Portland Therapy Center
Laura Birchard

Laura Birchard (she/ her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MA, LPC, CADCI

Clinically rooted trauma informed therapy for children, teens, adults inviting dreams, emotions, experiences, symptoms to guide our work.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

503-953-5012

1318 NW 20th Ave.

Portland , 97209

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $120-$150

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2022

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual
  • Child
  • Teen

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Network
  • Optum
  • United Behavioral Health

My Ideal Client

My clients want to learn to uncover what’s authentic and brings wholeness; finding it impossible to put off "the only way out is through" any longer. I help people create meaning of their inner world, expand capacity to hold/access this invisible world to inform relationship to self/others. I support clients in expanding capacity to cope with overwhelming experiences using imaginal, relational, and depth oriented psychotherapeutic practices.

My Background

Laura Birchard, MA LPC CADCI is a depth-oriented psychotherapist in private practice for individuals in Portland, Oregon. Laura has extensive experience providing therapy for teens and adults, with specialization in therapy that is insight oriented, depth oriented. Depth Psychotherapy is an orientation to the therapeutic process that creates spaces that that invite and sustain contact with the living mystery. What makes you feel alive? Where are you feeling stuck? Depth psychotherapy explores the complexity of the self on the edge of what is known and unknown. Laura Birchard has extensive clinical experience working in outpatient, residential, emergency psychiatric department, with individuals and families. Laura has specialized training in depth oriented, psychodynamic, sandplay, and experiential therapy guided by dreams, images, creative expression, relationship, symptoms.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

One of the many paradoxes is that therapy is deeply personal, and highly professional. My practice is informed by depth or analytical psychology (Jungian), Trauma informed practices including somatic therapies, feminist theory, and psychodynamic theory. I have additional training in assessment and DBT. I am an ally and anti-racist. Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman wrote that “mystery is the depth of the sacred". The sacred does not belong to any specific religion, but is part of the very fiber of our being, and connects us to the earth, stars, and other people. At times this connection to the sacred can be obscured, fractured, or seem broken. Hope feels lost, our self unknown. Therapy can help. When I am not in my office I can be found wandering the forests, volunteering in my community, reading, and developing my own deep practice utilizing yoga, meditation, as well as engaging in creative practices.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Depth Therapy External link

    I provide trauma informed therapy that welcomes dreams, images, emotions, experiences, symptoms guide our work and shape a treatment only for you, making changes at a deeper level. With training in psychodynamic and analytic (Jungian) psychotherapeutic practices, I am highly skilled at making the focus of our work contacting and amplifying your unique process of embodied psyche (soul making) ; supporting meaning making in relationship to self and others (and the Self). Let's talk today.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Anxiety External link

    Anxiety is rarely only thing-- it feels like everything. Anxiety may begin with worrying too much about different things (everything!), or with physical symptoms-- panic, heart beating, chest tightening. Anxiety is a profoundly unraveling experience that strikes us at the core, spiraling through layers of biology and spirit. While anxiety is deeply disruptive and may have us questioning who we are, it can also function as a sort of compass. Reach out today for a free consultation.

  • Bipolar External link

    I have specialized training in to diagnosis and treatment of Bipolar Disorder, or Manic depression- a complex mood disorder ranging from elevated mood symptoms to depressive symptoms. Careful differential diagnosis, and considering the whole of you are important factors in treatment. Bipolar disorder can include challenges with attention and focus, sleep disruption, rumination. If you have a bipolar I or II diagnosis, or suspect you have something more than unipolar depression, reach out today.

  • Loss or Grief External link

    Processing loss and grief needs a companion. I am here to accompany you on your journey through grief. As a Dougy Center volunteer, I had first had experience with grief work that is multidimensional, and expanded my understanding of grief work. Since then, I have had additional training in supporting individual's processing grief through a depth psychological lens. Grief encompasses all kinds of loss, let's talk about where are you in your process. Reach out today.

  • Personal Growth External link

    With specialized training in depth psychology individuation is a central focus in my practice. You are in a process of individuation, an unfolding of the unique person that is only you. This process of personal growth can leave individuals feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and also numinous, sacred. On your deeply personal journey, you don't have to go it alone!

Contact Laura

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