Therapy with Laura Sanders is available to children, adolescents, families and adults seeking to heal from the effects of sexual, physical, emotional abuse and/or neglect, attachment trauma, PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), adoption difficulties, depression, addictive coping, behavior problems, and oppressions based on issues of gender, sexual identities and other diversities.

Abuse-specific therapy is victim- and survivor-centered and eclectic, combining numerous interventions from trauma and attachment theories and cognitive and behavioral models. Given the precognitive, sensory and intense nature of sexual abuse and other trauma, healing also diverges from traditional approaches in order to reach the brain, body, senses and psyche where traumatic memory is stored. These interventions, rooted in sound theory and practice protocols, include sensori-motor approaches, attachment-oriented methods, activity and movement, play, art, writing, story, metaphor and ceremony.

Laura Sanders’ therapy methods utilize a variety of modalities including individual, couples, family and group sessions, and honor how the healing process unfolds differently for each person. In the context of a solid therapeutic relationship, people learn to regulate strong emotions, increase self-compassion, honor their own survival, relieve shame and fear, enhance self-confidence, become personally empowered, increase feelings of connectedness to themselves and others, and experience more peace and joy in their daily lives.

Refer:

* Child and Adolescent Victims of Trauma
* Adults Effected by Trauma
* Children and Families with Troubled Attachment
* Families Struggling with Difficult Adoption Issues
* Abuse Reactive Children and Youth
* People Struggling with Identity Issues
* People Suffering from Discrimination and Marginalization
* Non-offending Parents
* Juvenile Offenders

Special Treatment Group for Therapists and Helping Professionals:
Laura Sanders offers a specialized therapy group to therapists and other helping professionals who work with people who have been abused, and who are also survivors of abuse or other trauma themselves. Therapy focuses on deep personal recovery and the management of the professionals’ reactions to working with traumatized people.

Creative Counseling for Families and Youth:

Creative Counseling is a team of experienced therapists who joined in response to provide therapy to children and families through a contract with the Department of Human Service in Washtenaw and several surrounding counties. People receiving therapy through this program have open cases with Child Protective Services, Foster Care and or Delinquency. We provide in-office and outreach services including individual and familiy therapy with expertise in parenting, abuse and neglect, family dysfunction, domestic violence, adolescent issues, substance abuse, delinquency, and recovery from sexual abuse for children, adolescents and adults. The team possesses specialized skill in working with difficult sexual abuse issues .

Srong Start Rites of Passage Programs for Youth, Inc.

Strong Start provides programs, groups and workshops for children, teens and young adults to explore developmental transitions, heal from past wounds, discover their unique gifts, and how to manifest their talents to empower themselves and their communities. Strong Start activities are rooted in rites of passage theory and models that recognize the power of ceremonializing and celebrating youth’s natural transitions toward improved self-esteem and awareness, connections to mentors, and community activism. All programs use creative and experiential approaches to learning including, art, story, drama, challenge activities, ritual, etc.

Strong Start for Girls

Strong Start for Girls provides social and educational groups for girls and their mothers that celebrate the feminine aspects of self and community. Through our connection to each other and nature, the group builds self-confidence, personal power and protection skills, and love for one’s body, emotions, mind and spirit. The group uses art, music, movement, games, myth and story telling, discussion, inspirational activities, activism, outdoor adventure and ceremonial ritual to enhance girl’s self-esteem and to promote the bonds of sisterhood among them, and with their mothers.

Growing Up with Psyche and Persephone

The myths of Psyche and Persephone, both adolescent girls, present compelling stories and metaphors for the tasks of becoming a woman in modern society that teaches girls self-sacrifice and victimization. Youth explore their growth through a series of creative workshops involving the telling of the myths, their modern-day applications, the involvement of female mentors, the use of art projects, drama, active games and rituals, journals and video. These workshops can be adapted to involve mothers and mother figures.

Growing Up with Theseus, the Maze and the Minitor

The myth of Theseus the Maze and the Monitor provides an exciting adventure reflecting the tasks that boys must master in order to become loving men in a modern society that teaches them detachment and violence. Youth explore their growth through a series of workshops including the telling of the myth and it’s present-day applications, the involvement of male mentors, art, active games and rituals, writing, video, etc. These workshops can be adapted to involve fathers and father figures.

Note: Although these workshops are gender-specific in nature and appear to embrace a gender binary, they focus on the balance of gender roles and typing within the individual and in society. Laura Sanders welcomes transgender and youth who are questioning gender identity into any and all workshops and adapts group experiences to the composition of the group.

Healing Arts for Survivors of Sexual Abuse

This series of artistic workshops is designed to enhance the healing process for adult survivors of sexual abuse who are presently in individual or group therapy. Participants explore the use of artistic expression as a resource to release strong emotions associated with trauma, and to tap their sources of strength and personal power. These workshops are completely experiential in nature. Participants create art pieces using paint, found objects, clay, wood and other materials. Processing the art is facilitated through visualization, ceremony, psycho education, metaphor and discussion. Participants are encouraged to process the workshop experience further in individual or group therapy. The five workshops build upon one another to illustrate the phases of the healing process. The series is presented as a whole opportunity to understand and experience recovery, from the state of being wounded to that of empowerment. Every trauma survivor is an artist. No previous art experience is required.

Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights

As an activist advocating for justice and social change in the areas of womens equality, the rights of children, TLBG (Transgender, Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay) concerns, and institutional racism, Laura Sanders has recently co-founded the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, a highly diverse organization of people of faith and/or moral conscience and justice, who have come together in urgent response to the human rights abuses of the local immigrant population by federal ICE (immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents. The coalition is purely voluntary and responds to the immediate needs of the people affected by home intrusions, raids, detainments, and deportations, provides community education and supports local to global political efforts toward immigration reform.

Training is available to small or large groups of professionals and others on the variety of topics listed below, and additional trainings specific to the needs of any group can be created. An Overview of most topics can be provided in a half-day seminar, and more specific training that involves practice application occurs in one- or two-day workshops. Laura’s style is dynamic and entertaining, uses numerous case examples and encourages participation and experiential learning whenever possible. Laura uses a variety of medium including power point, demonstrations and role plays, slide presentations, videos, participant activities and real examples of clients artwork and therapeutic exercises. All one- and two-day trainings focus on application, teaching how to readily implement numerous interventions in practice. A packet of handouts accompanies each workshop. Most trainings have already, or can be approved for Continuing Education Credits in social work. Fees are negotiated depending on time, location, topic, etc. Trainings include:

*Introduction to Sexual Abuse Issues
Learn general information on sexual abuse including current trends, myths and facts, signs and symptoms and effective interventions.

*Assessment and Therapy with Sexual Abused Children and Their Families
Learn current protocol in assessing children, adolescents and their families for sexual abuse therapy and designing effective interventions.

*Forensic Interviewing in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
Learn specific interviewing protocols for careful interviewing based on children’s developmental levels and special circumstance in child sexual abuse cases.

*Stages in Sexual Abuse Therapy
Explore current models in trauma recovery that describe the healing process in stages. Aspects of and interventions for each stage are explored.

*Cycles of Abuse
Learn how abusive cycles permeate trauma theory and the way that trauma
manifests in behavior, including the cycle of offense, the cycle of
victimization, the cycle of PTSD and the cycle of professional responses to
trauma-based behavior.

*Creative Interventions in Healing Sexual Abuse and Other Trauma
Explore the use of creative interventions with child, adolescent and adult survivors including art, therapeutic activities, writing, parts of self methods, story and metaphor and the therapist’s creative use of self.

*Using Art to Heal: Creative Projects to Facilitate Growth
Explore various treatment interventions using paint, clay, markers, sculpture, writing, and collage that encourage a deeper awareness of self and recovery in people healing from trauma.

*Disclosure of Sexual Abuse
Trains therapists to understand four phases of disclosure and facilitate the process of disclosure with people who have been abused.

*Treating Sexual Abuse in Adolescents
Examine the unique challenges that adolescents present to the trauma recovery process and interventions that capture their attention.

*Sexual Abuse Therapy with Very Young Children and Their Families
Learn specialized interventions, advocacy and therapy techniques developed specifically to address the complicated needs of very young children and their parents in cases of sexual abuse.

*Therapy with Sexually Reactive Children and Youth
Explore how to assess normal vs. sexualized behavior in children and
Effective interventions with sexual abuse reactive behavior.

*We All Can Heal: Trauma Therapy with Cognitively Impaired People
Learn the special issues effecting cognitively impaired people and how to adapt practice protocols to better help this population heal from trauma.

*Stopping Lying and Stealing
Learn to distinguish normal from problem lying and stealing throughout
Development, and how to effectively intervene on problem behaviors.

*Effective Methods with Angry and Explosive Children and Youth
Learn a specific method designed to prevent explosive behavior and teach
flexibility and tolerance in children and parents.

*Intervening of Cutting and Other Self-harming Behaviors in Adolescents and Adults
Understand the motivations and characteristics of self-harming behavior and learn
to effectively assess and intervene.

*Positive Attachment in the Therapeutic Relationship
Explore the connection between abuse and insecure attachment and how to adapt models of secure attachment to the therapeutic relationship.

*Equity and Mutuality in the Therapeutic Relationship
Explore the power and control orientation of the abusive family and how to counteract negative assumptions in clients through the practice of equity and mutuality in therapy.

*Models of Empathy in the Therapeutic Relationship
Examine models of empathy and affect modulation in the helping relationship and
how to enhance empathetic responses.

*Attachment-Oriented Interventions with Children, Adolescents and Families
Explore cutting edge, attachment-oriented methods that are grounded in sound
theory, and diverge significantly from traditional interventions to heal disrupted
attachment.

*Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches to Trauma Therapy
Explore how cognitive and behavioral techniques including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) are used to manage symptoms of PTSD and the effects of trauma.

*Sensorimotor Applications to Trauma Therapy
Understand current theory and application of sensori methods grounded in understanding central nervous system responses to trauma.

*Therapy with Resistant Teens
Trains therapists to assess the root of resistance in teens, and confront it with creativity, flexibility and an array of therapeutic interventions.

*Inner Child Work with Adolescents and Adults
Part I: Explore internalized parts of self, including the innocent and wounded child. Learn the theory, process and the techniques to access the child-self and explore real case examples of inner child work.
Part II: Participants learn the language and process of the inner child intervention through experiential discovery of their own child-self toward implementation with recovering people.

*Play Therapy with Traumatized Children
Explore methods of play therapy from non-directive to highly directive techniques toward and integration of the two approaches.

*Play Therapy with Adolescents
Learn play therapy techniques adapted to meet the unique needs of adolescents in individual and group therapy.

*Ceremonial Interventions with Children, Adolescents, Adults, Groups and Families
Understand and experience the impact of ceremonial interventions that mark therapeutic transitions and learn how to create and implement them in group and individual therapy.

*Rites of Passage
Learn how ceremonial challenges and rituals are implemented as therapeutic interventions to assist adolescents in the transition from childhood to adulthood.

*The Use of Myth and Story in Therapy with Adolescents
Learn to use specific well-know myths and stories to illustrate the tasks and
challenges of adolescent development including active, experiential activities.

*Navigating Adolescents
Explore the tasks of adolescent development, therapy and parenting approaches
that are developmentally effective with adolescents.

*Adolescent Sexuality
Understand the variables and norms of adolescent sexuality and how to help
teens with the challenges of sexual development and identity.

*Issues of Gender, Sexual Orientation and Sexuality in Adolescent Development:
Explore normal adolescent sexual development in the context of gender, sexual-
orientation and identity variance, and effective approaches to working with
identity issues in youth.

*Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth and Their Families
Learn about the special issues and challenges facing TBLG and questioning youth, and how to provide sensitive and effective services to these youth and their families.

*Girl Power!! Gender Sensitive Practice
Explore gender-specific issues and problems created by a gender-binary and -biased culture for the health and well-being of developing girls and and female-identified youth. Learn fun methods that empower youth in relationship to gender issues.

*Fostering the Sexually Abused and/or Traumatized Child
Foster care parents and professionals explore the challenges in fostering abused children and how to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of the foster home.

*Dealing with Difficult Parents
Understand and learn effective methods to work with parents who present with anger, rigidity, confusion, a fear and developmental limitations in individual and family therapy.

*Adoption: Issues and Interventions
Adoptive parents and professionals explore the special dilemmas and therapeutic interventions for adopted children and their families.

*Promoting Positive Attachment in Foster and Adoptive Families
Learn the fundamentals of positive attachment and family interventions that build bonds of attachment even with older children.

*Parenting Traumatized Children
Understand the effects of trauma and the condition of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in children. Learn to create a home environment that enhances recovery.

*Cross-Cultural Social Work
Understand and practice effective cross-cultural social work from the perspective
of the dialogic self and the co-creation of culture between the helper and the
people being helped.

*Ally Identity Development in the Context of Social Work
Understand the concept and stages of ally identity development of dominant-
culture people to marginalized communities based on the oppressions of racism,
poverty, gender bias, gender binary, herteronormativity, religious bias, ablism,
agism, etc.

* Individual Supervision
Designed to meet the specific needs of the therapist or helping professional. Sessions are one hour. Frequency is negotiable.

* Group Supervision Possibilities:
A supervision group offered to therapists interested in shared consultation on difficult cases. This group will meet once or twice per month for two hours.

A supervision group offered to therapists new to the field who are interested in exploring their personal reactions to trauma work and to the people they are working with.

* Case Consultation
Individual or Group consultation offered on difficult cases, including record
review.

* Expert Witness Testimony
Assessment, consultation, record review and expert testimony available for cases
involving a variety of issues.

* Program Consultation
Consultation offered on program design and implementation in agencies seeking to enhance their effectiveness of intervention with abused and neglected youth or traumatized clients.

Times and fees negotiable

Laura Sanders, ACSW, provides specialized, creative therapeutic services, training, consultation, supervision, expert witness testimony and University of Michigan graduate level social work instruction in clinical practice with diverse children and families, child, adolescent and adult survivors of sexual abuse and other trauma, difficult attachment and adoption issues, and concerns of gender and sexuality.

With a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Academy Certification, Laura Sanders has worked with hundreds of children, teens and adults in individual, group and family therapy, and has trained thousands of professionals over the past 20 years. She finds effective therapy to be relational and eclectic in nature, grounded in sound theory and evidence-based approaches, and enhanced by creative interventions designed to address the specific needs of individuals and families. Advocacy and community activism are fundamental to her role as a clinical social worker and integrated into all of her work. Her presentation style is dynamic and entertaining, including many case examples and experiential activities that invite participation.

Browse Laura’s website for more information regarding her:

Specialized Approaches to Therapy
Available Trainings
Consultation, Supervision and Expert Witness Testimony
and
Special Projects, including the Creative Counseling Program
and
Link to Laura’s page at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work