PHOTOGRAPH BY BETHANY BANDERA
Lanz Travers, LPC (she/her)
I support individuals in building a bridge to a place within where they feel a deep sense of connection.
I provide a gentle, compassionate presence for you to explore your inner experience—your emotions, thoughts, memories, and physical feelings. Within the context of an emotionally safe relationship, I employ techniques to facilitate healing, growth, and change. We work collaboratively to illuminate and integrate both conscious and unconscious experiences to achieve more congruence. I hold great respect for all aspects of your identity, your beliefs, and the wisdom you have for your own life.
I have a master’s degree in counseling and a bachelor’s degree in studio art and history. As a sensitive person with deep empathy, I have always been drawn to emotional health, self-expression, and understanding the complexities of the human being. I have advanced training in somatic-based, emotion-focused therapy.
My approach to therapy
When we experience overwhelming feelings in isolation, the impact is devastating and can be the root cause of a myriad of psychological challenges. Facing our feelings in response to traumatic experiences such as loss, neglect, or societal oppressions can be too terrifying to handle on our own. We cope by burying our feelings, developing competent-looking facades, and dismissing formative experiences that unknowingly undermine ourselves and our relationships with others.
Conversely, when we feel our feelings and express ourselves authentically to an attuned and caring person—when we are not alone—we have corrective emotional experiences and new neural pathways are formed. Each person has an innate ability to heal and grow. In my work, I draw on my clients’ strengths, and provide opportunities to develop tools to navigate current challenges, as well as to heal from past trauma.
My counseling approach is active, compassionate, practical, hopeful, and based in neuroscience. I integrate humanistic, experiential, and psychodynamic therapeutic approaches in my work, rooted in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). I am trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) to address trauma. In addition, I incorporate Self-Compassion (SC) and mindfulness practices to provide a variety of tools for individuals to experience relief from emotional pain and a sense of integration and wholeness.
“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”
My focus
I specialize in providing counseling support to adults (18 yo+) who are experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, low self worth, relationship challenges, life transitions, and post-traumatic stress. I have experience working with individuals with trauma histories which include addiction, divorce, loss, abuse and neglect in childhood, physical and sexual assault, and incarceration.
I am continually inspired by individuals’ resilience and their ability to heal and to create change. I feel honored and excited to partner with my clients to support them on their journeys towards wholeness and wellbeing.
“Lodged deeply in our brains and bodies lie dispostions for healing and self-righting that surface under conditions of safety.”