to treatment outcomes.
Credit Card Authorization Form
This form is only required if electing to use a credit card to pay for services. Conveniently, this form only needs to be filled out once and is stored securely. Payment with cash or checks is also accepted.
